tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20937363387620182052024-03-18T23:15:27.876-07:00The Meltdown ContinuesFor entries of the Meltdown series before December 2010, visit www.keithhunt.com/meltdown.html.Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.comBlogger6143125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-3110112052158956442024-03-18T22:50:00.000-07:002024-03-18T22:52:15.806-07:00THROUGH THE BIBLE— NEHEMIAH 9— CONFESSING SINS AND PRAISING GOD!<p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: x-large;"><b> <span face="system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial" style="background-color: white;">Nehemiah 9</span></b></span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: x-large;"><b><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial" style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></b></span></p><h1 class="passage-display" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; width: 484.078125px;"><div aria-haspopup="listbox" aria-labelledby="dropdown-2a38a" class="bcv d-container go2888862000" id="dropdown-2a38a" role="button" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-size: 1.6rem; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 16px 0px 0px; min-width: auto; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-display" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex: 1 1 0%; justify-content: space-between; min-width: 0px; padding-right: 20px; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-icon" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px 4px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; white-space: nowrap;" tabindex="0"><svg height="6.5" viewbox="0 0 11.5 6.5" width="11.5" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path d="M11.28.22a.75.75 0 0 0-1.06 0L5.75 4.69 1.28.22A.75.75 0 0 0 .22 1.28l5 5a.73.73 0 0 0 .53.22.74.74 0 0 0 .53-.22l5-5a.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.06z"></path></svg></div></div><span class="d-root"></span></div><div aria-haspopup="listbox" aria-labelledby="dropdown-54446" class="translation d-container go2888862000" id="dropdown-54446" role="button" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-size: 1.6rem; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 16px 0px 0px; min-width: auto; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-display" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex: 1 1 0%; justify-content: space-between; min-width: 0px; padding-right: 20px; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-display-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;">New King James Version</div><div class="dropdown-display-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="dropdown-icon" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px 4px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; white-space: nowrap;" tabindex="0"><svg height="6.5" viewbox="0 0 11.5 6.5" width="11.5" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path d="M11.28.22a.75.75 0 0 0-1.06 0L5.75 4.69 1.28.22A.75.75 0 0 0 .22 1.28l5 5a.73.73 0 0 0 .53.22.74.74 0 0 0 .53-.22l5-5a.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.06z"></path></svg></div></div><span class="d-root"></span></div><div class="clearfix" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; float: left; font-size: 1.6rem; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 16px 0px 0px; min-width: auto; position: relative;"></div></h1><div class="passage-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.7em; margin-top: 50px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="passage-content passage-class-0" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;"><div class="version-NKJV result-text-style-normal text-html" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;"><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.5rem; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-9-1"><br /></span></h3><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-9-1" id="en-NKJV-12513"><span style="background-color: #fcff01; color: #990000; font-size: x-large;">The People Confess Their Sins</span></span></h3><p class="chapter-1" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-9-1"><span class="chapternum" style="bottom: -0.1em; display: inline; font-size: 2.4rem; font-weight: 700; left: 0px; line-height: 0.8em; position: relative;">9 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12513a" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12513a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12513a" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote a">a</a>]</span>dust on their heads.</span></span></p><p class="chapter-1" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-9-1"></span><span class="text Neh-9-2" id="en-NKJV-12514"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">2 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners;<b> and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers</b>. </span></span><span class="text Neh-9-3" id="en-NKJV-12515"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">3 </span>And they stood up in their place <b>and read from the Book of the Law of the <span class="small-caps divine-name" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;">Lord</span> their God</b> <i>for one</i>-fourth of the day; and <i>for another</i> fourth they confessed and worshiped the <span class="small-caps divine-name" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;">Lord</span> their God.</span></span></p><p class="chapter-1" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-9-3" face="system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial" style="font-size: 1.6rem;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">[A MIGHTY CONFESSION</span></span><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: 25.600000381469727px;">— 6 HOURS READING AND 6 HOURS CONFESSING AND WORSHIPPING - Keith Hunt]</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-9-4" id="en-NKJV-12516"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">4 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Then</span> Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, <i>and</i> Chenani <span style="color: #2b00fe;">stood on the <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12516b" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12516b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12516b" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote b">b</a>]</span>stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the <span class="small-caps divine-name" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;">Lord</span> their God.</span> </span><span class="text Neh-9-5" id="en-NKJV-12517"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">5<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span></span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">And the Levites</span>, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, <i>and </i>Pethahiah,<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> said:</span></span></p><div class="poetry top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; padding-left: 2.6em; position: relative;"><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01; color: #2b00fe;"><span class="text Neh-9-5" style="position: relative;">“Stand up <i>and</i> bless the <span class="small-caps divine-name" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;">Lord</span> your God</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-5" style="position: relative;">Forever and ever!</span></span></p><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><br /></p><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #990000; font-size: 1.6rem;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01; caret-color: rgb(43, 0, 254);"><b>READ IT ALL FRIENDS</b></span></span><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #990000;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(43, 0, 254); font-size: 25.600000381469727px;">— S L O W L Y— Keith Hunt</span></span></p></div><div class="poetry top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; padding-left: 2.6em; position: relative;"><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: red; color: #fcff01;"><span class="text Neh-9-5" style="position: relative;">“Blessed be Your glorious name,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-5" style="position: relative;">Which is exalted above all blessing and praise!</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-6" id="en-NKJV-12518" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">6 </span>You alone <i>are</i> the <span class="small-caps divine-name" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;">Lord</span>;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-6" style="position: relative;">You have made heaven,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-6" style="position: relative;">The heaven of heavens, with all their host,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-6" style="position: relative;">The earth and everything on it,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-6" style="position: relative;">The seas and all that is in them,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-6" style="position: relative;">And You preserve them all.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-6" style="position: relative;">The host of heaven worships You.</span></span></b></p></div><div class="poetry top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; padding-left: 2.6em; position: relative;"><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: red; color: #fcff01;"><span class="text Neh-9-7" id="en-NKJV-12519" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">7 </span>“You <i>are</i> the <span class="small-caps divine-name" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;">Lord</span> God,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-7" style="position: relative;">Who chose Abram,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-7" style="position: relative;">And brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-7" style="position: relative;">And gave him the name Abraham;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-8" id="en-NKJV-12520" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">8 </span>You found his heart faithful before You,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-8" style="position: relative;">And made a covenant with him</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-8" style="position: relative;">To give the land of the Canaanites,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-8" style="position: relative;">The Hittites, the Amorites,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-8" style="position: relative;">The Perizzites, the Jebusites,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-8" style="position: relative;">And the Girgashites—</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-8" style="position: relative;">To give <i>it</i> to his descendants.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-8" style="position: relative;">You have performed Your words,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-8" style="position: relative;">For You <i>are</i> righteous.</span></span></b></p></div><div class="poetry top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; padding-left: 2.6em; position: relative;"><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: red; color: #fcff01;"><span class="text Neh-9-9" id="en-NKJV-12521" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">9 </span>“You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-9" style="position: relative;">And heard their cry by the Red Sea.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-10" id="en-NKJV-12522" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">10 </span>You showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-10" style="position: relative;">Against all his servants,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-10" style="position: relative;">And against all the people of his land.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-10" style="position: relative;">For You knew that they acted <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12522c" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12522c" title="See footnote c">c</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12522c" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote c">c</a>]</span>proudly against them.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-10" style="position: relative;">So You made a name for Yourself, as <i>it is</i> this day.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-11" id="en-NKJV-12523" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">11 </span>And You divided the sea before them,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-11" style="position: relative;">So that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-11" style="position: relative;">And their persecutors You threw into the deep,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-11" style="position: relative;">As a stone into the mighty waters.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-12" id="en-NKJV-12524" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">12 </span>Moreover You led them by day with a cloudy pillar,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-12" style="position: relative;">And by night with a pillar of fire,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-12" style="position: relative;">To give them light on the road</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-12" style="position: relative;">Which they should travel.</span></span></b></p></div><div class="poetry top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; padding-left: 2.6em; position: relative;"><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: red; color: #fcff01;"><span class="text Neh-9-13" id="en-NKJV-12525" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">13 </span>“You came down also on Mount Sinai,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-13" style="position: relative;">And spoke with them from heaven,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-13" style="position: relative;">And gave them just ordinances and true laws,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-13" style="position: relative;">Good statutes and commandments.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-14" id="en-NKJV-12526" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">14 </span>You made known to them Your holy Sabbath,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-14" style="position: relative;">And commanded them precepts, statutes and laws,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-14" style="position: relative;">By the hand of Moses Your servant.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-15" id="en-NKJV-12527" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">15 </span>You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-15" style="position: relative;">And brought them water out of the rock for their thirst,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-15" style="position: relative;">And told them to go in to possess the land</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-15" style="position: relative;">Which You had <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12527d" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12527d" title="See footnote d">d</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12527d" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote d">d</a>]</span>sworn to give them.</span></span></b></p></div><div class="poetry top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; padding-left: 2.6em; position: relative;"><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: red; color: #fcff01;"><span class="text Neh-9-16" id="en-NKJV-12528" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">16 </span>“But they and our fathers acted <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12528e" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12528e" title="See footnote e">e</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12528e" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote e">e</a>]</span>proudly,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-16" style="position: relative;">Hardened<span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12528f" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12528f" title="See footnote f">f</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12528f" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote f">f</a>]</span> their necks,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-16" style="position: relative;">And did not heed Your commandments.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-17" id="en-NKJV-12529" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">17 </span>They refused to obey,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-17" style="position: relative;">And they were not mindful of Your wonders</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-17" style="position: relative;">That You did among them.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-17" style="position: relative;">But they hardened their necks,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-17" style="position: relative;">And <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12529g" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12529g" title="See footnote g">g</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12529g" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote g">g</a>]</span>in their rebellion</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-17" style="position: relative;">They appointed a leader</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-17" style="position: relative;">To return to their bondage.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-17" style="position: relative;">But You <i>are</i> God,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-17" style="position: relative;">Ready to pardon,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-17" style="position: relative;">Gracious and merciful,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-17" style="position: relative;">Slow to anger,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-17" style="position: relative;">Abundant in kindness,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-17" style="position: relative;">And did not forsake them.</span></span></b></p></div><div class="poetry top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; padding-left: 2.6em; position: relative;"><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: red; color: #fcff01;"><span class="text Neh-9-18" id="en-NKJV-12530" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">18 </span>“Even when they made a molded calf for themselves,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-18" style="position: relative;">And said, ‘This <i>is</i> your god</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-18" style="position: relative;">That brought you up out of Egypt,’</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-18" style="position: relative;">And worked great provocations,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-19" id="en-NKJV-12531" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">19 </span>Yet in Your manifold mercies</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-19" style="position: relative;">You did not forsake them in the wilderness.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-19" style="position: relative;">The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-19" style="position: relative;">To lead them on the road;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-19" style="position: relative;">Nor the pillar of fire by night,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-19" style="position: relative;">To show them light,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-19" style="position: relative;">And the way they should go.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-20" id="en-NKJV-12532" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">20 </span>You also gave Your good Spirit to instruct them,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-20" style="position: relative;">And did not withhold Your manna from their mouth,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-20" style="position: relative;">And gave them water for their thirst.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-21" id="en-NKJV-12533" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">21 </span>Forty years You sustained them in the wilderness;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-21" style="position: relative;">They lacked nothing;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-21" style="position: relative;">Their clothes did not wear out</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-21" style="position: relative;">And their feet did not swell.</span></span></b></p></div><div class="poetry top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; padding-left: 2.6em; position: relative;"><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: red; color: #fcff01;"><span class="text Neh-9-22" id="en-NKJV-12534" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">22 </span>“Moreover You gave them kingdoms and nations,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-22" style="position: relative;">And divided them into <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12534h" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12534h" title="See footnote h">h</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12534h" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote h">h</a>]</span>districts.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-22" style="position: relative;">So they took possession of the land of Sihon,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-22" style="position: relative;"><span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12534i" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12534i" title="See footnote i">i</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12534i" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote i">i</a>]</span>The land of the king of Heshbon,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-22" style="position: relative;">And the land of Og king of Bashan.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-23" id="en-NKJV-12535" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">23 </span>You also multiplied their children as the stars of heaven,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-23" style="position: relative;">And brought them into the land</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-23" style="position: relative;">Which You had told their fathers</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-23" style="position: relative;">To go in and possess.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-24" id="en-NKJV-12536" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">24 </span>So the <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12536j" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12536j" title="See footnote j">j</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12536j" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote j">j</a>]</span>people went in</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-24" style="position: relative;">And possessed the land;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-24" style="position: relative;">You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-24" style="position: relative;">The Canaanites,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-24" style="position: relative;">And gave them into their hands,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-24" style="position: relative;">With their kings</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-24" style="position: relative;">And the people of the land,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-24" style="position: relative;">That they might do with them as they wished.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-25" id="en-NKJV-12537" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">25 </span>And they took strong cities and a rich land,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-25" style="position: relative;">And possessed houses full of all goods,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-25" style="position: relative;">Cisterns <i>already</i> dug, vineyards, olive groves,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-25" style="position: relative;">And <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12537k" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12537k" title="See footnote k">k</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12537k" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote k">k</a>]</span>fruit trees in abundance.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-25" style="position: relative;">So they ate and were filled and grew fat,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-25" style="position: relative;">And delighted themselves in Your great goodness.</span></span></b></p></div><div class="poetry top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; padding-left: 2.6em; position: relative;"><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: red; color: #fcff01;"><span class="text Neh-9-26" id="en-NKJV-12538" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">26 </span>“Nevertheless they were disobedient</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-26" style="position: relative;">And rebelled against You,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-26" style="position: relative;">Cast Your law behind their backs</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-26" style="position: relative;">And killed Your prophets, who <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12538l" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12538l" title="See footnote l">l</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12538l" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote l">l</a>]</span>testified against them</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-26" style="position: relative;">To turn them to Yourself;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-26" style="position: relative;">And they worked great provocations.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-27" id="en-NKJV-12539" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">27 </span>Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-27" style="position: relative;">Who oppressed them;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-27" style="position: relative;">And in the time of their trouble,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-27" style="position: relative;">When they cried to You,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-27" style="position: relative;">You heard from heaven;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-27" style="position: relative;">And according to Your abundant mercies</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-27" style="position: relative;">You gave them deliverers who saved them</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-27" style="position: relative;">From the hand of their enemies.</span></span></b></p></div><div class="poetry top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; padding-left: 2.6em; position: relative;"><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: red; color: #fcff01;"><span class="text Neh-9-28" id="en-NKJV-12540" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">28 </span>“But after they had rest,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-28" style="position: relative;">They again did evil before You.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-28" style="position: relative;">Therefore You left them in the hand of their enemies,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-28" style="position: relative;">So that they had dominion over them;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-28" style="position: relative;">Yet when they returned and cried out to You,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-28" style="position: relative;">You heard from heaven;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-28" style="position: relative;">And many times You delivered them according to Your mercies,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-29" id="en-NKJV-12541" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">29 </span>And <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12541m" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12541m" title="See footnote m">m</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12541m" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote m">m</a>]</span>testified against them,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-29" style="position: relative;">That You might bring them back to Your law.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-29" style="position: relative;">Yet they acted <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12541n" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12541n" title="See footnote n">n</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12541n" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote n">n</a>]</span>proudly,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-29" style="position: relative;">And did not heed Your commandments,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-29" style="position: relative;">But sinned against Your judgments,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-29" style="position: relative;">‘Which if a man does, he shall live by them.’</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-29" style="position: relative;">And they shrugged their shoulders,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-29" style="position: relative;"><span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12541o" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12541o" title="See footnote o">o</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12541o" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote o">o</a>]</span>Stiffened their necks,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-29" style="position: relative;">And would not hear.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-30" id="en-NKJV-12542" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">30 </span>Yet for many years You had patience with them,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-30" style="position: relative;">And <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12542p" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12542p" title="See footnote p">p</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12542p" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote p">p</a>]</span>testified against them by Your Spirit in Your prophets.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-30" style="position: relative;">Yet they would not listen;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-30" style="position: relative;">Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-31" id="en-NKJV-12543" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">31 </span>Nevertheless in Your great mercy</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-31" style="position: relative;">You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-31" style="position: relative;">For You <i>are</i> God, gracious and merciful.</span></span></b></p></div><div class="poetry top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; padding-left: 2.6em; position: relative;"><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: red; color: #fcff01;"><span class="text Neh-9-32" id="en-NKJV-12544" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">32 </span>“Now therefore, our God,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-32" style="position: relative;">The great, the mighty, and awesome God,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-32" style="position: relative;">Who keeps covenant and mercy:</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-32" style="position: relative;">Do not let all the <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12544q" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12544q" title="See footnote q">q</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+9&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12544q" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote q">q</a>]</span>trouble seem small before You</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-32" style="position: relative;">That has come upon us,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-32" style="position: relative;">Our kings and our princes,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-32" style="position: relative;">Our priests and our prophets,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-32" style="position: relative;">Our fathers and on all Your people,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-32" style="position: relative;">From the days of the kings of Assyria until this day.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-33" id="en-NKJV-12545" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">33 </span>However You <i>are</i> just in all that has befallen us;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-33" style="position: relative;">For You have dealt faithfully,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-33" style="position: relative;">But we have done wickedly.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-34" id="en-NKJV-12546" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">34 </span>Neither our kings nor our princes,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-34" style="position: relative;">Our priests nor our fathers,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-34" style="position: relative;">Have kept Your law,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-34" style="position: relative;">Nor heeded Your commandments and Your testimonies,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-34" style="position: relative;">With which You testified against them.</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-35" id="en-NKJV-12547" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">35 </span>For they have not served You in their kingdom,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-35" style="position: relative;">Or in the many good <i>things</i> that You gave them,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-35" style="position: relative;">Or in the large and rich land which You set before them;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-35" style="position: relative;">Nor did they turn from their wicked works.</span></span></b></p></div><div class="poetry top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; padding-left: 2.6em; position: relative;"><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: red; color: #fcff01;"><span class="text Neh-9-36" id="en-NKJV-12548" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">36 </span>“Here we <i>are,</i> servants today!</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-36" style="position: relative;">And the land that You gave to our fathers,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-36" style="position: relative;">To eat its fruit and its bounty,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-36" style="position: relative;">Here we <i>are,</i> servants in it!</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-37" id="en-NKJV-12549" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">37 </span>And it yields much increase to the kings</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-37" style="position: relative;">You have set over us,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-37" style="position: relative;">Because of our sins;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-37" style="position: relative;">Also they have dominion over our bodies and our cattle</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-37" style="position: relative;">At their pleasure;</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-37" style="position: relative;">And we <i>are</i> in great distress.</span></span></b></p></div><div class="poetry top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; padding-left: 2.6em; position: relative;"><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: red; color: #fcff01;"><span class="text Neh-9-38" id="en-NKJV-12550" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">38 </span>“And because of all this,</span><br /><span class="text Neh-9-38" style="position: relative;">We make a sure <i>covenant</i> and write <i>it;</i></span></span></b><br /></p><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-size: 25.600000381469727px;"><b><i>……………………………</i></b></span></span></p><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-size: 25.600000381469727px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span></p><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-size: 25.600000381469727px;"><b><i>THEY LOOKED BACK, WAY BACK, AND SAW THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL AS GREAT SINNERS, MANY TIMES IN THEIR HISTORY; LOTS MORE TO SAY ON GOD'S LAW AND SIN NEXT TIME!!!</i></b></span></span></p><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-size: 25.600000381469727px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span></p><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-size: 25.600000381469727px;"><b><i>Keith Hunt</i></b></span></span></p><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #fcff01;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(252, 255, 1); font-size: 25.600000381469727px;"><b><i>……..</i></b></span></span></p></div></div></div></div>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-35111463105665870162024-03-18T19:45:00.000-07:002024-03-18T22:41:40.346-07:00THROUGH THE BIBLE— NEHEMIAH 8— DISCOVERING THE FEASTS OF GOD!!!<p> <span face="system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: x-large;"><b>Nehemiah 8</b></span></span></p><p><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><h1 class="passage-display" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; width: 484.078125px;"><div aria-haspopup="listbox" aria-labelledby="dropdown-d6513" class="bcv d-container go2888862000" id="dropdown-d6513" role="button" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-size: 1.6rem; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 16px 0px 0px; min-width: auto; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-display" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex: 1 1 0%; justify-content: space-between; min-width: 0px; padding-right: 20px; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-icon" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px 4px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; white-space: nowrap;" tabindex="0"><svg height="6.5" viewbox="0 0 11.5 6.5" width="11.5" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path d="M11.28.22a.75.75 0 0 0-1.06 0L5.75 4.69 1.28.22A.75.75 0 0 0 .22 1.28l5 5a.73.73 0 0 0 .53.22.74.74 0 0 0 .53-.22l5-5a.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.06z"></path></svg></div></div><span class="d-root"></span></div><div aria-haspopup="listbox" aria-labelledby="dropdown-8f611" class="translation d-container go2888862000" id="dropdown-8f611" role="button" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-size: 1.6rem; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 16px 0px 0px; min-width: auto; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-display" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex: 1 1 0%; justify-content: space-between; min-width: 0px; padding-right: 20px; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-display-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;">New King James Version</div><div class="dropdown-display-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="dropdown-icon" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px 4px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; white-space: nowrap;" tabindex="0"><svg height="6.5" viewbox="0 0 11.5 6.5" width="11.5" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path d="M11.28.22a.75.75 0 0 0-1.06 0L5.75 4.69 1.28.22A.75.75 0 0 0 .22 1.28l5 5a.73.73 0 0 0 .53.22.74.74 0 0 0 .53-.22l5-5a.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.06z"></path></svg></div></div><span class="d-root"></span></div><div class="clearfix" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; float: left; font-size: 1.6rem; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 16px 0px 0px; min-width: auto; position: relative;"></div></h1><div class="passage-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.7em; margin-top: 50px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="passage-content passage-class-0" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;"><div class="version-NKJV result-text-style-normal text-html" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-8-1"><br /></span></h3><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-8-1" id="en-NKJV-12495"><span style="color: #990000;">Ezra Reads and Explains the Law</span></span></h3><p class="chapter-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-8-1"><span class="chapternum" style="bottom: -0.1em; display: inline; font-size: 2.4rem; font-weight: 700; left: 0px; line-height: 0.8em; position: relative;">8</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="chapternum" style="bottom: -0.1em; display: inline; font-weight: 700; left: 0px; line-height: 0.8em; position: relative;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that <i>was</i> in front of the Water Gate; and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the <span class="small-caps divine-name" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;">Lord</span> had commanded Israel. </span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-8-2" id="en-NKJV-12496"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">2 </span>So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who <i>could</i> hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month.</span> </span></span></p><p class="chapter-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-8-3"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[WHICH WAS THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS, BUT THEY DID NOT KNOW IT - Keith </span></span></span><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"><b>Hunt]</b></span></span></p><p class="chapter-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-8-3" id="en-NKJV-12497"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">3 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Then he read from it in the open square that <i>was</i> in front of the Water Gate <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12497a" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12497a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+8&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12497a" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote a">a</a>]</span>from morning until midday, before the men and women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people <i>were attentive</i> to the Book of the Law.</span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-8-4" id="en-NKJV-12498"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">4 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">So Ezra the scribe stood on a platform of wood which they had made for the purpose; and beside him, at his right hand, stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Urijah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah; and at his left hand Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbadana, Zechariah, <i>and</i> Meshullam.</span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-8-4"></span><span class="text Neh-8-5" id="en-NKJV-12499"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">5 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was <i>standing</i> above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. </span></span><span class="text Neh-8-6" id="en-NKJV-12500"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">6 </span>And Ezra blessed the <span class="small-caps divine-name" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;">Lord</span>, the great God.</span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-8-6"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">Then all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!” while lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the <span class="small-caps divine-name" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;">Lord</span> with <i>their</i> faces to the ground.</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-8-6"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">[ONE WAY TO WORSHIP GOD IN A CONGREGATIONAL SETTING; NOT WRONG AT ALL, SOME STILL DO SO - Keith Hunt]</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-8-7" id="en-NKJV-12501"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">7 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, <b>helped the people to understand the Law;</b> and the people <i>stood</i> in their place. </span></span><span class="text Neh-8-8" id="en-NKJV-12502"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">8 </span>So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; <b>and they gave the sense, and helped <i>them</i> to understand the reading.</b></span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-8-8"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial">[THE LAW HAD BEEN LOST BY MOST PEOPLE COMING BACK TO THE LAND OF JUDAH AND JERUSALEM; HELPERS WERE USED SO THE PEOPLE COULD UNDERSTAND - Keith Hunt] </span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-8-9" id="en-NKJV-12503"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">9 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">And Nehemiah, who <i>was</i> the <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12503b" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12503b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+8&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12503b" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote b">b</a>]</span>governor, Ezra the priest <i>and </i>scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people,</span> <span style="color: #38761d;"><b style="background-color: #fcff01;">“This day <i>is</i> holy to the <span class="small-caps divine-name" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;">Lord</span> your God; do not mourn nor weep.”</b></span> <span style="color: #2b00fe;">For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the Law.</span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-8-9"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial">[THEIR MIND AND HEART WAS RIGHT; THEY WANTED GOD'S WAY; IMAGINE THAT ATTITUDE; CAN YOU PUT YOURSELF IN THEIR SANDALS; WEEPING WOULD BE EASY TO DO - Keith Hunt]</span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-8-10" id="en-NKJV-12504"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">10 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Then he said to them,</span> <span style="background-color: #fcff01; color: red;">“Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for <i>this </i>day <i>is</i> holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the <span class="small-caps divine-name" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;">Lord</span> is your strength.”</span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-8-10" style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">[IT WAS THE FEAST DAY OF TRUMPETS; ROSH HASHANAH, THE TIME OF THE LAST 7 TRUMPETS TO BLOW IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION; ESPECIALLY THE 7TH TRUMPET; THE MESSIAH WILL COME AND RULE THE WORLD WITH THE LAWS OF GOD - </span><span style="color: #cc0000;">Keith Hunt]</span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-8-11" id="en-NKJV-12505"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">11 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">So the Levites quieted all the people, saying</span>, <span style="color: #e69138;"><b><span style="background-color: #fcff01;">“Be still, for the day <i>is</i> holy; do not be grieved.</span>”</b></span> </span><span class="text Neh-8-12" id="en-NKJV-12506"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">12 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them.</span></span></span></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-8-13" id="en-NKJV-12507"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">The Feast of Tabernacles</span></span></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-8-13"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">13 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Now on the second day the heads of the fathers’ <i>houses</i> of all the people, with the priests and Levites, were gathered to Ezra the scribe, in order to understand the words of the Law</span>. </span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-8-14" id="en-NKJV-12508"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">14<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span></span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>And they found written in the Law,</b> which the <span class="small-caps divine-name" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;">Lord</span> had commanded by Moses, <b>that the children of Israel should dwell in booths<span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12508c" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12508c" title="See footnote c">c</a>]" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+8&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12508c" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote c">c</a>]</span> during the feast of the seventh month</b></span><b>,</b> </span><span class="text Neh-8-15" id="en-NKJV-12509"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">15 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">and that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying,</span> <span style="color: #ff00fe;"><b>“Go out to the mountain, and bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of leafy trees, to make booths, as <i>it is</i> written.”</b></span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-8-16" id="en-NKJV-12510"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">16 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Then the people went out and brought <i>them</i> and made themselves booths, each one on the roof of his house, or in their courtyards or the courts of the house of God, and in the open square of the Water Gate and in the open square of the Gate of Ephraim. </span></span><span class="text Neh-8-17" id="en-NKJV-12511"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">17 </span>So the whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12511d" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12511d" title="See footnote d">d</a>]" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=NEHEMIAH+8&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12511d" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote d">d</a>]</span>booths and sat under the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. <b>And there was very great gladness.</b></span> </span><span class="text Neh-8-18" id="en-NKJV-12512"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">18 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Also day by day, from the first day until the last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. And they kept the feast seven days;</span> </span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-8-18">[YES IT WAS THE GREAT FEAST OF BOOTHS OR TABERNACLES FROM LEVITICUS 23. THE FEAST THAT IS A REMINDER OF THE AGE TO COME; THE 1,000 YEAR AGE OF CHRIST SITTING ON THE THRONE OF DAVID, AND RULING THE EARTH AND ALL NATIONS UPON IT. FEEL THE HEART OF THE PEEOPLE, REJOICING WITH THANKS GIVING - Keith Hunt]</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-8-18"><b>and on the eighth day <i>there was</i> a sacred assembly, according to the <i>prescribed</i> manner.</b></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(43, 0, 254);"><b>………………..</b></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(43, 0, 254);"><b>THE 8TH DAY FEAST AS IN LEVITICUS 23. A SEPARATE FEAST, FROM TABERNACLES. THE LAST GREAT FEAST OF GOD, WHEN BILLIONS WHO NEVER HAD A CHANCE OF SALVATION IN THEIR LIFE TIME, WILL HAVE THE BOOK OF LIFE OPENED TO THEM, AND THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE. THEY CAN KNOW ABOUT SALVATION, KNOW ABOUT CHRIST JESUS, THE SAVIOR. THEY CAN REPENT OF THEIR SINS, KNOW ABOUT SIN, WHAT IT IS FULLY. THEY CAN, IF THEY WILL, ACCEPT JESUS AS PERSONAL SAVIOR. THEY CAN LIVE BY EVERY WORD OF GOD (MAT. 4: 4), AND BE WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE.</b></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(43, 0, 254);"><b>O THE WONDERFUL PLAN OF GOD!</b></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><b><span style="caret-color: rgb(43, 0, 254);">IT IS WRITTEN HE DOES NOT WANT ANYONE TO PERISH, BUT THAT ALL WOULD COME TO REPENTANCE…. AND BE SAVED!</span></b></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><b><span style="caret-color: rgb(43, 0, 254);">ALL OF THE FEASTS OF GOD I HAVE EXPLAINED FULLY ON MY WEBSITE!</span></b></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(43, 0, 254);"><b>Keith Hunt</b></span></span></p><div class="footnotes" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; min-width: 0px;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div></div></div></div>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-68751098854357963732024-03-18T15:10:00.000-07:002024-03-18T15:10:27.197-07:00DETAILED HISTORY OF APOSTOLIC CHURCH #5— APOSTLE PETER<p> </p><center><h1 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 24pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">History of the Church</span><span style="color: #5a876c;"> #5</span></h1><h2 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">The Apostle Peter</span></h2></center><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="60" cellspacing="3" style="color: black;"><tbody><tr align="left" valign="top"><td align="left" valign="top"><blockquote><pre style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;"><span style="color: #385243; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: bold;">CHURCH HISTORY
Continued:
</span><span style="color: red; font-size: medium;"><b>THE APOSTLE PETER
</b></span><span style="color: #385243; font-size: small; font-weight: bold;">
</span><span style="color: #385243; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">The congregation of Jerusalem became the mother church of Jewish
Christianity, and thus of all Christendom. It grew both inwardly
and outwardly under the personal direction of the apostles,
chiefly of Peter, to whom the Lord had early assigned a peculiar
prominence in the work of building his visible church on earth.
The apostles were assisted by a number of presbyters, and seven
deacons or persons appointed to care for the poor and the sick.
But the Spirit moved in the whole congregation, bound to no
particular office. The preaching of the gospel, the working of
miracles in the name of Jesus, and the attractive power of a holy
walk in faith and love, were the instruments of progress. The
number of the Christians, or, as they at first called themselves,
disciples, believers, brethren, saints, soon rose to five
thousand. They continued steadfastly under the instruction and in
the fellowship of the apostles, in the daily worship of God and
celebration of the holy Supper with their agapae or love-feasts.
</span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">(Schaff is here going along with the false idea that the
desciples "breaking bread" among themselves was observing "the
holy supper" or "communion service" as some call it. Nothing
could be further from the truth of the matter. The Passover
memorial service was held once a year on the 14th of the first
month in God's calendar. Schaff studying church history of the
2nd century should have come to the light of truth, but obviously
he did not. ALL the questions on the Passover I've answered - Keith Hunt)</span><span style="color: #385243; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">
They felt themselves to be one family of God, members of one body
under one head, Jesus Christ; and this fraternal unity expressed
itself even in a voluntary community of goods--an anticipation,
as it were, of an ideal state at the end of history, but without
binding force upon any other congregation. They adhered as
closely to the temple worship and the Jewish observances as the
new life admitted and as long as there was any hope of the
conversion of Israel as a nation. They went daily to the temple
to teach, as their Master had done, but held their devotional
meetings in private houses.
The addresses of Peter to the people and the Sanhedrin are
remarkable for their natural simplicity and adaptation. They are
full of fire and vigor, yet full of wisdom and persuasion, and
always to the point. More practical and effective sermons were
never preached. They are testimonies of an eye-witness so timid a
few weeks before, and now so bold and ready at any moment to
suffer and die for the cause. They are an expansion of his
confession that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God,
the Saviour. He preached no subtle theological doctrines, but a
few great facts and truths: the crucifixion and resurrection of
Jesus the Messiah, already known to his hearers for his mighty
signs and wonders, his exaltation to the right hand of Almighty
God, the descent and power of the Holy Spirit, the fulfilment of
prophecy, the approaching judgment and glorious restitution of
all things, the paramount importance of conversion and faith in
Jesus as the only name whereby we can be saved. There breathes in
them an air of serene joy and certain triumph.
We can form no clear conception of this bridal season of the
Christian church when no dust of earth soiled her shining
garments, when she was wholly absorbed in the contemplation and
love of her divine Lord, when he smiled down upon her from his
throne in heaven, and added daily to the number of the saved. It
was a continued Pentecost, it was paradise restored. "They did
take their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising
God, and having favor with all the people."
Yet even in this primitive apostolic community inward corruption
early appeared, and with it also the severity of discipline and
self-purification, in the terrible sentence of Peter on the
hypocritical Ananias and Sapphira.
At first Christianity found favor with the people. Soon, however,
it had to encounter the same persecution as its divine founder
had undergone, but only, as before, to transform it into a
blessing and a means of growth.
The persecution was begun by the skeptical sect of the Sadducees,
who took offence at the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ,
the centre of all the apostolic preaching.
When Stephen, one of the seven deacons of the church at
Jerusalem, a man full of faith and zeal, the forerunner of the
apostle Paul, boldly assailed the perverse and obstinate spirit
of Judaism, and declared the approaching downfall of the Mosaic
economy, the Pharisees made common cause with the Sadducees
against the gospel. Thus began the emancipation of Christianity
from the temple-worship of Judaism, with which it had till then
remained at least outwardly connected. Stephen himself was
falsely accused of blaspheming Moses, and after a remarkable
address in his own defence, he was stoned by a mob (A.D. 37),
and thus became the worthy leader of the sacred host of martyrs,
whose blood was thenceforth to fertilize the soil of the church.
From the blood of his martyrdom soon sprang the great apostle of
the Gentiles, now his bitterest persecutor, and an eye-witness of
his heroism and of the glory of Christ in his dying face.
The stoning of Stephen was the signal for a general persecution,
and thus at the same time for the spread of Christianity over all
Palestine and the region around. And it was soon followed by the
conversion of Cornelius of Caesarea, which opened the door for
the mission to the Gentiles. In this important event Peter
likewise was the prominent actor.
After some seven years of repose the church at Jerusalem suffered
a new persecution under king Herod Agrippa (A.D. 44). James the
elder, the brother of John, was beheaded. Peter was imprisoned
and condemned to the same fate; but he was miraculously
liberated, and then forsook Jerusalem, leaving the church to the
care of James the "brother of the Lord." Eusebius, Jerome, and
the Roman Catholic historians assume that he went at that early
period to Rome, at least on a temporary visit, if not for
permanent residence. But the book of Acts (12: 17) says only:
"hee departed, and went into another 'place.'" The indefiniteness
of this expression, in connection with a remark of Paul; 1 Cor. 9
:5, is best explained on the supposition that he had hereafter no
settled home, but led the life of a travelling missionary like
most of the apostles.
THE LATER LABORS OF PETER
Afterwards we find Peter again in Jerusalem at the apostolic
council (A.D. 50); then at Antioch (51), where he came into
temporary collision with Paul; then upon missionary tours,
accompanied by his wife (57); perhaps among the dispersed Jews in
Babylon or in Asia Minor, to whom he addressed his epistles. Of a
residence of Peter in Rome the New Testament contains no trace,
unless, as the church fathers and many modern expositors think,
Rome is intended by the mystic "Babylon " mentioned in 1 Pet.5:
13 (as in the Apocalypse), but others think of Babylon on the
Euphrates, and still others of Babylon on the Nile (near the
present Cairo, according to the Coptic tra dition). The entire
silence of the Acts of the Apostles, in ch.28, respecting Peter,
as well as the silence of Paul in his epistle to the Romans, and
the epistles written from Rome during his imprisonment there, in
which Peter is not once named in the salutations, is decisive
proof that he was absent from that city during most of the time
between the years 58 and 63. A casual visit before 58 is
possible, but extremely doubtful, in view of the fact that Paul
labored independently and never built on the foundation of
others; hence he would probably not have written his epistle to
the Romans at all, certainly not without some allusion to Peter
if he had been in any proper sense the founder of the church of
Rome. After the year 63 we have no data from the New Testament,
as the Acts close with that year, and the interpretation of
"Babylon" at the end of the first Epistle of Peter is doubtful,
though probably meant for Rome. (No, it was Babylon that Peter
was at - many Israelites were still in the area of ancient
Babylon. Peter was there teaching the word of God; it was not
Rome that he was in, but indeed Babylon - Keith Hunt)
The martyrdom of Peter by crucifixion was predicted by our Lord,
John 21:18,19, but no place is mentioned.
We conclude then that Peter's presence in Rome before 63 is made
extremely doubtful, if not impossible, by the silence of Luke and
Paul, when speaking of Rome and writing from Rome, and that his
presence after 63 can neither be proved nor disproved from the
New Testament, and must be decided by post-biblical testimonies.
It is the uniform tradition of the eastern and western churches
that Peter preached the gospel in Rome, and suffered martyrdom
there in the Neronian persecution. So say more or less clearly,
yet not without admixture of error, Clement of Rome (who mentions
the martyrdom, but not the place), at the close of the first
century; Ignatius of Antioch (indistinctly), Dionysius of
Corinth, Iremeus of Lyons, Caius of Rome, in the second century;
Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Hippolytus, Tertullian, in the
third; Lactantius, Eusebius, Jerome, and others, in the fourth.
To these patristic testimonies may be added the apocryphal
testimonies of the pseudo-Petrine and pseudo-Clementine fictions,
which somehow connect Peter's name with the founding of the
churches of Antioch, Alexandria, Corinth, and Rome.
However these testimonies from various men and countries may
differ in particular circumstances, they can only be accounted
for on the supposition of some fact at the bottom; for they were
previous to any use or abuse of this tradition for heretical or
for orthodox and hierarchical purposes.
The chief error of the witnesses from Dionysius and Irenaeus
onward is that Peter is associated with Paul as "founder" of the
church of Rome; but this may be explained from the very probable
fact that some of the "strangers from Rome" who witnessed the
Pentecostal miracle and heard the sermon of Peter, as also some
disciples who were scattered abroad by the persecution after the
martyrdom of Stephen, carried the seed of the gospel to Rome, and
that these converts of Peter became the real founders of the
Jewish-Christian congregation in the metropolis. Thus the
indirect agency of Peter was naturally changed into a direct
agency by tradition which forgot the names of the pupils in the
glorification of the teacher.
The time of Peter's arrival in Rome, and the length of his
residence there, cannot possibly be ascertained. The above,
mentioned silence of the Acts and of Paul's Epistles allows him
only a short period of labor there, after 63. The Roman tradition
of a twenty or twenty-five years episcopate of Peter in Rome
is unquestionably a colossal chronological mistake.
Nor can we fix the year of his martyrdom, except that it must
have taken place after July, 64, when the Neronian persecution
broke out (according to Tacitus). It is variously assigned to
every year between 64 and 69. We shall return to it again below,
and in connection with the martyrdom of Paul, with which it is
associated in tradition.
THE PETER OF HISTORY AND THE PETER OF FICTION.
No character in the New Testament is brought before us in such
life-like colors, with all his virtues and faults, as that of
Peter. He was frank and transparent, and always gave himself as
he was, without any reserve.
We may distinguish three stages in his development. In the
Gospels, the human nature of Simon appears most prominent the
Acts unfold the divine mission of Peter in the founding of the
church, with a temporary relapse at Antioch (recorded by Paul);
in his Epistles we see the complete triumph of divine grace.
He was the strongest and the weakest of the Twelve. He had all
the excellences and all the defects of a sanguine temperament. He
was kind-hearted, quick, ardent, hopeful, impulsive, changeable,
and apt to run from one extreme to another. He received from
Christ the highest praise and the severest censure. He was the
first to confess him as the Messiah of God, for which he received
his new name of Peter, in prophetic anticipation of his
commanding position in church history; but he was also the first
to dissuade him from entering the path of the cross to the crown,
for which he brought upon himself the rebuke, "Get thee behind
me, Satan." The rock of the church had become a rock of offence
and a stumblingblock. He protested, in presumptive modesty, when
Christ would wash his feet; and then, suddenly changing his mind,
he wished not his feet only, but his hands and head to be washed.
He cut off the ear of Malchus in carnal zeal for his Master; and
in a few minutes afterwards he forsook him and fled. He solemnly
promised to be faithful to Christ, though all should forsake him
and yet in the same night he betrayed him thrice. He was the
first to cast off the Jewish prejudices against the unclean
heathen and to fraternize with the Gentile converts at Caesarea
and at Antioch; and he was the first to withdraw from them in
cowardly fear of the narrow-minded Judaizers from Jerusalem, for
which inconsistency he had to submit to a humiliating rebuke of
Paul.
THE PETER OF HISTORY
But Peter was as quick in returning to his right position as in
turning away from it. He most sincerely loved the Lord from the
start and had no rest nor peace till he found forgive ness. With
all his weakness he was a noble, generous soul, and of the
greatest service in the church. God overruled his very sins and
inconsistencies for his humiliation and spiritual progress. And
in his Epistles we find the mature result of the work of
purification, a spirit most humble, meek, gentle, tender, loving,
and lovely. Almost every word and incident in the gospel history
connected with Peter left its impress upon his Epistles in the
way of humble or thankful reminiscence and allusion. His new
name, "Rock," appears simply as a "stone" among other living
stones in the temple of God, built upon Christ, "the chief
corner-stone." His charge to his fellowpresbyters is the same
which Christ gave to him after the resurrection, that they should
be faithful "shepherds of the flock" under Christ, the chief
"shepherd and bishop of their souls." The record of his denial of
Christ is as prominent in all the four Gospels, as Paul's
persecution of the church is in the Acts, and it is most
prominent - as it would seem under his own direction - in the
Gospel of his pupil and "interpreter" Mark, which alone mentions
the two cock-crows, thus doubling the guilt of the denial, and
which records Christ's words of censure ("Satan"), but omits
Christ's praise(" Rock"). Peter made as little effort to conceal
his great sin, as Paul. It served as a thorn in his flesh, and
the remembrance kept him near the cross; while his recovery from
the fall was a standing proof of the power and mercy of Christ
and a perpetual call to gratitude. To the Christian Church the
double story of Peter's denial and recovery has been ever since
an unfailing source of warning and comfort. Having turned again
to his Lord, who prayed for him that his personal faith fail not,
he is still strengthening the brethren.
As to his official position in the church, Peter stood from the
beginning at the head of the Jewish apostles, not in a partisan
sense, but in a large-hearted spirit of moderation and
comprehension. (Better to say he was a leading figure, yes at
first the leading figure in "function" but never as some "most
powerful and dictatorial" apostle - Keith Hunt). He never was a
narrow, contracted, exclusive sectarian. After the vision at
Joppa and the conversion of Cornelius he promptly changed his
inherited view of the necessity of circumcision, and openly
professed the change at Jerusalem, proclaiming the broad
principle "that God is no respecter of persons, but in every
nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is
acceptable to him;" and "that Jews and Gentiles alike are saved
only through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ." He continued to
be the head of the Jewish Christian church at large (Nope, Schaff
is wrong in saying "head" - there was NO "head" apostle, and
Peter never ever said he was, which he could have easily have
done in his epistles - Keith Hunt)
and Paul himself represents him as the first among the three
"pillar" - apostles of the circumcision.
(Putting a person's name first in the line of names means
nothing, certainly does not mean Peter was "head" apostle, with
authority over all other apostles. All this "church government"
stuff I've gone into in great detail under my stuides called
"Church Government" - Keith Hunt)
But he stood mediating between James, who represented the right
wing of conservatism, and Paul, who commanded the left wing of
the apostolic army. And this is precisely the position which
Peter occupies in his Epistles, which reproduce to a great extent
the teaching of both Paul and James, and have therefore the
character of a doctrinal Irenicum; as the Acts are a historical
Irenicum, without violation of truth or fact.
(All what Schaff has just said still does not make or prove Peter
was "head" apostle. He "functioned" in a certain way, but
function is not "head apostle" as the Roman church would like you
to believe - Keith Hunt)
THE PETER OF FICTION
No character of the Bible, we may say, no personage in all
history, has been so much magnified, misrepresented and misused
for doctrinal and hierarchical ends as the plain fisherman of
Galilee who stands at the head of the apostolic college. Among
the women of the Bible the Virgin Mary has undergone a similar
transformation for purposes of devotion, and raised to the
dignity of the queen of heaven. Peter as the Vicar of Christ, and
Mary as the mother of Christ, have in this idealized shape become
and are still the ruling powers in the polity and worship of the
largest branch of Christendom.
In both cases the work of fiction began among the Judaizing
heretical sects of the second and third centuries, but was
modified and carried forward by the Catholic, especially the
Roman church, in the third and fourth centuries.
1. The Peter of the Ebionite fiction.
The historical basis is Peter's encounter with Simon Magus in
Samaria, Paul's rebuke of Peter at Antioch, and the intense
distrust and dislike of the Judaizing party to Paul. These three
undoubted facts, together with a singular confusion of Simon
Magus with an old Sabine deity, Semo Sancus, in Rome, furnished
the material and prompted the motive to religious tendency -
novels written about and after the middle of the second century
by ingenious semi-Gnostic Ebionites, either anonymously or under
the fictitious name of Clement of Rome, the reputed successor of
Peter. In these productions Simon Peter appears as the great
apostle of truth in conflict with Simon Magus, the pseudo-apostle
of falsehood, the father of all heresies, the Samaritan possessed
by a demon; and Peter follows him step by step from Caesarea
Stratonis to Tyre, Sidon, Berytus, Antioch, and Rome, and before
the tribunal of Nero, disputing with him, and refuting his
errors, until at last the impostor, in the daring act of mocking
Christ's ascension to heaven, meets a miserable end.
In the pseudo-Clementine Homilies the name of Simon represents
among other heresies also the free gospel of Paul, who is
assailed as a false apostle and hated rebel against the authority
of the Mosaic law. The same charges which the Judaizers brought
against Paul, are here brought by Peter against Simon Magus,
especially the assertion that one may be saved by grace alone.
His boasted vision of Christ by which he professed to have been
converted, is traced to a deceptive vision of the devil. The very
words of Paul against Peter at Antioch, that he was
"self-condemned" (Gal.2:11), are quoted as an accusation against
God. In one word, Simon Magus is, in part at least, a malignant
Judaizing caricature of the apostle of the Gentiles.
2. The Peter of the Papacy.
The orthodox version of the Peter-legend, as we find it partly in
patristic notices of Irenaeus, Origen, Tertullian, and Eusebius,
partly in apocryphal productions, retains the general story of a
conflict of Peter with Simon Magus in Antioch and Rome, but
extracts from it its anti-Pauline poison, associates Paul at the
end of his life with Peter as the joint, though secondary,
founder of the Roman church, and honors both with the martyr's
crown in the Neronian persecution on the same day (the 29th of
June), and in the same year or a year apart, but in different
localities and in a different manner. Peter was crucified like
his Master (though head-downwards), either on the hill of
Janiculum (where the church St. Pietro in Montorio stands), or
more probably on the Vatican hill (the scene of the Neronian
circus and persecution); Paul, being a Roman citizen, was
beheaded on the Ostian way at the Three Fountains (Tre Fontane),
outside of the city. They even walked together a part of the
Appian way to the place of execution. Caius (or Gaius), a Roman
presbyter at the close of the second century, pointed to their
monuments or trophies on the Vatican, and in the via Ostia. The
solemn burial of the remains of Peter in the catacombs of San
Sebastiano, and of Paul on the Via Ostia, took place June 29,
255, according to the Kalendarium of the Roman church from the
time of Liberius. A hundred years later the remains of Peter were
permanently transferred to the Basilica of St. Peter on the
Vatican, those of St. Paul to the Basilica of St. Paul (San Paolo
fuori le mura) outside of the Porta Ostiensis (now Porta San
Paolo).
</span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">(Ya and what is never told is that the remains eventually went to
Britain, but that is British church history that Rome will fight
and deny till Jesus comes to smash Babylon Rome to a million
pieces - Keith Hunt)
</span><span style="color: #385243; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">
The tradition of a twenty-five years episcopate in Rome (preceded
by a seven years episcopate in Antioch) cannot be traced beyond
the fourth century (Jerome), and arose, as already remarked, from
chronological miscalculations in connection with the questionable
statement of Justin Martyr concerning the arrival of Simon Magus
in Rome under the reign of Claudius (41-54). The "Catalogus
Liberianus," the oldest list of popes (supposed to have been
written before 366), extends the pontificate of Peter to 25
years, 1 month, 9 days, and puts his death on June 29, 65 (during
the consulate of Nerva and Vestinus), which would date his
arrival in Rome back to A.D.40. Eusebius, in his Greek Chronicle
as far as it is preserved, does not fix the number of years, but
says, in his Church History, that Peter came to Rome in the reign
of Claudius to preach against the pestilential errors of Simon
Magus. The Armenian translation of his Chronicle mentions
"twenty" years; Jerome, in his translation or paraphrase rather,
"twenty-five" years, assuming, without warrant, that Peter left
Jerusalem for Antioch and Rome in the second year of Claudius
(42; but Acts 12:17 would rather point to the year 44), and died
in the fourteenth or last year of Nero (68). Among modern Roman
Catholic historians there is no agreement as to the year of
Peter's martyrdom: Baronius puts it in 69; Pagi and Alban Butler
in 65; Mohler, Gains, and Alzog indefinitely between 66 and 68.
In all these cases it must be assumed that the Neronian
persecution was continued or renewed after 64, of which we have
no historical evidence. It must also be assumed that Peter was
conspicuously absent from his flock during most of the time, to
superintend the churches in Asia Minor and in Syria, to preside
at the Council of Jerusalem, to meet with Paul in Antioch, to
travel about with his wife, and that he made very little
impression there till 58, and even till 63, when Paul, writing to
and from Rome, still entirely ignores him. Thus a chronological
error is made to overrule stubborn facts. The famous saying that
"no pope shall see the (twenty-five) years of Peter," which had
hitherto almost the force of law, has been falsified by the
thirty-two years reign of the first infallible pope, Pius IX.,
who ruled from 1846 to 1878.
</span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">(Yes Schaff is correct in claiming what the church of Rome claims
about Peter founding the church at Rome and being the first Pope
is all a bunch of nonesense garbage, and false historical and
theological errors - Keith Hunt)</span><span style="color: #385243; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">
NOTE - ON THE CLAIMS OF THE PAPACY
On this tradition and on the indisputable preeminence of Peter in
the Gospels and the Acts, especially the words of Christ to him
after the great confession (Matt.16:18), is built the colossal
fabric of the papacy with all its amazing pretensions to be the
legitimate succession of a permanent primacy of honor and
supremacy of jurisdiction in the church of Christ, and--since
1870 - with the additional claim of papal infallibility in all
official utterances, doctrinal or moral. The validity of this
claim requires three premises
1. The presence of Peter in Rome
This may be admitted as an historical fact, and I for my part
cannot believe it possible that such a rockfirm and world-wide
structure as the papacy could rest on the sand of mere fraud and
error. It is the underlying fact which gives to fiction its
vitality, and error is dangerous in proportion to the amount of
truth which it embodies. But the fact of Peter's presence in
Rome, whether of one year or twenty-five, cannot be of such
fundamental importance as the papacy assumes it to be: otherwise
we would certainly have some allusion to it in the New Testament.
Moreover, if Peter was in Rome, so was Paul, and shared with him
on equal terms the apostolic supervision of the Roman
congregation, as is very evident from his Epistle to the Romans.
2. The transferability of Peter's preeminence on a successor
This is derived by inference from the words of Christ: "Thou art
Rock, and on this rock I will build my, church, and the gates of
Hades shall not prevail against it." This passage, recorded only,
by Matthew, is the exegetical rock of Romanism, and more
frequently quoted by popes and papists than any other passage of
the Scriptures. But admitting the obvious reference of petra to
Peter, the significance of this prophetic name evidently refers
to the peculiar mission of Peter in laying the foundation of the
church once and for all time to come. He fulfilled it on the day
of Pentecost and in the conversion of Cornelius; and in thus
pioneer work Peter can have no successor any more than St. Paul
in the conversion of the Gentiles, and John in the consolidation
of the two branches of the apostolic church.
3. The actual transfer of this prerogative of Peter - not upon
the bishops of Jerusalem, or Antioch, where he undoubtedly
resided - but upon the bishop of Rome, where he cannot be proven
to have been from the New Testament
Of such a transfer history knows absolutely nothing. Clement,
bishop of Rome, who first, about A.D. 95, makes mention of
Peter's martyrdom, and Ignatius of Antioch, who a few years later
alludes to Peter and Paul as exhorting the Romans, have not a
word to say about the transfer. The very chronology and
succession of the first popes is uncertain.
If the claims of the papacy cannot be proven from what we know of
the historical Peter, there are, on the other hand, several
undoubted facts in the real history of Peter which bear heavily
upon those claims, namely:
1. That Peter was married, Matt. 8:14, took his wife with him on
his missionary tours, 1 Cor. 9:5, and, according to a possible
interpretation of the "coelect" (sister), mentions her in his
first Epistle (5:13). Patristic tradition ascribes to him
children, or at least a daughter (Petronilla). His wife is said
to have suffered martyrdom in Rome before him. What right have
the popes, in view of this example, to forbid clerical marriage?
We pass by the equally striking contrast between the poverty of
Peter, who had no silver nor gold (Acts 3:6) and the gorgeous
display of the triple-crowned papacy in the middle ages and down
to the recent collapse of the temporal power.
2. That in the Council at Jerusalem (Acts 15:1-11), Peter appears
simply as the first speaker and debater, not as president and
judge (James presided), and assumes no special prerogative, least
of all an infallibility of judgment. According to the Vatican
theory the whole question of circumcision ought to have been
submitted to Peter rather than to a Council, and the decision
ought to have gone out from him rather than from "the apostles
and elders, brethren" (or "the elder brethren," ver. 23).
3. That Peter was openly rebuked for inconsistency by a younger
apostle at Antioch (Gal. 2:11-14). Peter's conduct on that
occasion is irreconcilable with his infallibility as to
discipline; Paul's conduct is irreconcilable with Peter's alleged
supremacy; and the whole scene, though perfectly plain, is so
inconvenient to Roman and Romanizing views, that it has been
variously distorted by patristic and Jesuit commentators, even
into a theatrical farce gotten up by the apostles for the more
effectual refutation of the Judaizers!
4. That, while the greatest of popes, from Leo I down to Leo XIII
never cease to speak of their authority over all the bishops and
all the churches, Peter, in his speeches in the Acts, never does
so. And his Epistles, far from assuming any superiority over his
"fellow-elders" and over "the clergy" (by which he means the
Christian people), breathe the spirit of the sincerest humility
and contain a prophetic warning against the besetting sins of the
papacy, filthy avarice and lordly ambition (1 Pet.5:1-3). Love of
money and love of power are twin-sisters, and either of them is
"a root of all evil."
It is certainly very significant that the weaknesses even more
than the virtues of the natural Peter - his boldness and
presumption, his dread of the cross, his love for secular glory,
his carnal zeal, his use of the sword, his sleepiness in
Gethsemane - are faithfully reproduced in the history of the
papacy; while the addresses and epistles of the converted and
inspired Peter contain the most emphatic protest against the
hierarchical pretensions and worldly vices of the papacy, and
enjoin truly evangelical principles - the general priesthood and
royalty of believers, apostolic poverty before the rich temple,
obedience to God rather than man, yet with proper regard for the
civil authorities, honorable marriage, condemnation of mental
reservation in Ananias and Sapphira, and of simony in Simon
Magus, liberal appreciation of heathen piety in Cornelius,
opposition to the yoke of legal bondage, salvation in no other
name but that of Jesus Christ.
...................
To be continued
</span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">I have given you the full and deep truth of the matter, indeed
the plain truth - on the subject of "Church Government" as
opposed to the Roman Catholic church government, which sad to say
was adopted by the late Herbert W. Armstrong in his latter life
time as he dictatorially led his Worldwide Church of God, that
still today (2011) has split-off groups who have as yet, NOT
admitted and REPENTED of the errors of Herbert Armstrong,
especially the error of "church government"</span><span style="color: #385243; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"> - Keith Hunt
</span></pre><div style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></div></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-22193149638031064562024-03-17T23:29:00.000-07:002024-03-18T18:58:54.559-07:00BREIF HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY #37— EASTERN ORTHODOXY MODERN PERIOD<p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: medium;"><b>BREIF HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY #37 </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 32px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 32px;"><span style="color: red;">EASTERN ORTHODOXY IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2.7px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">After the Turkish conquest of what remained of the Eastern Roman world in the mid-15th century, the only Orthodox countries not under Islamic rule were those of the Slavic and Balkan north; and, among these, Russia soon emerged as the most powerful.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In many significant respects, Moscow became the chief city in the Eastern Christian world, and the Russian empire became the successor of the Byzantine - so much so, indeed, that it came to refer to itself as the 'Third Rome'. In 1547, on the occasion of his coronation, the grand prince of Moscow, Ivan IV 'the Terrible' (1530—84), even assumed the title of <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>'Tsar' - that is, 'Caesar'.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 9.1px 0px 0px 5.5px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Tsar and Patriarch</span></b></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 9.1px 0px 0px 5.5px; min-height: 11px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Until 1448, the head of the Church in Russia wore the title of 'Metropolitan of Kiev' (though the metropolitanate had actually resided in Moscow for more than a century) and was under the nominal governance of the patriarch of Constantinople. In that year, however - in part, as a response to Constantinople's 'shameful' capitulation to Roman demands at the Council of Florence - the bishops of Russia appointed a Bishop Jonas (d.1461) as the 'metropolitan of Moscow', thereby declaring the Russian Church's 'autocephaly' (that is, self-government). In 1589, with Constantinople's approval, the title became 'Patriarch of Moscow.'</span></p><p class="p7" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Tensions between <i>tsar</i> and <i>patriarch</i> were often quite severe, though inevitably, when anything approaching an actual conflict arose, the <i>tsar</i> was the victor. When Metropolitan Philip II (1507-69) publicly reproached Ivan the Terrible (quite justly) for perpetrating massacres, he was deposed, imprisoned and strangled. The energetic, reforming Patriarch Nikon (1605-81) was perhaps the most powerful patriarch in Russian history; Tsar Alexei I (1629-76) was his ardent admirer; but when Nikon - an imperious character at the best of times — began to overshadow the <i>tsar</i>, he was deposed and reduced to a common monk. And, in 1721, <i>Tsar Peter I</i> 'the Great' (1672-1725) abolished the office of patriarch altogether, and — in imitation of the Lutheran establishments in Sweden and Protestant Germany — replaced it with a synod that functioned as an office of the state. There would not be another patriarch of Moscow until 1917.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The history of the Church in the Ukraine — old Kievan Russia - took a somewhat different course, especially after 1569, when much of the Ukraine belonged to Roman Catholic Poland. In 1596, the Union of Brest-Litovsk —which placed the Kievan metropolitanate under Rome - was imposed on the Orthodox population. And though in 1620 an Orthodox metropolitanate was re-established, and in 1686 was placed under Moscow, Ukrainian Christianity remained divided thereafter between Orthodox and 'Eastern Rite' Catholic Churches.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p8" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.9px 0px 0px 25.5px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Love of Beauty</span></b></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.9px 0px 0px 25.5px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is not an exaggeration to say that one of the most important events in the early</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">modern history of the Eastern Orthodox Church was the publication in 1782 of a</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">book called the <i>Philokalia</i>, which means 'the love of beauty'. It was an anthology of Eastern Christian mystical texts, from the fourth to the 14th centuries, assembled by two monks of Mount Athos: Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain (1748-1809) and Macarius of Corinth (1731-1805). The book was notable in part for its comprehensiveness, and in part for making available many texts never previously printed. It was significant, as well, for somewhat rehabilitating Evagrius Ponticus, whose condemnation as an Origenist had relegated his works to something very near oblivion for over a thousand years, but whose writings on the spiritual life were both too brilliant and too important for the Eastern contemplative tradition not to be included. And it is fair to say that the book established Hesychasm once and for all as the dominant form of Orthodox spirituality.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The true significance of the Philokalia, however, lay in the contribution it made to a movement of spiritual renewal throughout the Orthodox world. On its publication, many saw it as a uniquely powerful expression of the heart of Orthodoxy. It was especially influential in Russia and the greater Slavic world. In 1793, the Athonite monk PaissyVelichkovsky (1722-94) issued a Slavonic translation in St Petersburg; it was Paissy also who was largely responsible for introducing the Greek institution of spiritual 'elders' to the Slavic Church. An elder (<i>geron</i> in Greek, <i>staretz</i> in Russian) was a master of the spiritual life, responsible for the formation of young monks and acting as a confessor and guide to the laity; and these startsi (the plural of staretz) were a vital part of the renewal of the Orthodox monastic life.</span></p><p class="p7" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">[The cathedral of Saint Basil the Blessed on Moscow's Red Square was commissioned by Tsar Ivan IV ('the Terrible') and built between 1555 and 1561]</span></i></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 120.9px; min-height: 11px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The<i> Slavonic Phihkalia</i> — already immensely popular — was translated into Russian by Theophan the Recluse (1815-94), one of the most beloved of modern Russian saints. A perfect (if somewhat stylized) picture of the effect of the anthology on the devotional life of the laity can be found in two anonymous narratives written in the 19th century (possibly by an Athonite monk): <i>The Way of a Pilgrim</i> and its sequel <i>The Pilgrim Continues Upon His Way,</i> which tell the story of a wanderer who undertakes to practise the Hesychastic method of constant inward prayer.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p11" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.9px 0px 0px 0.7px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Orthodox Missions</span></b></p><p class="p12" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.9px 0px 0px 0.7px; min-height: 11px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The 18th century was also the great age of Russian missions, not only into the wild interior of Siberia, the far north, and Central Asia, but even to North America. Among the most revered of the Russian missionaries was St Herman of Alaska (c. 1758—1837), a devout and gentle Russian monk who in 1794 arrived on Kodiak Island — at that time a Russian possession - with six other monks to establish the first Orthodox mission in the New World. Herman not only ministered to the native Aleuts and made a great many converts; he soon found himself obliged to act as an advocate for and protector of the native peoples against the abuse they suffered at the hands of the Russian colonists. In 1808, Herman created a hermit's retreat for himself on Spruce Island, a little more than a mile away from Kodiak Island. He also had a school built on the island, as well as a chapel, and devoted much of the remainder of his life to caring for orphans and for the ill.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of the next generation of Russian missionaries to the Aleuts, St Innocent of Alaska (1797-1879) perhaps accomplished the most. He was a married priest who, in 1824, arrived with his wife and family on Unalaska Island, where he promptly built a church and began to study the native languages of his parishioners: the native inhabitants not only of Unalaska, but of the Pribilof and Fox Islands. As his mastery of Aleutian dialects increased, he devised an Aleut alphabet and began translating the Bible into Unagan, the most important of them. In 1829, he undertook a mission to the coasts of the Bering Sea, and in 1834 moved to Sitka Island, where he learned the language of the native Tlingit people.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Innocent lost his wife in 1838, and was persuaded in 1840 to take the vows of a monk. That same year he was made a bishop with a diocese comprising the Aleutian Islands, the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kurile Islands northeast of Japan. He did not cease, though, to work as a travelling missionary, a scholar of native North American tongues and a translator. He was elevated to the Moscow Synod in 1865, and became its head in 1868.</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3.6px; min-height: 11px; text-indent: 288.2px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p14" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 6.5px 0px 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">SAINT SERAPHIM</span></b></p><p class="p16" style="color: white; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="letter-spacing: -0.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">f <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>: <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>f</span></span></p><p class="p18" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Of all the startsi who arose during the years of Russia's great spiritual renewal, none is remembered more fondly than <i>St Seraphim</i> of Sarov (1759-1833). Born Prohor Moshnin to a merchant family in Kursk, he was marked from an early age by a pious, mild and even somewhat mystical temper. In 1777 he entered the Sarov Monastery, taking his final vows and his monastic name <i>Seraphim</i> in 1786. From the beginning of his novitiate to his death, he lived an ascetical life, never eating more than was required for bare sustenance, and spending most of his hours in<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>prayer before the altar of<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>the monastery church.<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>He was made a<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>hierodeacon in 1793, and<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>soon after - with the<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>blessing of his staretz -<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>retreated into the forest<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>to pray in solitude.There<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>he was occasionally<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>visited by monks and<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span>nuns seeking spiritual<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>guidance, as well as by<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>(if the stories are to be believed) the<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>beasts of the forest; one nun witnessed him<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>feeding a bear from his hand.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p18" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">He was set upon one day by brigands who mistakenly thought he had possessions they might steal; he had been cutting wood at the time, but made no attempt to defend himself, even when they began bludgeoning</span></p><p class="p18" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">him with the handle of his own axe; they ceased beating him only when they thought him dead.The staretz recovered - though never entirely - and when the men were caught and brought to trial, Seraphim implored the judge to show them mercy.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p18" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Not long after his recovery, he embarked on 1000 nights of continuous prayer, standing on a rock with bare feet and his hands raised to God.Then, in 1815, supposedly in response to a vision of the Mother of God, he opened his hermitage to all who wished to come to him for spiritual counsel, and to learn from him how to 'acquire' the Holy Spirit through the practice of Christian love. Reports of his wisdom, his 'miraculous' power to see into his visitors' hearts and his great cheerfulness, charity and gentleness soon spread, and pilgrims came constantly.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p18" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The most famous account of such a visit is that of Nicholas Motovilov, who not only recorded many of <i>Seraphim's </i>teachings, but claimed to have been present when the elder was transfigured by the 'uncreated light'.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p18" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><i>Seraphim</i> died peacefully in 1833, while praying before an icon of the Mother of God.</span></p><p class="p18" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">..........</span></p><p class="p19" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p18" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CONTINUED</span></p><p class="p20" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 63.6px 0px 0px 355.7px;"><br /></p>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-86206325526908396152024-03-17T23:22:00.000-07:002024-03-17T23:22:05.797-07:00ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE #6—— EXODUS AND CONQUEST<p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: medium;"><b>ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE #6 </b></span></p><p><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: -0.3px; text-align: center;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; letter-spacing: -0.3px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: x-large;">Exodus and Conquest</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 3.1px; min-height: 27px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="letter-spacing: -0.3px;"><b></b></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 3.1px; min-height: 27px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The biblical Exodus and the preceding story of the ten plagues have been regularly challenged by critical scholars due to the alleged nonexistence of archaeological and historical evidence. When approaching this subject it is important to remind ourselves that a major regional event like the Exodus as described in the Bible would leave massive amounts of historical and archaeological evidence. This is in contrast to the customary apologetic approach that sees little or no evidence for the Exodus event and therefore tries to find reasons to explain why none would be found. Regrettably, some apologists underestimate the size, impact, and circumstances of the Exodus and think of it as a "minor" event. This appears to be used often as an excuse for why the Egyptians would make no record of it—but in the process these apologists also diminish or eliminate the miraculous nature of the Exodus (more on this faulty apologetic below).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">If this was the greatest destruction of an ancient civilization in historical times, as the Bible seems to describe, then we should expect the discovery of hieroglyphic documents and archaeological evidence consistent with the plagues and Exodus event, and not just some evidence but a lot of it. That the Bible describes a mass destruction event in Egypt in association with the Exodus is clear from the following passages:</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">* The Pharaoh's officials pleaded with him, "Do you not realize that Egypt is destroyed?" (Exodus 10:7; see also NIV; KJV).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">* There was "not a house without someone dead" (Exodus 12:30b NIV),- "all the livestock of Egypt [left in the fields] died" (Exodus 9:6).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">* "Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt" (Exodus 10:15b NIV).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">• "All the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood….so that the Egyptians could not drink water" (Exodus 7:20-21; see also 7:24).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">• Later, Moses reminded the Israelites about what the Lord "did to the army of Egypt….and how the Lord has destroyed [the army] to this day" (Deuteronomy 11:4 ESV; compare RSV, NASB, NIV) and therefore for nearly 40 years—-"to this day" (Hebrew <i>'ad yom</i>)—the Israelites had no fear from any Egyptian forces.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">• Pharaoh drowned with the army (Psalm 136:15).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is regularly asserted by some well-meaning apologists that slaves always remained invisible in the background of Egyptian life, not dominating the royal archives of Pharaoh. But the Exodus consisted of more than a mere escape of slaves, since the entire nation was "destroyed" (Exodus 10:7). Instead it is very reasonable to expect that much material, especially documentary writings as well as indirect events relating to the Exodus, will be visible. It is often said that those who write their own country's history will disregard embarrassing and traumatic details, choosing rather to develop themes that depict strength and wealth. Though this does occur in lesser events on occasion, it is not convincing when this way of drinking is applied to the mass destruction of an entire country. Such an event cannot be covered up by some palace conspiracy or missed through some scribal oversight. Despite the idiosyncrasies of ancient ways of recording history, and no matter how good a nation is in keeping things secret, there is bound to be someone who records such major events in some fashion.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In view of this, our present section will address several literary and historical aspects of the Exodus that support its historical nature, in an attempt to narrow the gap between what some suppose to be myth and historicity.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Egyptian Documentary Evidence for the Exodus</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Though the evidence for the Exodus has been slow to be gathered, there is good reason to believe that it actually occurred as described in the Bible. This thinking is based on the biblical testimony, Egyptian extra-biblical sources, and archaeological excavation in Egypt and neighboring regions.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Ipuwer Papyrus. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY.)</span></i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">For example, one of the most well-known documents in Egyptology is the Ipuwer papyrus (officially known as Papyrus Leiden 344), which records an account remarkably similar to the plagues described in the book of Exodus. The papyrus was obtained by Swedish diplomat, Giovanni Anastasi, and sold to the Leiden Museum in Holland in 1828. No one realized the exact significance of the contents of the document until the first full translation was done in 1909 by a British Egyptologist, Alan H. Gardiner, under the title <i>The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage from a Hieratic Papyrus in Leiden.</i> In addition, there have been many later full translations made, including an Oxford edition(2009). Currently, the document is stored at the National Museum of Antiquities in the Netherlands. Its contents are widely regarded by Egyptologists as a lamentation over the catastrophic conditions in Egypt written by a high Egyptian official named Ipuwer some-time prior to the thirteenth century BC (which is consistent with either an early or late chronology for the Exodus).* Ipuwer was known as one of the great wise sages in Egyptian history. His astonishing description of the conditions, to the surprise of Egyptologists, appeared remarkably similar to the biblical account of the ten plagues recorded in the book of Exodus.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The date of the Ipuwer manuscript approximately fits the Exodus date. The hieratic script style was in use at that time period, the events described are remarkably similar to the plagues, the location of the events (Egypt) matches the setting of the Exodus, and the odds of all these calamities occurring at the same time make them more than coincidental. There is no scientific, linguistic, or historical fact that Egyptologists can point to that would decisively preclude the content of the papyrus being a lament over the Exodus plagues. A simple comparison of the content in both the book of Exodus and the Ipuwer papyrus leaves little doubt to their similarities (see table below):</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">* This papyrus copy can be dated to the thirteenth century BC, even though the vast majority of Egyptologists believe that the original composition (autograph) was written to record the chaotic times in Egypt sometime between the end of the 6th Dynasty and the Second Intermediate Period (c. 1800-1550 BC). Of course, this chronology would make the Ipuwer account rather early for the Exodus event (though some advocates of the Theran volcanic explosion theory would date the Exodus to c 1600 BC). However, there appears to be no "good reason to doubt that its descriptions reflect the plagues upon Egypt. There is nothing in the document itself that has been conclusively shown to necessitate a pre-Exodus date before the 1500s or 1400s BC. There are no dates at all in what we have of this damaged document (about one quarter of it is missing). The Egyptians had no chronological eras such as we do, namely BC and AD. Nor do any chronological markers, such as names of established pharaohs, appear in the portion of the papyrus that we have (the missing portions may have named the pharaoh).</span></i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>book <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Exodus <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Ipuwer <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Papyrus: Comparison</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Exodus.* <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Ipuwer <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Papyrus <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(P. Leiden 344r).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Events occurred fifteenth century BC. </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ipuwer: copied in thirteenth century B.C.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ten plagues in Egypt.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ipuwer: lament over catastrophe in Egypt.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Nile river was turned to blood....Blood is throughout the land (7:20-21). </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ipuwer: The Nile river is blood... (2:10). Blood is everywhere (2:6).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">All the Egyptians dug along the Nile for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the Nile (7:24).</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ipuwer: Men shrink from the (Nile) water.. .and thirst after water (2:10).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Lord sent hail mingled with fire, and fire walked along the ground (9:22-26). </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ipuwer: Behold, the fire has gone up on high, and its burning should go forth against the enemies of the land (7:1).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hail struck down every plant of the field and stripped every tree (9:25).</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ipuwer: Trees are destroyed and branches stripped off....There is no food (4:14-5:2).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Exodus*</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Locusts covered the land of Egypt and ate all the plants and fruit of the trees left by the hail. Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt (10:15).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ipuwer Papyrus (P. Leiden 344)+</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Grain has perished on every side (6:3).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">A severe plague on the livestock in the field (9:3).</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ipuwer: The cattle weep and moan (5:5).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">There was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt (10:22-23).</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ipuwer: The day does not dawn.. .and there is terror because of it [darkness] (9:11; 10:1).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt from the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of livestock (12:29). There was not a house without one dead.... There was a great cry (loud wailing) throughout Egypt (12:30). </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ipuwer: The children of princes are dashed against the walls. The chosen [firstborn?] children are laid out dead... (4:3-4; 5:6-7). He who places his brother in the ground is everywhere (2:13-14). It is groaning throughout the land mingled with lamentations (3:13-14).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The women of Israel.. .asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing... .Thus they plundered the Egyptians (3:22; 12:35-36) </span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ipuwer: Gold, lapis lazuli, silver, malachite, carnelian, (bronze), and our finest stones are fastened to the necks of female slaves (3:2-3).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Israelites left Egypt headed for the eastern desert then the Sinai (chapters 12-17).</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ipuwer: Poor people [slaves] flee into the desert like nomads who live in tents (9:14-10:2).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">* Composite of several leading translations (NASB, NIV, KJV, RSV, ASV) checked against interlinear Hebrew translations.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">+ Composite of Gardiner 1909, Faulkner 1965, and Oxford 2009 translations and commentaries (in-depth technical commentaries often add nuances of meaning to the formal translation).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Both the biblical account of the Exodus and the Ipuwer papyrus are consistent with the Exodus-like themes and parallels contained in other Egyptian literature, including tomb inscriptions, emerging from Egypts New Kingdom period (c. 1550—1100 BC).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">For example, as recently pointed out by archaeological researcher Brad C. Sparks, eminent Egyptologists have found an early Egyptian document from c. 1300 BC, called the <i>Destruction of Mankind.</i> It contains reference to the full Hebrew divine name, I AM THAT I AM, in the Egyptian root word YWY (or <i>Yawi</i>). These Egyptologists specifically cite Exodus 3:l4—when the name I AM THAT I AM was revealed to Moses at the Burning Bush.1 Sparks further notes that the <i>Destruction of Mankind</i> tells of a non-Egyptian people who flee from the eastern Nile Delta, the biblical Land of Goshen, only to be pursued by the Egyptian army. Respected Egyptologists have already identified dozens of Egyptian texts with what they call Exodus parallels, describing Exodus like events and themes, which Sparks has compiled and which will soon be published.2</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The National Trauma of the Exodus</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The presence of Exodus-like events and parallels in a wide array of Egyptian documents should not be surprising. It was a traumatic event for the nation, and it haunted succeeding pharaohs. Just think of it—Egypt's pharaoh, a "god" with powers of the sun-god in human form, had drowned (Psalm 136:15). The army was destroyed, the labor force (slaves) had escaped; the nation was plundered of its wealth, its water supply poisoned, its agriculture and livestock wiped out, with ensuing mass famine. Death, darkness, destruction, and despair must have filled the land.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This national catastrophe would surely have left an indelible mark on the soul and religious life of the country for centuries. Future Egyptian pharaohs would have been highly motivated to record these events in some manner so they too would never forget, and so they would also know the deepest secrets of the catastrophe. The accounts of the Exodus were recorded not because the pharaohs wanted to advertise the humiliation of their gods and the past pharaoh to succeeding generations and foreign nations, but because they wanted to remember—so they could try to avoid such a terrifying series of events like this again.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Nor, it would seem, would these pharaohs have wanted to reopen old wounds from the Exodus trauma through the public reopening of records. This could tear apart the fabric of society since it was the Egyptians' central belief that it was the "great" pharaoh and their "strong" gods that held the heart and soul of Egypt together. Therefore, it would be reasonable to assume that great care was taken to preserve the records of the Exodus in a way that cloaked the event in secrecy, as a carefully guarded state secret. Nobody in Egypt except the pharaohs would have been allowed to read these sacred books during the New Kingdom period. The Exodus was also often dressed in mythological or religious clothing, which carried great significance to the Egyptians' polytheistic mindset, just as we might expect.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Naturalistic Explanations for the Egyptian Plagues</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Though the similarities between the biblical Exodus account of the plagues and the Egyptian sources appear to be more than coincidence, there are some who continue to offer naturalistic explanations. For example, one such argument says that the Nile could have overflowed its banks and carried red earth from the highlands of Ethiopia, thus turning the Nile red in color.3 But such silt is brown, not red, and it cannot poison the water; the Egyptians normally let the silt settle out or used filters to remove it before drinking. The Nile is brown, not red, in color; it never turns red naturally; no one has ever taken photos of the Nile made red from natural occurrences. Every Egyptian tourist guidebook and brochure in the world would be plastered with photos of the "Red Nile" to induce tourists to come see the "Biblical Plagues" for themselves if this were an annual "natural" occurrence!</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">An even more popular idea holds that a form of red algae poisoned the Nile and triggered a domino effect of subsequent plagues. This notion continues to be espoused despite the complete lack of any scientific evidence of any red algae ever occurring in the Nile or anywhere in Egypt or East Africa.4 This idea claims further that, as a result of the red algae killing the fish, the fish contracted anthrax; an infestation of frogs then swarmed the banks of the river in search of a better life. (Except anthrax cannot infect fish or frogs, only land animals such as sheep, and rarely cattle.) Moreover, the story goes, the overflow of the Nile would bring about the perfect conditions for an insect epidemic that could spread the anthrax from the frogs to the livestock (except, as we just noted, anthrax cannot attack frogs). The locusts, hail, fire, and darkness that covered the land are said to be merely natural occurrences, though more severe than usual due to the alleged chain reaction kicked off by the excessively high Nile flood and the red algae (which do not naturally occur in Egypt and, as Sparks observes, would be killed by the torrential Nile floodwaters as the normal algae are killed every year).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Again, no one can show photos of the Nile made red from any natural causes, so there is no "naturally occurring" phenomenon of silt or algae that turns the river red. And these naturalistic explanations are not convincing for several circumstantial and theological reasons in addition to the scientific contradictions and impossibilities pointed out above (see the table below).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Scientific and Factual Errors in the Red Algae/Red Mud Theory of the Exodus Plague of Blood and Ensuing Plagues</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">SCIENTIFIC FACTS SHOWING ERRORS </span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">No photos of a "naturally" occurring "red" Nile</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Natural" occurrences of "red" algae or "red" mud in the Nile must naturally occur sometime in order for anyone to know that they "naturally occur." They thus must be seen and be able to be photographed—but that never happens.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Nile is brown not red at flood season</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Scientists say the river is brown during the annual summer flood season, not red, and their photos prove it.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Wrong season of the year</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Popular theories claim that the red algae must come at flood season to add redness to the alleged "red" mud, but that is when the Nile kills all algae due to turbulence smashing algal cells, disrupted habitats, and darkness of the waters.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Nile kills algae as they stick to mud particles</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Algae stick to mud particles and sink, thus removing them from the water and killing them (death by flocculation).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Nile blocks sunlight, killing the algae by stopping photosynthesis</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The same alleged "red" mud often theorized to enhance the redness of the water containing "red" algae will <i>block sunlight and thus block plant photosynthesis,</i> killing any algae of any color—red, green, blue, or something else.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Wrong habitat</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Red algae are never found by scientists occurring naturally anywhere in the Nile, or Egypt or East Africa. In fact the usually named species (<i>Haematococcus pluvialis</i> and <i>Euglena sanguined</i>) are fragile cold-climate or ice-water species unsuited for the tropical heat of the equatorial Nile.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="s2" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: large;">Scientific facts Showing Errors continued</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Supposed "red" algae are actually green</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The usually named species of supposedly "red" algae (<i>H. pluvialis</i> and <i>E. sanguined</i>) causing the Exodus plague of blood are in fact <i>green</i>, not red.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">"Red" algae are nontoxic, nonpolluting</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The usually named species of supposedly "red" algae (<i>H. pluvialis</i> and <i>E. sanguined</i>) are not toxic, are nonpolluting, are not on water-pollution lists; they actually help clean the water, and in fact are used for human and animal food supplements.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Supposed "red" algae never cause "red tides" and never kill fish</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The usually named species of supposedly "red" algae (<i>H. pluvialis</i> and <i>E. sanguined</i>) never cause harmful (or harmless) "red tides," never kill fish, and are in fact used as food for fish (as well as food, for animals and humans).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">"Red tides" occur in salt-water oceans not fresh-water rivers</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Red tides almost always occur in salt-water oceans, not freshwater rivers, and only extremely rarely in stagnant lakes and stagnant rivers—and never in the very non-stagnant, high-volume, turbulent Nile, the second-longest river system in the world.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Anthrax does not infect frogs or fish</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The "domino theory" of "red" algae/mud blood plague claims that anthrax first infected fish and frogs, then cattle. But in fact anthrax infects only <i>land mammals</i> like sheep and rarely cattle. Anthrax does not infect in the water, does not infect non-mammals like frogs or fish in water (or on land), and must be dry to form infectious spores, The Israelites would have been the hardest hit by anthrax sheep-disease (from their blood sacrifices of sheep in the Passover), not the Egyptians.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Biting flies cannot breed in winter when they hibernate</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The popular "domino theory" of the plagues claims that when the Nile floodwaters receded in the winter, biting stable flies bred and spread anthrax, thus causing the plague of boils. But flies hibernate in the winter and cannot breed then.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Brad C. Sparks, "Red Algae Theories of the Ten Plagues" [Parts 1,2,3], <i>Bible and Spade,</i> vol. 16, no. 3 (Summer 2003), 66-77; vol. 17, no. 1 (Winter 2004), 17-27; vol. 17, no. 3 (Summer 2004), 71-82.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is highly unlikely that all these natural factors described above converged on Egypt at the same time. In fact some cannot occur at the same time as they would nullify the alleged effect. For example, natural high floodwaters also kill natural algae; red mud or mud of any color brought by floodwaters kills algae too; receding floodwater cannot breed flies because it is winter (a regular seasonal occurrence) and flies would be in hibernation then; excess floodwater would prevent the hypothesized extra silt from drying out quickly and being drawn into the air by wind to cause darkness; and so on.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It may be believable that two or three conditions came together by random chance— but nine or ten in the same setting and in just the right sequence? It is utterly unlikely. Clever attempts to link the alleged natural plagues in a "chain" so as to avoid the extreme improbability of all happening by random natural chance at exactly the same time frame have failed. This is acknowledged even by the authors of such theories (several plagues always remain unaccounted for in the "domino" chain); and, as just noted, some such plagues would, actually nullify or prevent other "natural" plagues.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Naturalistic explanations do not account for how the Hebrew slaves were spared from the catastrophic conditions but the Egyptians who lived among or near them were not. Moreover, sandstorms and Nile floods do not discriminate based on whether you are an Egyptian (ethnic origin) or a slave (social status)! Unfortunately for the critics' view, this type of selectivity is necessary to make the scenario believable.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Besides, none of these natural causes satisfactorily address the death of Egypt's firstborn. Natural forces do not discriminate based on the order of one's birth. The theory also leaves unaddressed the historical narrative of Moses calling down these plagues at precisely the same time as these "natural" conditions are appearing in Egypt. That is to say, the presence of a moral and theological dimension with a clearly defined purpose and timing within the Exodus passages demonstrates that the plagues were more than simply a <i>natural </i>phenomenon; rather, they meet the criteria of a miraculous event.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The real problem here seems to be the critics' antisupernatural presupposition, and unfortunately even some apologists follow suit for different reasons (as we noted previously). Why can't we simply read the text in a straightforward way? Critics assume what they are supposed to prove. They assume supernatural events cannot possibly occur, and then dismiss any account of a supernatural event they may find, deeming it noncredible since it describes a supernatural occurrence—then they turn around and complain there is no evidence for the supernatural event! This is a classic circular argument and a fallacy. Similarly, the critics assume that God does not exist, since if He does exist, then miracles (which are acts of God) are possible.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Archaeological Evidence for the Exodus and Conquest</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Evidence from the Nile Delta</span></i></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Archaeological excavations carried out since 1966 in the northeastern Nile Delta region have suggested the presence of western Semites. Manfred Bietak of the University of Vienna has investigated the area known as Tell el-Dab'a (originally called Avaris, which became the Hyksos capital during the Hyksos period in the 1700s to 1500s BC). Here, as well as in surrounding territories, Bietak has discovered dwellings built in Syro-Palestinian fashion (also used by the Israelites) dating to the time when the Hebrews are believed to have been in Egypt prior to the Exodus.5 According to Bietak, those who settled at Tell el-Dab'a (which is near the Land of Goshen) were people from Canaan, though these individuals became highly Egyptianized. Bietak has concluded that beginning under Pharaoh Senusret (Sesostris) III (c. 1800 BC), the settlements at Tell el-Dab'a went through a massive expansion during the late twelfth and thirteenth Egyptian dynasties, which would be consistent with Exodus 1:12 that says the more Egypt afflicted their Hebrew slaves the more they multiplied.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">What is most striking about the excavation is the evidence that work on the palace in the Eastern Nile Delta was suddenly stopped. Bietak says that pots of paint, plumb lines, and instruments were simply dropped to the floor! The palace was suddenly abandoned. This is what one would expect to see if a Hebrew Exodus abruptly occurred in the eastern Nile Delta (Goshen) in this time frame.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Though archaeological evidence for the Exodus has been slow in its development, what we do possess is consistent with an Israelite presence in Egypt immediately prior to the time of the Exodus. There still remain problems with reconciling the archaeological material with commonly accepted Egyptian chronology, though some have argued that this chronology should be revised downward by some 200 to 300 years or even more. The physical evidence unearthed at Tell el-Dab'a fits nicely with the Exodus account, but the interpretation of the evidence itself is colored by the dating and the philosophical presuppositions of the interpreter. The details from Tell el-Dab'a are very promising but need further research with additional data from surrounding regions.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Balaam Inscription</span></i></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">The fragments of the Balaam inscription reflect the earliest archaeological data of any biblical prophet or his prophecies. The inscription is currently on display at the Citadel Museum in Amman, Jordan.</span></i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In addition to excavations by Bietak and the Egyptian documentary parallels, the discovery of the Balaam inscription adds an important historical support for the Exodus and its ensuing events. In the text of Numbers 22:22-40, the Balaam story appears in direct connection with the historical events of the Exodus and the Conquest. There is no reason here to discriminate and take Balaam as historical or semi-legendary but the Exodus and Conquest as pure myth. Though critical scholars have long dismissed Balaam and his talking donkey as sheer fiction, this view began to shift after 1967 when a crumbled plaster Aramaic text was discovered within the rubble of an ancient building in Deir 'Alia (Jordan). The c." 800 BC inscription is contained within 119 fragments written with 50 lines of text in faded red and black ink. It is written in red ink for emphasis, and reads:</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Warnings [Sayings] from the Book of Balaam the son of Beor. He was a seer of the gods [line la; see lines, 2-4; see similarly Numbers 22:5; Josephus24:9].</span></i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Balaam's reputation as a prophet is consistent with the biblical account that has Balak the king calling upon Balaam to pronounce curses on the Israelites (Numbers 22:6).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Though the building in which the text was found was most likely destroyed in the great earthquake around the time Uzziah reigned as king (Isaiah 6:1), the plaster text appears much older due to the extremely worn and faded color condition of the ink, and it is believed that it was part of an already circulating text. It appears that people in Deir 'Alia admired Balaam, who later became a sort of icon to the inhabitants of the area. The time required for such reverence to grow adds support to a much earlier dating of the original text, thus placing it closer to the time of the Exodus. Moreover, the building in which the text was found is located less than 30 miles from the area Balaam is said to have engaged Israel prior to their crossing the Jordan River, in the plains of Moab (Numbers 22—24). The find has posed a problem for Exodus skeptics and revisionists since the text apparently places a historical Balaam in the same geographical area as the Israelites during the Exodus and Conquest.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Merneptah Stele</span></i></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Attempts to date the Exodus forward to the thirteenth century BC appear to contradict Egyptian records indicating that Israel had already been established in Canaan by that century. If the Exodus had occurred much later, then the Egyptian Exodus-parallels mentioned above would be much too early to refer to an Exodus like event. The hieroglyphic stele found by Sir William Flinders Petrie in Pharaoh Memeptah's funerary temple in western Thebes is the earliest known mention of Israel from any ancient document outside the Bible, and it dates to c. 1210 BC, based on the generally accepted date of Merneptah. It is also the only known mention of "Israel" in ancient Egyptian writing (a possible second and earlier example has turned up in a Berlin museum but is still under study).6 The steles contribution comes in the form of a eulogy to a victorious Merneptah:</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Merneptah Stele (Photo by Zev Radovan.)</span></i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Hatti is pacified; plundered is the Canaan with every evil; carried off is Ashkelon; seized upon is Gezer; Yanoam is made as that which does not exist; Israel is laid waste, his seed is not; Hurru is become a widow for Egypt! All lands together, they are pacified;7</span></i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">There is no doubt that Israel was in the land by the thirteenth century BC, though not established as a nation with a king or kingdom as yet. "Israel" is written with an Egyptian <i>determinative symbol</i> in the Merneptah Stele, which indicates Israel was a <i>people</i> at this time and not a <i>land</i>.8 Apparently, this refers to a time when Israel was without rulers, such as during the four-century-long time of the judges prior to the establishment of a national infrastructure and the united monarchy under David and Solomon in the tenth century BC. Israel's listing along with the other established cities and biblical lands (Ashkelon, Gezer, and so on) implies that Israel was comparable in importance and not an insignificant wandering tribe of Bedouins. The dating for Israel's presence in the land supplied by the Merneptah Stele fits well with the timing of the Exodus from Egypt and the subsequent conquest of Canaan in about 1400 BC.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Indirect Support for the Exodus</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Archaeology has also provided us with discoveries that indirecdy support the Exodus narrative.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Writer's Familiarity with Egypt's Language and Culture</span></i></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">First, a linguistic and cultural knowledge of Egyptian life is reflected in the Hebrew language used to pen the book of Exodus. The one individual who had the knowledge, experience, and education necessary to account for these details is Moses who "was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" (Acts 7:22 ESV). Many scholars recognize that these Egyptian features must have come from an author intimately acquainted with Egyptian slave-labor practice and who had an understanding of the Egyptian royal court, was familiar with the Egyptian flora and fauna (Genesis 13:10; Exodus 9:31-32),* and possessed a command of Egyptian language and geography.1 In fact, the name "Moses" seems to be an Egyptian name much like the Pharaohs' dynastic name Thutmose. This extensive familiarity with Egypt in the book of Exodus, rather than with Babylonia,** thus supports the belief that the writer could have been an eyewitness of the Exodus and the plagues, not an individual far-removed from the actual events. The critical scholars who postulate anonymous Jewish authors of the Pentateuch say that they allegedly wrote or compiled the book of Exodus in exile in Babylonia a thousand years after the Exodus—-a very great distance in space and time from Egypt in the second millennium B C.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">* Note that the crop sequence, trees, and animals in these passages are indigenous to Egypt rather than the Palestinian region.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">** The Pentateuch has more Egyptian loan words than any other section of the Bible.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">$ The exception might be the Pentateuch authors seeming familiarity with Mesopotamian law codes such as the Code of Hammurabi (Hammurapi)—which, however, may have been widely known throughout the ancient Middle East, unlike the details of Babylonian geography and culture. But Mesopotamian geography and culture are not reflected in the book of Exodus, which is, as one might expect, heavily Egyptian, not Babylonian, in coloring. Mesopotamian language does not appear in the book of Exodus either. An exception to the expected lack of knowledge of Mesopotamian culture in distant Egypt would be that the cuneiform Amama rablets in Egypt prove the Egyptian fluency in the Mesopotamian language (Akkadian—that is, "Babylonian") as a diplomatic language, in the fourteenth century BC. However, the early date of the Exodus in the fifteenth century BC would predate the development of this diplomatic language, so there is no discrepancy.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Law-Code Question</span></i></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Second, the law code described in the book of Exodus displays a comfortable fit with the form and structure of law codes dated to earlier periods. Previous to recognizing this fit, critics had argued that Moses could not write at all, let alone have written a sophisticated law code such as seen in Exodus and Leviticus, and that the Hebrews did not learn the art of writing until after they settled in Canaan.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">However, the discovery of a <i>diorite stele</i> containing a much earlier law code (now known as the Hammurabi Code) created by the Babylonian king Hammurabi (or Hammurapi, c. 1700 BC), all but silenced the critics.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">This seven-foot stele known as the Code of Hammurabi contains 282 law codes dealing with various situations. The picture on top depicts Hammurabi facing the seated god Marduk. Beneath them are the written codes themselves. (Photo by Zev Radovan).</span></i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Archaeologists have since unearthed thousands of cuneiform clay tablets in central Mesopotamia, known as the <i>Nuzi </i>letters, that date to the fifteenth century BC. These letters reflect societal laws and codes relating to norms, private contracts, adoption, and inheritance, laws and codes that were in place for centuries prior to their writing. For instance, the law permitted a man to remarry if his wife could not bear children, or the wife could provide a surrogate mother to give birth, such as a slave woman (see the example of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, Genesis 16:1-3). If a couple could not have a child, adoption of another individual to carry on the family name and inherit the wealth was acceptable according to the <i>Nuzi</i> tablets. However, if the couple had a son born to them, then the son would take priority over the former adoptee (see Isaacs position over Eliezer, Genesis 15:4). What is more, after the child was born of surrogacy, that child could not be expelled from the family or sent away (see Sarah's request to send Hagar and Ishmael away, Genesis 21:10).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Based on these finds and their consistency with laws and customs found in Exodus and the other books of Moses, it seems reasonable to believe the author of Exodus was well-acquainted with Egyptian culture and Mesopotamian law in the second millennium BC. Despite these helpful parallels supporting the context of the patriarchal narratives in Genesis, some evangelical scholars have recognized the limitations inherent in these examples and some defects in these parallels. Thus they caution against excessive reliance on indirect evidences such as parallels of customs, laws, societal norms, and so on.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Issues with Historical Investigation of the Exodus</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Historians must investigate ancient literature, not prejudge it, to try to objectively assess whether it is credible and reliable or composed of fabrication, myth, and legend, or is otherwise untrustworthy. If the ancient document "passes the test" or survives the investigation, then its credibility will be high and one can rely on it as telling the truth to the degree that depends on how extensively it was tested.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Historical investigation is not a 100 percent certain procedure with absolutely guaranteed results. Nevertheless, the Bible remains the one outstanding piece of ancient literature that excels in passing historical investigations mounted by even its harshest critics. This does not mean we have given the Bible a free pass regarding its trustworthiness. The free-pass approach uses the faulty logic that declares, for example, "We don't know what the ancients knew, so who are we to criticize the eyewitness or author of the book?" In other words, the free-pass approach maintains that critics cannot criticize because they are looking back in time some 3,500 years; supposedly, our day cannot provide a superior vantage point in any way to that of the one who experienced the events at the actual time.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But this tired truism, which may not be true, cannot answer factual questions! Yes, as a general rule, we normally prefer contemporaneous eyewitness evidence over that of later material. But in some cases we today might well know more than what an ancient author knew about his own time. Rapid electronic communications did not exist 3,500 years ago. It is possible that someone in one town might not know what had occurred in a neighboring town or surrounding geographical area, given the isolation imposed by older methods of communication. By excavating a library of clay tablets covering a thousand years of history, we might well know more than an average person living back then or even the average temple scholar, who did not have access to or could not read the language used in the tablets (for example, the Sumerian language used in some tablets in later Babylonia, which was a language not known to the general population or to any but the inner circle of scribes and specially-trained priests).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">On the other hand, it is also possible that an ancient scholar or eyewitness 3,500 years ago could indeed have had a clearer view of his own history than we do today, in spite of technological limitations. We just cannot prejudge the question one way or the other and then use the prejudgment to entirely sweep away critical objections to the Bibles historicity. We need to address the fundamental issues straight on. And in the case of the Exodus we have an abundance of evidence.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Argument from Silence</span></i></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">There are times when critical scholars appear to argue from silence—that is, they dismiss the historicity of the Exodus because no supporting material has been discovered. It is also asserted by some well-intentioned apologists that critics cannot argue that the "absence of evidence is evidence of absence." If there is no evidence discovered for the Exodus, it is argued, this "absence of evidence" doesn't prove the absence of the Exodus event from history.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">One must guard against two extremes when approaching the argument from silence.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">One should recognize that the absence of evidence—when there has been a diligent search for it—is evidence of the absence of the event in the area searched. How could it be otherwise? How else does one establish that an alleged event or fact is "absent"? How does one come to this conclusion except by searching for the event diligently and not finding it? It certainly is not positive proof that the event did not occur, but it is evidence (of absence) that is as strong as the thoroughness of the search that was designed to look for it.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">For instance, if search teams looking for a child missing in the forest cannot find him in one area, they don't tell themselves this "absence of evidence" of the child proves nothing and they must keep futilely searching the same area over and over again instead of expanding the search to a wider area. No, they say they do indeed have" evidence of absence of the child in that one area, and then they continue the search in the next area, and the next area after that, until hopefully searchers find him or her. This is just common sense.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">On the other hand, the finding of "no evidence" does not automatically carry the same weight as its exact opposite (hard evidence)—-in this case the total contradiction of the Exodus event. The "no evidence" finding may warrant a merely neutral or ambiguous conclusion, or even the more preferred approach of giving the historical details surrounding the Exodus event the benefit of the doubt as the search continues.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the case of the Exodus, there has never been a diligent search for Egyptian documentary evidence for it until now. The scattered hieroglyphic text evidences known so far have been uncovered by Egyptologists by accident in the normal course of their work, not because of a special search for Egyptian records of the Exodus, and even the accidentally uncovered evidences have never been collected together in one place until now.9 Even Christian scholars have failed to conduct a diligent search for Egyptian records of the Exodus, and no such exhaustive search is known from any published source, secular or not.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Stone and mud-brick dwelling foundations unearthed in Jericho at Tell es-Sultan. (Photo by Abraham Sob-kowski, PD.)</span></i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In modern history there has never been a full-time scholar dedicated to investigating the Egyptian records for evidence of the Exodus, at least until now. No professorship of Exodus studies is known of anywhere in the world, in any Christian or Jewish seminary, Bible college, or secular university at any time, past or present. No "Department of Exodus Studies" exists in any university or college or seminary anywhere in the world, now or in the past. (And even if such an Exodus professorship or department did exist, it might not be dedicated to searching for Egyptian documents on the Exodus—documents that so many believe do not exist.) No archaeological excavation along the shores of the Red Sea has ever looked for signs of the Exodus. Simple due diligence would call for these minimal efforts to be made before any scholar declares the Exodus either disproven or "unnecessary to be proven" ("unnecessary" because the alleged lack of Egyptian records is supported only by tenuous arguments or excuses, such as reducing the Exodus to a minor event that is easily overlooked).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Jericho as Evidence of the Exodus and Conquest</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Modem excavations conducted at Jericho (Tel es-Sultan) have been offered by some as archaeological evidence supporting the conquest of Canaan and therefore, by implication, the Exodus event some 40 years before the conquest. These excavations are purported to demonstrate that the city was destroyed around the time of the Exodus (c. 1440 to 1400 BC) if the archaeolgical data are reinterpreted to fit the Bible, which creates some problems and raises some issues.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Archaeological data have demonstrated that Jericho is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, dating back thousands of years before Christ. It is located nine miles north of the Dead Sea and five miles west of the Jordan River, adjacent to the arid Judean wilderness. Teams of archaeologists have excavated Jericho in four major campaigns since the early twentieth century and they continue to do so to the present day. Except for the first campaign, these efforts were unable to match the archaeological data to the biblical chronology of the conquest of Canaan by Joshua (Joshua 6).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">A Questionable Attempt to Reconcile Evidence and Dates</span></i></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1990, Bryant Wood of the <i>Associates for Biblical Research </i>revisited much of the previous data collected by Kathleen Kenyon in the 1950s and others, including the pottery data. By reinterpreting the data, "Wood concluded that the destruction of the city must have occurred c. 1400 BC, thus appearing to bring the archaeological data at Jericho more in line with the biblical text and supporting an early chronology for the Exodus and conquest. Despite the chronological issues, by redating certain c. 1600 BC Middle Bronze pottery remains found at Jericho to c. 1400 BC, the end of the first period of the Late Bronze Age (LB I), Wood claims to have identified several archaeological features that confirm biblical descriptions of the city at the time of its conquest by Joshua. (See the chart "Archaeological Ages and Israel" in chapter 15.) These include the collapse of fortification walls (Joshua 6:20); grain storage indicating that the conquest was in the spring (Joshua2:6; 3:15, 5:10); the city being destroyed by fire (Joshua 6:24); the grain stored in the city not being consumed by its inhabitants, thus indicating a short siege (Joshua 6:15, 20); and the grain never being used by the attackers (the Hebrews were not to take anything from the city: Joshua 6:17-18) 10.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Attempts to lower the date of the end of the Middle Bronze age throughout the entire Israel region (by John Bimson of the University of Sheffield, Great Britain) or on a localized basis at Jericho only (Wood) have been met with criticism. Some believe this reinterpretation of the earlier data, which claims errors in the original excavators' archaeological analysis, is unnecessary. This is because the first Jericho excavation actually matched the biblical chronology of the Conquest with the archaeological data found, without having to reinterpret the data or attribute errors to the original archaeological analysis in order to create a match. Subsequent studies that have ignored those results did so mainly because the dates of the archaeological periods (Early Bronze, Middle Bronze, Late Bronze, Iron Age) had been radically changed in the interim so that there was no longer a match with the Bible. The analyses of the archaeological artifacts and the archaeological periods to which they were assigned remain valid and unchanged today—only the dates of the periods have changed.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Critics of Wood's efforts to redate some of the Jericho pottery unearthed by Kenyon have questioned his attempts to reinterpret the data and to claim that Kenyon misinterpreted and hence "misdated" Jericho's archaeology. Wood claims that the Middle Bronze Age destruction of the city must have actually occurred c. 1400 BC in the Late Bronze Age, which brings the archaeological data at Jericho in line with the biblical text. Thus Wood redates the Middle Bronze Age destruction of Jericho to the Late Bronze Age.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Problems with the Jericho Pottery Redating</span></i></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Unfortunately, as appealing as Wood's redating of pottery may seem to be at first glance, it is very unclear whether he has succeeded in redating the Jericho wall destruction to c. 1400 BC and thus the time of Joshua's conquest. His "detailed study of the pottery of the Middle Bronze-Late Bronze I period at Jericho"—which is crucially important to his argument—as of 1990 admittedly "has not yet been published." And over 20 years later it apparently still had not been published (no mention of its publication in the 2008 online edition of his original article, for example, or in 2010 postings).11 In 2009, Wood's research update on Jericho still insisted that Kenyon had "erred," but nevertheless admitted, "It remains for me to publish a critique of Kenyon's theories and an in-depth study of the pottery from the various expeditions, to demonstrate that Kenyon's conclusions were incorrect. ,.."12</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">When Wood's initial publication was severely criticized by another archaeologist, Wood softened his argument somewhat from his original claims. In his original article, Wood stressed how several types of pottery found by earlier excavators at Jericho, in what is normally considered to be the Middle Bronze Age walled city (which was destroyed by fire), were absolutely unique to the Late Bronze Age period. Thus the Middle Bronze Age dating by Kenyon was wrong because of her "methodologically unsound and, indeed, unacceptable" errors, and work that was "especially poorly founded." He claimed she "inexplicably... ignored" supposedly "obvious" Late Bronze Age pottery from the walled city.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">So in the original article, this supposedly "obvious" and uniquely Late Bronze Age-dated pottery, it was confidently asserted, could be "found only" in the Late Bronze Age, "confined to" the last part of the Late Bronze I period, and "all characteristic" of (unique to) the Late Bronze Age.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But after the published criticism, Wood responded by painting a rather different picture. He conceded that Late Bronze Age pottery is so similar to Middle Bronze Age pottery that the "subtle differences" are difficult to distinguish and require "careful study":</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">It is important to recognize that the pottery of the Late Bronze I period is very similar to that of the final phase of the Middle Bronze period. In fact, the material culture of the Late Bronze I period is simply a continuation of that of the Middle Bronze period. As a result, many Middle Bronze forms continue into Late Bronze I. There are subtle differences in a number of types, however,, and several new forms are introduced. With careful study of the pottery evidence, therefore, it is possible to distinguish the Late Bronze I period from the terminal phase of the Middle Bronze period.13</span></i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">However, the first example of pottery, which Wood for some reason chose to extensively discuss, is not a conclusively "uniquely" dated item. It is called the "flaring cari-nated bowl" and was found in the city mound by Kenyon. Wood was forced to admit that the "subtle differences" in the "slight crimp" in the bowl require a "discerning eye" to see and "One could argue this point, however, since the difference is slight" (emphasis added). The change in this "slight crimp" over time from Middle Bronze Age to Late Bronze Age is undocumented by any drawings illustrating the change. This Late Bronze Age dating has of course been vigorously disputed.14</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Where Is the Evidence?</span></i></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">All this inspires little confidence in what is supposed to be a revolutionary redating of Jericho. With several other bowl and pot types, Wood claims "strong" indicators for a "unique" (or "diagnostic") Late Bronze Age date. This should be Wood's crucial evidence, the clincher, but he had already warned in advance (see quote above) that these are all "subtle" differences that may be arguable. And then he goes on with weak examples (instead of the strongest evidence) of other pottery that are merely "<i>more</i> in the Late Bronze tradition" (emphasis added) than in the Middle Bronze tradition, but not absolutely unique to Late Bronze Age. This pottery should be more or less irrelevant if it does not uniquely determine the date. In still other examples he is nebulous about whether the Late Bronze Age date carries uniqueness or not. Although everything hinges on this pottery evidence, these examples evidently all remain undocumented and unpublished by Wood to this day.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In short, none of Bryant Wood's equivocal, unpublished evidence convincingly proves that a biblical-style conquest of a formidable walled city—as famously depicted in the book of Joshua-—occurred in the Late Bronze Age period. Wood might still be right, and we hope he publishes the evidence to prove it in the near future. As mentioned before, though, there are other alternatives.*</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">* <i>Brad C. Sparks, forthcoming manuscript on Exodus-like parallels in Egyptian literature. Proponents of the redating of Jericho pottery from the Middle Bronze Age to the Late Bronze Age like to cite several archaeological features as confirming the biblical descriptions of the city at the time of its conquest by Joshua (destruction by fire in the spring, collapse of the walls, abandonment of the city afterward, and so on). But these are not unique to the supposed "Late Bronze Age" destruction of Jericho (actually the Middle Bronze Age destruction) nor are they unique to the biblical conquest of Jericho (Ai was also destroyed by fire and left abandoned). The Early Bronze Age city of Jericho was also heavily fortified with walls and was destroyed by fire, with total wall destruction on the east side, and was left abandoned for centuries. Moreover, unlike the alleged Late Bronze Age destruction, the Early Bronze Age city was destroyed by invaders crossing the Jordan River from the east who were organized in at least eight distinguishable "tribes"-—no such "tribal" attack occurred with the Late Bronze Age (Middle Bronze Age) destruction.</i></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Some reputable archaeologists have argued that it was in fact the Early Bronze Age city of Jericho that was destroyed in the Israelite conquest, despite the apparent six- or eight-century dating problem (Rudolph Cohen, Emmanuel Anari, et al.). Cohen and Anati point to the very early date of the Ipuwer papyrus as supporting Egyptian evidence that links up precisely with this archaeological evidence of the tribal destruction of Early Bronze Age Jericho.</span></i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Biblical Significance</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">We do not need to rely on weak evidence or faulty arguments to support the Exodus event or the subsequent conquest of Canaan. We do not have to make excuses for the Bible or rewrite the miraculous out of it so that what remains will somehow withstand scientific and historical scrutiny better. We can argue from a position of strength, not weakness. The archaeological and documentary data powerfully corroborate the Exodus account as described by Moses. The intimate knowledge of Egyptian life, language, slave labor, and customs recorded in the book of Exodus reflect firsthand knowledge of Egyptian society by the author. The interweaving of miracles with various historical figures and geography throughout the Pentateuch makes it difficult to separate them—showing that the author intended them to be understood as historical and literal.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The difficulties that still remain in aligning archaeological data with biblical chronology may yet be resolved. It appears that scholars are associating the archaeological data with the right archaeological periods but assigning the wrong dates to those periods (or to the Egyptian dynasties usually used to date the archaeological periods). This is seen in, among other things, the fact that those period dates continue to shift around (as shown by, for example, the long-running debate between Amihai Mazar and Israel Finkelstein over Iron Age dates and the continual slide toward later dates for Egyptian dynasties).</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The evidence for the Exodus is strong and extensive, as we would expect from the mass destruction event recounted in the Bible, the destruction of the nation of Egypt. In the end, faith supplies the final measure of certainty for those seeking God. But the powerful Egyptian evidences for the Exodus in its most miraculous aspects go a long way toward supporting the historicity and credibility of the Bible.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">…………………</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-size: large;">Taken from the book: THE POPULAR HANDBOOK of ARCHAEOLOGY and the BIBLE by Holden and Geisler</span><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CONTINUED</span></p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-79047421495168677952024-03-17T22:57:00.000-07:002024-03-17T22:57:19.746-07:00DARK MONEY— THE BOOK— EYE OPENING REVELATIONS #2<p><span style="color: red; font-size: medium;">PRESIDENT BIDIN AT THE END OF HIS SPEECH TO THE NATION MENTIONED "DARK MONEY" THE PHRASE, THAT MOST WOULD HAVE MISSED. I DID NOT, AS I HAVE THIS BOOK BY JANE MAYER.</span></p><p><span style="color: red; font-size: medium;">TRUMP IS AGAINST THEM, AND HAS NEVER BEEN INVITED TO THEIR SECRET MEETINGS. </span></p><p><span style="color: red; font-size: medium;">Keith Hunt</span></p><p><b style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 36px; letter-spacing: 1.1px; text-align: center;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 36px; letter-spacing: 1.1px; text-align: center;">DARK </b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 36px; letter-spacing: 1.1px; text-align: center;">MONEY</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 42px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="letter-spacing: 1.1px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="letter-spacing: 1.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">by Jane Mayer</span></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1" style="letter-spacing: 1.1px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1" style="letter-spacing: 1.1px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1" style="letter-spacing: 1.1px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="s1" style="letter-spacing: 1.1px;"><span style="font-size: large;">INTRODUCTION</span></span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 15.8px 0px 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The </b><span class="s2" style="letter-spacing: 1.3px;"><b>Investors</b></span></span></p><p class="p7" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 15.8px 0px 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: center;"><span class="s2" style="letter-spacing: 1.3px;"><b></b></span><br /></p><p class="p8" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 15.8px 0px 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">ON JANUARY 20, 2009, THE EYES OF THE COUNTRY WERE ON WASHINGTON, where over a million cheering celebrants crowded the National Mall to witness the inauguration of the first African-American president. So many supporters streamed in from all across the nation that for twenty-four hours they nearly doubled Washington's population. Inaugurations are always moving celebrations of the most basic democratic process, the peaceful transfer of power, but this one was especially euphoric. The country's most famous and iconic musicians, from the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, to the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, gave soaring performances to mark the occasion. Celebrities and dignitaries pulled strings to get seats. Excitement was so feverish that the Democratic political consultant James Carville was predicting a long-term political realignment in which the Democrats "will remain in power for the next forty years."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">(SOME <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PEOPLE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ARE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SILLY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DAFT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>40 <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>YEARS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>POWER, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TALK <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ABOUT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PLANET <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PLUTO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THINKING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FAR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OUT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CRAZY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Keith Hunt)</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But on the other side of the country during the last weekend in January 2009, another kind of gathering was under way, of a group of activists who aimed to do all they could to nullify the results of the recent election. In Indian Wells, a California desert town on the outskirts of Palm Springs, one polished sports utility vehicle after the next cruised down the long, palm-lined drive of the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort and Spa. Stepping out onto the curb, as bellboys darted for the luggage, were some of America's most ardent conservatives, many of whom represented the nation's most powerfully entrenched business interests. It would be hard to conjure a richer tableau of the good life than the one greeting them. Overhead, the sky was a brilliant azure. In the distance, the foothills of the Santa Rosa Mountains rose steeply from the Coachella Valley, creating a stunning backdrop of ever-changing hues. Velvety green lawns stretched as far as the eye could see, meandering toward a neighboring thirty-six-hole golf course. Swimming pools, one with a man-made sandy beach, were surrounded by chaises and intimate, curtained pavilions. As dusk fell, countless tea lights and tiki torches magically lit the walkways and flowerbeds.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But inside the hotel's dining room, the mood was grim, as if these luxuries merely highlighted how much the group gathered there had to lose. The guests meeting at the resort that weekend included many of the biggest winners during the eight years of George W. Bush's presidency. There were billionaire businessmen, heirs to some of America's greatest dynastic fortunes, right-wing media moguls, conservative elected officials, and savvy political operatives who had made handsome livings helping their patrons win and hold power. There were also eloquent writers and publicists, whose work at think tanks, advocacy groups, and countless publications was quietly subsidized by corporate interests. The guests of honor, though, were the potential political donors—or "investors," as they referred to themselves-— whose checkbooks would be sorely needed for the project at hand.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The group had been summoned that weekend not by the leader of a recognized opposition party but rather by a private citizen, <i>Charles Koch.</i></b> In his seventies, he was white-haired but youthfully fit and very much in charge of Koch Industries, a conglomerate headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. The company had grown spectacularly since its founder, Charles's father, Fred, had died in 1967, and he and his brother David took charge, buying out their two other brothers. <b>Charles and David—often referred to as the Koch brothers</b>—owned virtually all of what had become under their leadership the second-largest private company in America. They owned four thousand miles of pipelines, oil refineries in Alaska, Texas, and Minnesota, the Georgia-Pacific lumber and paper company, coal, and chemicals, and they were huge traders in commodity futures, among other businesses. The company's consistent profitability had made the two brothers the sixth and seventh wealthiest men in the world. Each was worth an estimated $14 billion in 2009. <b>Charles, the elder brother, was a man of unusual drive, accustomed to getting his way. What he wanted that weekend was to enlist his fellow conservatives in a daunting task: stopping the Obama administration from implementing Democratic policies that the American public had voted for but that he regarded as catastrophic.</b></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Given the size of their fortunes, Charles and David Koch automatically had extraordinary influence. But for many years, they had magnified their reach further by joining forces with a small and intensely ideological group of like-minded political allies, many of whose personal fortunes were also unfathomably large. <b>This faction hoped to use their wealth to advance a strain of conservative libertarian politics that was so far out on the political fringe as recently as 1980, when David Koch ran for vice president of the United States on the Libertarian Party ticket, it received only 1 percent of the American vote.</b> At the time, the conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr. dismissed their views as "Anarcho-Totalitarianism."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">(AS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MAYER <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SHOWS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>REST <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HER <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BOOK, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THESE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TWO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>KOCH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>GUYS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OTHERS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WITH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THEM, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ARE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SELFISH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PLANET <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PLUTO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>LIBERTARIANS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WITH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WAY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OUT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IDEAS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TOTAL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FREEDOM <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FROM <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>GOVERNMENT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THEY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ARE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NUT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CASES <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WHO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SHOULD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MENTAL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>INSTITUTION <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CONFINEMENT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AWAY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FROM <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OTHER <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HUMAN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BEINGS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Keith Hunt)</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Kochs failed at the ballot box in 1980, but instead of accepting America's verdict, they set out to change how it voted.</b> They used their fortune to impose their minority views on the majority by other means. In the years since they were trounced at the polls, they poured hundreds of millions of dollars into a stealthy effort to move their political views from the fringe to the center of American political life. With the same foresight and perseverance with which they invested in their businesses, they funded and built a daunting national political machine. <b>As far back as 1976, Charles Koch, who was trained as an engineer, began planning a movement that could sweep the country. As a former member of the John Birch Society, he had a radical goal. In 1978, he declared, "Our movement must destroy the prevalent statist paradigm."</b></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">To this end, the Kochs waged a long and remarkable battle of ideas. They subsidized networks of seemingly unconnected think tanks and academic programs and spawned advocacy groups to make their arguments in the national political debate. They hired lobbyists to push their interests in Congress and operatives to create synthetic grassroots groups to give their movement political momentum on the ground. In addition, they financed legal groups and judicial junkets to press their cases in the courts. Eventually, they added to this a private political machine that rivaled, and threatened to subsume, the Republican Party. Much of this activism was cloaked in secrecy and presented as philanthropy, leaving almost no money trail that the public could trace. But cumulatively it formed, as one of their operatives boasted in 2015, a "fully integrated network?</span></i></b></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Kochs were unusually single-minded, but they were not alone. They were among a small, rarefied group of hugely wealthy, archconservative families that for decades poured money, often with little public disclosure, into influencing how Americans thought and voted.</b> </span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Their efforts began in earnest during the second half of the twentieth century. In addition to the Kochs, this group included Richard Mellon Scaife, an heir to the Mellon banking and Gulf Oil fortunes; Harry and Lynde Bradley, midwesterners enriched by defense contracts; John M. Olin, a chemical and munitions company titan; the Coors brewing family of Colorado; and the DeVos family of Michigan, founders of the Amway marketing empire. Each was different, but together they formed a new generation of philanthropist, bent on using billions of dollars from their private foundations to alter the direction of American politics.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">When these donors began their quest to remake America along the lines of their beliefs, their ideas were, if anything, considered marginal. They challenged the widely accepted post-World War II consensus that an activist government was a force for public good. Instead, they argued for "limited government," drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry, particularly in the environmental arena. They said they were driven by principle, but their positions dovetailed seamlessly with their personal financial interests.</span></b></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>By Ronald Reagan's presidency, their views had begun to gain more traction.</b> For the most part, they were still seen as defining the extreme edge of the right wing, but both the Republican Party and much of the country were trending their way. Conventional wisdom often attributed the rightward march to a public backlash against liberal spending programs. But an additional explanation, less examined, was the impact of this small circle of billionaire donors.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of course rich patrons on both sides of the ideological spectrum had long wielded disproportionate power in American politics. George Soros, a billionaire investor who underwrote liberal organizations and candidates, was often singled out for criticism by conservatives. But the Kochs in particular set a new standard. As Charles Lewis, the founder of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group, put it, "The Kochs are on a whole different level. There's no one else who has spent this much money. The sheer dimension of it is what sets them apart. They have a pattern of lawbreaking, political manipulation, and obfuscation. I've been in Washington since Watergate, and I've never seen anything like it. They are the Standard Oil of our times."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>By the time Barack Obama was elected president, the billionaire brothers' operation had become more sophisticated.</b> </span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">By persuading an expanding, handpicked list of other wealthy conservatives to "invest" with them, they had in effect created a private political bank. It was this group of donors that gathered at the Renaissance. Most, like the Kochs, were businessmen with vast personal fortunes that placed them not just in the top 1 percent of the nation's wealthiest citizens but in a more rarefied group, the top 0.1 percent or higher. By most standards, they were extraordinarily successful. But for this cohort, Obama's election represented a galling setback.</span></b></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">During the previous eight years of Republican rule, this conservative corporate elite had consolidated its power, amassing enormous sway over the U.S. government's regulatory and tax laws. Some in this group faulted President Bush for not having been conservative enough. <b>But having molded policy to serve their interests during the Bush years, many members of this caste had accumulated phenomenal wealth and regarded the newly elected Democratic president as a direct threat to all they had gained.</b> Participants feared they were seeing not just the passing of eight years of Republican dominance but the end of a political order, one that they believed had immeasurably benefited both the country and themselves.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>In the 2008 election, Republicans had been defeated up and down the ballot. Democrats had not only recaptured the White House but held majorities in both houses of Congress. The 2008 election hadn't just been a disappointment. It was a complete rout. "They'd just gotten blown out.</b> The question was whether they could survive at all," recalled Bill Burton, former deputy press secretary to President Obama. John Podesta, the liberal political activist who later became Obama's senior adviser, recalled that in the early days after the election "there was a sense of triumphalism, that Bush had crapped out, that he'd be Hoover and Obama would be Franklin Roosevelt and dominate. There was a feeling that the pendulum had swung and a new progressive era had begun. Bush's poll ratings were below those of Nixon! There had been a complete failure of his economic and foreign policy ideas. There was a sense of How can we blow it?'"</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Exacerbating conservatives' sense of political peril, the economy was in the most vertiginous free fall since the Great Depression of the 1930s.</b> The day that Obama was inaugurated, the stock market had plummeted on fresh doubts about the viability of the nation's banks, with the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index shedding more than 5 percent of its value and the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging by 4 percent. <b>The continuing economic collapse had laid waste not just to some conservatives' portfolios but also to their belief system. </b></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The notion that markets are infallible, a fundamental tenet of libertarian conservatism, looked like a folly.</b> <b>Free-market advocates saw their entire ideological movement in peril. Even some Republicans had become doubters. </b></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The retired general Colin Powell, for instance, a veteran of both Bush administrations, argued that "Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less." Time magazine captured the Zeitgeist by emblazoning a Republican elephant on its cover under the headline "Endangered Species."</span></b></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MADNESS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>KOCH</b></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Charles Koch himself described Obama's election in almost apocalyptic terms, sending an impassioned newsletter to his company's seventy thousand employees earlier that January declaring that America faced "the greatest loss of liberty and prosperity since the 1930s." Fearing a liberal resurgence of federal spending, he told his employees that more government programs and regulation were exactly the wrong approach to the deepening recession. "It is markets, not government, that can provide the strongest engine for growth, lifting us out of these troubling times," he insisted.</span></b></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">OBAMA <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SAID</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Obama's inaugural address lived up to his worst dreams. The freshly sworn-in president all but declared war on the notion that markets work best when government regulates them least. "Without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control," Obama warned.</span></i></b></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">(CANADA <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BANKS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FINANCE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>COMPANIES <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ARE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>REGULATED; <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CANADA <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DID <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NOT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FINANCIALLY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CRASH, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WHEN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WALL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>STREET <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BANKS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>USA <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DID <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PROVING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>KOCH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>COMPLETELY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WRONG <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Keith Hunt)</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Then, sounding almost as if he were taking aim directly at corporate plutocrats like those gathered in Indian Wells, Obama declared that "the nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>KOCH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TAKES <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AIM</b></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>It was against this threatening political backdrop that Charles Koch mustered what a fellow conservative, Craig Shirley, described as "the mercantile Right" to take back, and if possible take over, American politics.</b> Obama's election added urgency to the mission, but the gathering in Indian Wells was not a first for the Kochs. Charles and his brother David had been quietly sponsoring similar sessions for conservative donors twice a year since 2003. The enterprise started small but exploded as antagonism toward Obama built among the 0.01 percent on the right.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">While they largely hid their ambitious enterprise from the public, avoiding all but the minimum legally required financial disclosures, the Kochs portrayed their political philanthropy inside their circle as a matter of noblesse oblige. "If not us, who? If not now, when?" Charles Koch asked in the invitation to one such donor summit, paraphrasing the call to arms of the ancient Hebrew scholar Rabbi Hillel. "It was obvious we were headed for disaster," Koch later told the conservative writer Matthew Continetti, explaining his plan. The idea was to gather other free-market enthusiasts and organize them as a pressure group. The first seminar in 2003 attracted only fifteen people.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">One former insider in the Kochs' realm, who declined to be named because he feared retribution, described the early donor summits as a clever means devised by Charles Koch to enlist others to pay for political fights that helped his company's bottom line. The seminars were, in essence, an extension of the company's corporate lobbying. They were staffed and organized by Koch employees and largely treated as a corporate project. Of particular importance to the Kochs, he said, was drumming up support from other business leaders for their environmental fights. </span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>CLIMATE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CHANGE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OUT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WINDOW <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FOR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>KOCH</b></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Kochs vehemently opposed the government taking any action on climate change that would hurt their fossil fuel profits. </b>But suddenly in January 2009, these narrow concerns were overshadowed. Obama's election stirred such deep and widespread fear among the conservative business elite that the conference was swarmed, becoming a hub of political resistance. The planners were all but overwhelmed. "Suddenly they were leading the parade!" he said. "No one anticipated that."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">By 2009, the Kochs had indeed succeeded in expanding their political conference from a wonky free-market swap fest to the point where it was beginning to attract an impressive array of influential figures. Wealthy businessmen thronged to rub shoulders with famous and powerful speakers, like the Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Congressmen, senators, governors, and media celebrities came too. "Getting an invitation means you've arrived," one operative who still works for the Kochs explained. "People want to be in the room."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>MONEY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>RAISED - CAN BRING RADICALISM</b></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The amount of money raised at the summits was also increasingly eye-catching.</b> Earlier businessmen had certainly spent outsized sums in hopes of manipulating American politics, but the numbers at the Koch seminars far outstripped those in the past. As <i>The Washington Post's</i> Dan Balz observed, "When W. Clement Stone, an insurance magnate and philanthropist, gave $2 million to Richard M. Nixon's 1972 campaign, it caused public outrage and contributed to a movement that produced the post-Watergate reforms in campaign financing." Accounting for inflation, Balz estimated that Stone's $2 million might be worth about $11 million in today's dollars. In contrast, for the 2016 election, the political war chest accumulated by the Kochs and their small circle of friends was projected to be $889 million, completely dwarfing the scale of money that was considered deeply corrupt during the Watergate days.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The clout of the participants at the retreats served to burnish the Kochs' reputations, conferring a new aura of respectability on their extreme libertarian political views, which many had dismissed in the past as far outside the mainstream.</b> <b><i>"We're not a bunch of radicals running around and saying strange things," David Koch proudly told Continetti. "Many of these people are very successful, and occupy very important, respected positions in their communities!"</i></b></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>EXTREMISM <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>GOES <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>UNDERGROUND</b></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Exactly who attended the January 2009 summit, the first of the Obama era, and what transpired inside the resort can only be partly pieced together because the guest list, like many other aspects of the Kochs' political and business affairs, was shrouded in secrecy. As one Republican campaign consultant who has worked for the Kochs in the past said of the family's political activities, "To call them under the radar is an understatement. They are underground!"</span></i></b></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Participants at the summits, for instance, were routinely admonished to destroy all copies of any paperwork. "Be mindful of the security and confidentiality of your meeting notes and materials," the invitation to one such gathering warned. Guests were told to say nothing to the news media and to post nothing about the meetings online. Elaborate security steps were taken to keep both the names of the participants and the meetings' agendas from public scrutiny. When signing up to attend the conferences, participants were warned to make all arrangements through the Kochs' staff, rather than trusting the employees at the resort, whose backgrounds were nonetheless investigated by the Kochs' security detail. In an effort to detect intruders and impostors, name tags were required at all functions, and smartphones, iPads, cameras, and other recording gear were confiscated prior to sessions. In order to foil eavesdroppers during one such gathering, audio technicians planted white-noise-emitting loudspeakers around the perimeters, aimed outward toward any uninvited press and public. It went without saying that breaches of this secrecy would result in excommunication from future meetings. When a breach did occur, the Kochs launched an intense weeklong internal investigation to identify and plug the leak. The donations raised at the summits were not publicly disclosed, nor were the names of the donors, although the planners' hope was that the money would have a decisive impact on the nation's affairs. "There is anonymity that we can protect," Kevin Gentry, vice president for special projects at Koch Industries and vice president of the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, reassured the donors at one summit while soliciting their cash, according to a recording that later leaked out.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">"In case anyone misunderstood the seriousness of the enterprise," Charles Koch emphasized in one invitation "that 'fun in the sun' was not our ultimate goal." Golf games and gondola rides were fine for after hours, but breakfast discussions would start bright and early. He reminded the invitees, "This is a gathering of doers!'</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>No fewer than eighteen billionaires would be among the "doers" joining the Kochs' clandestine opposition movement during the first term of Obama's presidency.</b>Ignoring the mere millionaires in attendance, many of whose fortunes were estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the combined fortunes of the eighteen known billionaire participants alone as of 2015 topped $214 billion. In fact more billionaires participated anonymously in the Koch planning sessions during the first term of the Obama presidency than existed in 1982, when Forbes began listing the four hundred richest Americans.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TOP <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ONE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PERCENT</b></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The participants at the Koch seminars reflected the broader growth in economic inequality in the country, which had reached the level of the Gilded Age in the 1890s. The gap between the top 1 percent of earners in America and everyone else had grown so wide by 2007 that the top 1 percent of the population owned 35 percent of the nations private assets and was pocketing almost a quarter of all earnings, up from just 9 percent twenty-five years earlier. Liberal critics, like the <i>New York Times</i> columnist Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, worried that the country was in danger of being transformed from a democracy into a plutocracy, or worse, an oligarchy like Russia, where a handful of extraordinarily powerful businessmen bent the government into catering to them at the expense of everyone else. "We are on the road not just to a highly unequal society, but to a society of an oligarchy. A society of inherited wealth," Krugman warned. "When you have a few people who are so wealthy that they can effectively buy the political system, the political system is going to tend to serve their interests."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The term "oligarchy" was provocative and might have seemed an exaggeration to those accustomed to thinking of oligarchs as despotic rulers who were incompatible with democracies like the United States. But Jeffrey Winters, a professor at <i>Northwestern University</i> specializing in the comparative study of oligarchies, was one of a growing number of voices who were beginning to argue that America was a "civil oligarchy" in which a tiny and extremely wealthy slice of the population was able to use its vastly superior economic position to promote a brand of politics that served first and foremost itself. The oligarchs in America didn't rule directly, he argued, but instead used their fortunes to produce political results that favored their interests. As the left-leaning <i>Columbia University</i> professor Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, put it, "Wealth begets power, which begets more wealth."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">For years, American economists had tended to downplay the importance of economic inequality in the country, arguing that its growth was simply the inevitable result of huge and unavoidable shifts in the global economy. Over time, they suggested, extreme inequality would naturally stabilize, and a rising tide would lift all boats. What mattered most, free-market advocates argued, was not equality of results but rather equality of opportunity. As the conservative Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman wrote, "A society that puts equality—in the sense of equality of outcome—ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom ... On the other hand, a society that puts freedom first will, as a happy by-product, end up with both greater freedom and greater equality."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the new millennium, however, this consensus was beginning to fray. A growing number of academics studying the nexus of politics and wealth regarded the accelerating inequality in America as a threat not only to the economy but to democracy. Thomas Piketty, an economist at the <i>Paris School of Economics,</i> warned in his zeitgeist-shifting book, <i>Capital in the Twenty-First Century,</i> that without aggressive government intervention economic inequality in the United States and elsewhere was likely to rise inexorably, to the point where the small portion of the population that currently held a growing slice of the world's wealth would in the foreseeable future own not just a quarter, or a third, but perhaps half of the globe's wealth, or more. He predicted that the fortunes of those with great wealth, and their inheritors, would increase at a faster rate of return than the rate at which wages would grow, creating what he called "patrimonial capitalism." This dynamic, he predicted, would widen the growing chasm between the haves and the have-nots to levels mimicking the aristocracies of old Europe and banana republics.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some argued that an elite minority was also driving extreme political partisanship as its interests and agenda lost touch with the economic realities faced by the rest of the population. Mike Lofgren, a Republican who spent thirty years observing how wealthy interests gamed the policy-making apparatus in Washington, where he was a staff member on the Senate Budget Committee, decried what he called the "secession" of the rich in which they "disconnect themselves from the civic life of the nation and from any concern about its well-being except as a place to extract loot." America, as Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson described it, had become a "winner-take-all" country in which economic inequality perpetuated itself by pressing its political advantage. If so, the Koch seminars provided a group portrait of the winners' circle.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Only one full guest list of attendants at any of the Koch summits has surfaced publicly.</b> It was for a session in June 2010. Like Mrs. Astor's famous 400, which defined the top bracket of New York society in the late nineteenth century on the basis of those who could fit into the Astors' ballroom, the Kochs' donor list provides another portrait of a fortunate social subset. They were mostly businessmen; very few were women. Fewer still were nonwhite. And while some had made their own fortunes, many others were intent on preserving vast legacies they had inherited. While those attracted to the Kochs' meetings were uniformly conservative, they were not the predictable cartoon villains of conspiracy theories but spanned a wide range of views and often disagreed among themselves about social and international issues. <b>The glue that bound them together, however, was antipathy toward government regulation and taxation, particularly as it impinged on their own accumulation of wealth. </b>Unsurprisingly, given the shift in the way great fortunes were made by the end of the twentieth century, instead of railroad magnates and steel barons who had ruled in the Astors' day, the largest number of participants came from the finance sector.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Among the better-known financiers who participated or sent representatives to Koch donor summits during Obama's first term were Steven A. Cohen, Paul Singer, and Stephen Schwarzman. All might have been principled philosophical conservatives, with no ulterior motives, but all also had personal reasons to fear a more assertive federal government, as was expected from Obama.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cohen's spectacularly successful hedge fund, <i>SAC Capital Advisors</i>, was at the time the focus of an intense criminal investigation into insider trading. Prosecutors described his firm, which was based in Stamford, Connecticut, as "a veritable magnet of market cheaters." Forbes valued Cohen's fortune at one point at $10.3 billion, making his checkbook a formidable political weapon.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Paul Singer, whose fortune Forbes estimated at $1.9 billion, ran the hugely lucrative hedge fund <i>Elliott Management</i>. Dubbed a vulture fund by critics, it was controversial for buying distressed debt in economically failing countries at a discount and then taking aggressive legal action to force the strapped nations, which had expected their loans to be forgiven, to instead pay him back at a profit. Although Singer insisted that he didn't buy debt from the poorest of the poor nations, his methods, while highly lucrative, brought public scorn and government scrutiny. Even New York's tabloid newspapers chimed in. After Singer supported the campaign of the former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a July 2007 <i>New York Post</i> story was headlined "Rudy's 'Vulture' $$ Man" with the subhead "Profits Off Poor." Singer described himself as a Goldwater free-enterprise conservative, and he contributed generously to promoting free-market ideology, but at the same time his firm reportedly sought unusual government help in squeezing several desperately impoverished governments, a contradiction that applied to many participants in the Koch donor network.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Stephen Schwarzman, who was in general less of a political activist than Singer, might have first become involved in the Kochs' political enterprise out of happenstance. In 2000, he paid $37 million for the palatial triplex that had previously belonged to John D. Rockefeller Jr. at 740 Park Avenue, the same Manhattan co-op building in which David Koch bought an apartment three years later. By the time Obama was elected, Schwarzman had become something of a poster boy for Wall Street excess. As Chrystia Freeland writes in her book <i>Plutocrats</i>, the June 21, 2007, initial public offering of stock in <i>Blackstone</i>, his phenomenally successful private equity company, "marked the date when America's plutocracy had its coming-out party." By the end of the day, Schwarzman had made $677 million from selling shares, and he retained additional shares then valued at $7.8 billion.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Schwarzman's stunning payday made a huge and not entirely favorable impression in Washington. Soon after, Democrats began criticizing the carried-interest tax loophole and other accounting gimmicks that helped financiers amass so much wealth. In the wake of the 2008 market crash, as Obama and the Democrats began talking increasingly about Wall Street reforms, financiers like Schwarzman, Cohen, and Singer who flocked to the Koch seminars had much to lose.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The hedge fund run by another of the Kochs' major investors, Robert Mercer, an eccentric computer scientist who made a fortune using sophisticated mathematical algorithms to trade stocks, also seemed a possible government target. Democrats in Congress were considering imposing a tax on stock trading, which the firm he co-chaired, <i>Renaissance Technologies,</i> did in massive quantities at computer-driven high frequency. Although those familiar with his thinking maintained that his political activism was separate from his pecuniary interests, Mercer had additional business reasons to be antigovernment. The IRS was investigating whether his firm improperly avoided paying billions of dollars in taxes, a charge the firm denied. Employment laws, too, would prove an embarrassing headache to him; three domestic servants soon sued him for refusing to pay overtime and maintained that he had docked their wages unfairly for infractions such as failing to replace shampoo bottles from his bathrooms when they were less than one-third full. The tabloid news stories about the case invariably mentioned that Mercer had previously brought a suit of his own, suing a toy-train manufacturer for overbilling him by $2 million for an elaborate electric train set he had installed in his Long Island, New York, mansion. With a pay package of $125 million in 2011, Mercer was ranked by Forbes as the sixteenth-highest-paid hedge fund manager that year.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Other financiers active in the Koch group had additional legal problems. Ken Langone, the billionaire co-founder of Home Depot, was enmeshed in a prolonged legal fight over his decision as chairman of the compensation committee of the New York Stock Exchange to pay his friend Dick Grasso, the head of the exchange, $139.5 million. The sum was so scandalously large that it forced Grasso to resign. Angry at his critics, Langone reportedly felt that "if it wasn't for us fat cats and the endowments we fund, every university in the country would be fucked."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Another Koch seminar goer from the financial sector, Richard Strong, founder of the mutual fund <i>Strong Capital Management,</i> was banned from the financial industry for life in a settlement following an investigation by the former New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer into his improperly timing trades to benefit his friends and family. Strong paid a $60 million fine and publicly apologized. His company paid an additional $115 million in related penalties. But after Strong sold his company's assets to Wells Fargo, the Associated Press reported that he would be "an even wealthier man."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Many participants in the Koch summits were brilliant leaders not only in business but also in tax avoidance.</b> For instance, the Colorado oil and entertainment billionaire Philip Anschutz, a founder of Qwest Communications, whom <i>Fortune</i> magazine dubbed America's "greediest executive" in 2002, was fighting an uphill battle on a tax matter that practically required an accounting degree to explain. Anschutz, a conservative Christian who bankrolled movies with biblical themes, had attempted to avoid paying capital gains taxes in a 2000-2001 transaction by using what are called prepaid variable forward contracts. These contracts allow wealthy shareholders such as Anschutz, whose fortune <i>Forbes</i>estimated at $11.8 billion as of 2015, to promise to give shares to investment firms at a later date, in exchange for cash up front. Because the stock does not immediately change hands, capital gains taxes are not paid. According to <i>The New York Times</i>, Anschutz raised $375 million in 2000-2001 by promising shares in his oil and natural gas companies through the firm Donaldson, Lufkin &Jenrette.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Eventually, the court sided against Anschutz on something of a technicality. The former <i>Times</i> reporter David Cay Johnston wrote that in essence the court had ruled that "prepaids done slightly differently than the Anschutz transactions will survive. But why should they?" he asked. "Why should anyone get to enjoy cash from gains now without paying taxes?" Johnston concluded, "The awful truth is that America has two income tax systems, separate and unequal. One system is for the superrich, like Anschutz and his wife, Nancy, who are allowed to delay and avoid taxes on investment gains, among other tax tricks. The other system is for the less than fabulously wealthy."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Some donor families had clearly committed tax crimes.</b> Richard DeVos, co-founder of Amway, the Michigan-based worldwide multilevel marketing empire, had pleaded guilty to a criminal scheme in which he had defrauded the Canadian government of $22 million in customs duties in 1982. DeVos later claimed it had been a misunderstanding, but the record showed the company had engaged in an elaborate, deliberate hoax in an effort to hoodwink Canadian authorities. He and his co-founder, Jay Van Andel, were forced to pay a $20 million fine. The fine didn't make much of a dent in DeVoss fortune, which Forbes estimated at $5.7 billion. By 2009, DeVoss son Dick and daughter-in-law Betsy were major donors on the Koch list and facing a record $5.2 million civil fine of their own for violating Ohio's campaign-finance laws.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Energy magnates were also heavily represented in the Koch network. </b>Many of this group too had significant government regulatory and environmental issues. The "extractive" industries, oil, gas, and mining, tend to be run by some of the most outspoken opponents of government regulation in the country, yet all rely considerably on government permits, regulations, and tax laws to aid their profits and frequently to give them access to public lands. </span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Executives from at least twelve oil and gas companies, in addition to the Kochs, were participants in the group</b>. <b>Collectively, they had a huge interest in staving off any government action on climate change and weakening environmental safeguards. </b>One prominent member of this group was Corbin Robertson Jr., whose family had built a billion-dollar oil company, <i>Quintana Resources Capital. </i>Robertson had bet big on coal—so big he reportedly owned what Forbes called the "largest private hoard in the nation—21 billion tons of reserves." Investigative reports linked Robertson to several political front groups fighting efforts by the <i>Environmental Protection Agency</i> (EPA) to control pollution emitted by coal-burning utilities. Almost comically, one such front group was called Plants Need CO2.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Another coal magnate active in the Kochs' donor network was Richard Gilliam, head of the Virginia mining concern <i>Cumberland Resources.</i></b> The dire stakes surrounding the sinking coal industry's regulatory fights were evident in the 2010 sale of Cumberland for nearly $1 billion to Massey Energy, just weeks before a tragic explosion in Massey's <i>Upper Big Branch</i> mine killed twenty-nine miners, becoming the worst coal mine disaster in forty years. A government investigation into Massey found it negligent on multiple safety fronts, and a federal grand jury indicted its CEO, Don Blankenship, for conspiring to violate and impede federal mine safety standards, making him the first coal baron to face criminal charges. Later, Massey was bought for $7.1 billion by <i>Alpha Natural Resources,</i> whose CEO, Kevin Crutchfield, was yet another member of the Koch network.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Several spectacularly successful leaders of hydraulic fracturing, who had their own set of government grievances, were also on the Kochs' list.</b> </span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The revolutionary method of extracting gas from shale revived the American energy business but alarmed environmentalists. Among the "Frackers" in the group were J. Larry Nichols, co-founder of the huge Oklahoma-based concern <i>Devon Energy</i>, and Harold Hamm, whose company, <i>Continental Resources</i>, was the biggest operator in North Dakota's booming Bakken Shale. As Hamm, a sharecropper's son, took his place as the thirty-seventh-richest person in America with a fortune that<i> Forbes </i>estimated at $8.2 billion as of 2015, and campaigned to preserve tax loopholes for oil producers, his company gained notoriety for a growing record of environmental and workplace safety violations.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>One shared characteristic of many of the donors in the Kochs' network was private ownership of their businesses, placing them in a low-profile category that <i>Fortune</i>once dubbed "the invisible rich."</b> Private ownership gave these magnates far more managerial latitude and limited public disclosures, shielding them from stockholder scrutiny. Many of the donors had nonetheless attracted unwanted legal scrutiny by the government.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>It was, in fact, striking how many members of the Koch network had serious past or ongoing legal problems.</b> Sheldon Adelson, founding chairman and chief executive of the <i>Las Vegas Sands Corporation</i>, the world's largest gambling company, whose fortune<i> Forbes</i> estimated at $31.4 billion, was facing a bribery investigation by the Justice Department into whether his company had violated the <i>Foreign Corrupt Practices Act</i> in securing licenses to operate casinos in Macao.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Kochs had looming worries about the <i>Foreign Corrupt Practices Act</i>, too. As <i>Bloomberg News</i> later revealed, the company's record of illicit payments in Algeria, Egypt, India, Morocco, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia was spilling out in a French court. Further, in the summer of 2008, just a few months before Obama was elected, federal officials had questioned the company about sales to Iran, in violation of the U.S. trade ban against the state for sponsoring terrorism.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Meanwhile, another donor, Oliver Grace Jr., a relation of the family that founded the <i>William R. Grace Company</i>, was at the center of a stock-backdating scandal that resulted in his being ousted from the board of <i>Take-Two,</i> the company behind the ultraviolent <i>Grand Theft Auto</i> video games.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The legal problems of Richard Farmer, the chairman of the Cincinnati-based <i>Cintas Corporation</i>, the nation's largest uniform supply company, included an employee's gruesome death. Just before the new and presumably less business-friendly Obama administration took office, Cintas reached a record $2.76 million settlement with the <i>Occupational Safety and Health Administration </i>(OSHA) in six safety citations including one involving a worker who had burned to death in an industrial dryer. The employee, a Hispanic immigrant, had become caught on a conveyor belt leading into the heat source.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Prior to the fatal accident, OSHA had cited Cintas for over 170 safety violations since 2003, including 70 that regulators warned could cause "death or serious physical harm." As Obama took office, the company was still fighting against paying a damage claim to the employee's widow and arguing that his death had been his own fault. Farmer, too, ranked among the Koch groups billionaire donors, with a fortune that <i>Forbes</i> estimated at $2 billion.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Given the participants' unanimous espousal of antigovernment, free-market self-reliance, <b>the network also included a surprising number of major government contractors, such as Stephen Bechtel Jr.,</b> whose personal fortune <i>Forbes</i> estimated at $2.8 billion. Bechtel was a director and retired chairman of the huge and internationally powerful engineering firm <i>Bechtel Corporation</i>, founded by his grandfather, run by his father, and, after he retired, by his son and grandson. Paternalistic and family-owned, Bechtel was the sixth-largest private company in the country, and it owed almost its entire existence to government patronage. It had built the Hoover Dam, among other spectacular public projects, and had storied access to the innermost national security circles. Between 2000 and 2009 alone, it had received $39.2 billion in U.S. government contracts. This included $680 million to rebuild Iraq following the U.S. invasion.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Like so many of the other companies owned by the Koch donors, Bechtel had government legal problems.</b> In 2007, a report by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction accused Bechtel of shoddy work. And in 2008, the company paid a $352 million fine to settle unrelated charges of substandard work in Boston's notorious "Big Dig" tunnel project. The company was facing congressional reproach too for cost overruns in the multibillion-dollar cleanup of the Hanford nuclear facility in Washington State.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Antagonism toward the government ran so high within the Koch network that one donor angrily objected to federal interference not just in his business but on behalf of his own safety as well.</b> Thomas Stewart, who built his father's Seattle-based food business into the behemoth <i>Services Group of America,</i> reportedly loved flying in his helicopter and corporate jet. But when a former company pilot refused to take his aeronautic advice because it violated Federal Aviation Administration regulations, according to an interview with the pilot in the <i>Seattle Post-Intelligencer,</i> Stewart "rose out of his chair, and screamed, I can do any fucking thing I want!"</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>WHAT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NEXT - THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DEBATE</b></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The highlight of the Koch summit in 2009 was an uninhibited debate about what conservatives should do next in the face of their electoral defea</b>t. As the donors and other guests dined in the hotel's banquet room, like Roman senators attending a gladiator duel in the Forum, they watched a passionate argument unfold that encapsulated the stark choice ahead. Sitting on one side of a stage, facing the participants, was the Texas senator John Cornyn, the head of the <i>National Republican Senatorial Committee</i> and a former justice on the Texas Supreme Court. Tall, with a high pink forehead, puffy cotton-white hair, and a taste for dark pin-striped suits, his image conveyed his role as a pillar of the establishment wing of the Republican Party. Cornyn was rated as the second most conservative Republican in the Senate, according to the nonpartisan <i>National Journal</i>. But he also was, as one former aide put it, "very much a constitutionalist" who believed it was occasionally necessary in politics to compromise.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Poised on the other side of the moderator was the South Carolina senator Jim DeMint, a conservative provocateur who defined the outermost antiestablishment fringe of the Republican Party and who in the words of one admirer was "the leader of the Huns." Fifty-seven at the time, he was five months older than Cornyn, but his dark hair, lean build, and more casual, aw-shucks style made him appear years younger. Before his election to Congress, DeMint had run an advertising agency in South Carolina. He understood how to sell, and what he was pitching that night was an approach to politics that according to the historian Sean Wilentz would have been recognizable to DeMint's forebears from the Palmetto State as akin to the <b><i>radical nullification of federal power advocated in the 1820s by the Confederate secessionist John C. Calhoun.</i></b></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The two Republican senators had been at loggerheads for some time. That night they gave opposing opening statements. Cornyn spoke in favor of the Republican Party fighting its way back to victory by broadening its appeal to a wider swath of voters, including moderates. "He understands that Republicans in Texas and in Maine aren't necessarily exactly alike," the former aide explained. "He believes in making the party a big tent. You can't win unless you get more votes."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>In contrast, DeMint portrayed compromise as surrender. </b>He had little patience for the slow-moving process of constitutional government. He regarded many of his Senate colleagues as timid and self-serving. <b>The federal government posed such a dire threat to the dynamism of the American economy, in his view, that anything less than all-out war on regulations and spending was a cop-out. </b></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>DeMint was the face of a new kind of extremism, and he spoke that evening in favor of purifying, rather than diluting, the Republican Party. </b>He argued that he would rather have "thirty Republicans who believed in something than a majority who believed in nothing," a line that was a mantra for him and that brought cheers and applause from the gathered onlookers. Rather than compromising their principles and working with the new administration, DeMint argued, Republicans needed to take a firm stand against Obama, waging a campaign of massive resistance and obstruction, regardless of the 2008 election outcome.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">As the participants continued to cheer him on, in his folksy, southern way, DeMint tore into Cornyn over one issue in particular. He accused Cornyn of turning his back on conservative free-market principles and capitulating to the worst kind of big government spending, with his vote earlier that fall in favor of the Treasury Department's massive bailout of failing banks. The September 15, 2008, failure of <i>Lehman Brothers</i>, one of the nation's largest investment banks, had triggered a stunning run on financial institutions and the beginning of a generalized panic. The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, warned congressional leaders that "it is a matter of days before there is a meltdown in the global financial system." In hopes of staving off economic disaster, Bush's Treasury Department begged Congress to approve the massive $700 billion emergency bailout known as the <i>Troubled Asset Relief Program,</i> or TARP.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Both Obama and the Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, supported the emergency measure in the run-up to the 2008 election. But ever since, outraged opposition to the bailouts had built both from the public and from antigovernment, free-market conservatives like DeMint. Having expected a gentlemanly debate over the future of the Republican Party, Cornyn suddenly found himself on the defensive as the donors jeered and the moderator, Stephen Moore, a free-market gadfly and contributor to <i>The Wall Street Journal's </i>editorial page, egged them on. The room started to explode. Rebuking Cornyn, one donor, Randy Kendrick, said, "You just keep electing RINOs!"—invoking the slur that Moore was said to have coined for squishy moderates who were, in his phrase, "Republicans in Name Only."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>FLIPPING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OVER</b></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sitting silently at a table in the front row through all of this were Charles Koch and his wife, Liz. No one came to Cornyn's defense. It was widely assumed that the Kochs, as hard-core free-market enthusiasts, had opposed the huge government bailouts of the private sector. Later, many reporters assumed this too, ascribing the Kochs' opposition to Obama as stemming from their principled disagreement over issues such as the TARP bailouts. But none of this was true. Had people checked the record carefully, they would have found it quite revealing. At first, the Kochs' political organization,<i> Americans for Prosperity</i> (AFP), had in fact taken what appeared to be a principled libertarian position against the bailouts. But the organization quickly and quietly reversed sides when the bottom began to fall out of the stock market, threatening the Kochs' vast investment portfolio. The market began to collapse on Monday, September 29, when, in the face of heavy opposition from conservatives, the House unexpectedly failed to pass the federal rescue plan. By the end of the day, the <i>Dow Jones Industrial Average</i> had fallen 777 points, losing 6.98 percent of its value. It was the stock market's largest one-day point drop ever.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Although some conservative groups and politicians such as DeMint still opposed the bailout, the market panic was enough to change many minds. Among those who flipped during the next forty-eight hours were the Kochs. Two days after the unexpected House vote, as the measure was about to be considered by the Senate, a list of conservative groups now supporting the bailouts was circulated behind the scenes to Republican legislators, in hopes of persuading them to vote for the bailouts. Among the groups now listed as supporters was <i>Americans for Prosperity. </i>Soon after, the Senate passed TARP with overwhelming bipartisan support, including that of John Cornyn. A source familiar with the Kochs' thinking says that <i>Americans for Prosperity's</i> flip-flop mirrored their own.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>But if the Kochs' personal interest in protecting their portfolio had trumped their free-market principles, they weren't about to mention it in front of a roomful of fired-up libertarians whose cash they wanted to combat Obama.</b> So, although they could have changed the dynamic in the room instantly by speaking up, no one defended Cornyn or the idea of acting responsibly within the bounds of traditional, reasonable political opposition.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Instead, the sentiment among the donors as the first Koch seminar of the Obama era came to an end was, as one witness put it, "like a bunch of gorillas beating their chests." <b>After hearing both sides out, the assembled guests chose the path of extremism.</b></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>EXTRAORDINARY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>POLITICAL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MEASURES</b></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Kochs had already concluded that they would need to resort to extraordinary political measures to achieve their goals. A few days before the January 2009 donor seminar, Charles and David Koch had privately weighed their options with their longtime political strategist in a meeting inside the black-glass fortress that served as <i>Koch Industries' </i>corporate headquarters in Wichita, Kansas.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">As they later revealed in an interview with Bill Wilson and Roy Wenzl in The <i>Wichita Eagle,</i> after hearing Obama's inauguration address, they agreed with their political adviser, Richard Fink, that America was on the road to ruin. Fink reportedly told the billionaire brothers, whose wealth, when combined, put at their disposal the single largest fortune in the world, that if they wanted to beat back the progressive tide that Obama's election represented, it would take "the fight of their lives."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">"If we're going to do this, we should do it right, or not at all," Fink said, according to the Wichita newspaper account. "But if we don't do it right, or we don't do it at all, we will be insignificant and we will just waste a lot of time, and I would rather play golf."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">If the Kochs decided that they did want "to do it right," however, as Fink put it, they should be prepared, he warned, because "it is going to get very, very ugly."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Advisers to Obama later acknowledged that he had no inkling of what he was up against. He had campaigned as a post-partisan politician who had idealistically taken issue with those who he said "like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue states." He insisted, "We are one people," the United States of America. His vision, like his own blended racial and geographic heredity, was of reconciliation, not division. Echoing these themes in his first inaugural address, Obama had chided "cynics," who, he said, "fail to understand . . . that the ground has shifted beneath them—that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply."</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The sentiment was laudable but, alas, wishful thinking. Had the newly sworn-in president looked down at the ground directly beneath his polished shoes as he delivered these optimistic words, he might have been wise to take note. The red-and-blue carpet on which he was standing, which had been custom made in accordance with a government contract, had been manufactured by <i>Invista,</i> a subsidiary of <i>Koch Industries.</i> In American politics, the Kochs and all they stood for were not so easy to escape.</span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">………………..</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">THIS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BLOCK-BUSTER <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BOOK. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>LAYS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BEAR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ALL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DIRTY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MONEY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WORK <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FAR-OUT, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MONEY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HUNGRY, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SELFISH, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>LIBERTARIAN-NO-GOVERNMENT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ANYTHING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IDEOLOGY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THINKERS. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BEHIND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SCENES, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WITH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CHARITY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FORMING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>GROUPS, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HELP <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ONE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PERCENT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FILTHY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>RICH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FURTHER <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THEIR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>POLITICAL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>LIBERTARIAN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IDEAS, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WHILE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PAYING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>LEAST <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AMOUNT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TAX [OR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TAX <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ALL] <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>POSSIBLE.</span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">THIS </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">BOOK </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">YOU </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">NEED </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">TO </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">READ, </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">AND </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">LEARN </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">ABOUT </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">THE </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><b>DARK <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DIRTY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MONEY</b><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">BEHIND </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">SOME </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">OF </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">THE </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">POLITICS </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">IN </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">THE </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">UNITED </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">STATES </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">OF </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">AMERICA.</span></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Keith Hunt</span></p>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-32682274568943985652024-03-17T22:44:00.000-07:002024-03-17T22:44:56.232-07:00DARK MONEY— THE BOOK— EYE OPEN SHOCKER<p> <span class="s1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><b>DARK MONEY </b></span><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 24px; text-align: justify;">by Jane Mayer</b></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27px; text-align: justify;"><b></b><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SHOCKING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HISTORY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FAR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>RIGHT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>LIBERTARIANS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>USA <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>POLITICS !!</b></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><span class="s2" style="letter-spacing: -0.5px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: right;"><span class="s2" style="letter-spacing: -0.5px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Jacket <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>cover <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>of <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>book <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>says:</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><span class="s2" style="letter-spacing: -0.5px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: right;"><span class="s2" style="letter-spacing: -0.5px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: right;"><span class="s2" style="letter-spacing: -0.5px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Why is America living in an age of profound economic inequality? Why, despite the desperate need to address climate change, have even modest environmental efforts been defeated again and again? Why have protections for employees been decimated? Why do hedge-fond billionaires pay a far lower tax rate than middle-class workers?</span></b></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The conventional answer is that a popular uprising against "big government" led to the ascendancy of a broad-based conservative movement. <b>But as Jane Mayer shows in this powerful, meticulously reported history, a network of exceedingly wealthy people with extreme libertarian views bankrolled a systematic, step-by-step plan to fundamentally alter the American political system.</b></span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The network has brought together some of the richest people on the planet. Their core beliefs—that taxes are a form of tyranny; that government oversight of business is an assault on freedom—are sincerely held. But these beliefs also advance their personal and corporate interests: Many of their companies have run afoul of federal pollution, worker safety, securities, and tax laws.</span></b></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The chief figures in the network are Charles and David Koch</i></b>, whose father made his fortune in part by building oil refineries in Stalins Russia and Hitler s Germany. <b><i>The patriarch later was a founding member of the John Birch Society, whose politics were so radical it believed Dwight Eisenhower was a communist.</i></b> The brothers were schooled in a political philosophy that asserted the only role of government is to provide security and to enforce property rights.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>When libertarian ideas proved decidedly unpopular with voters, the Koch brothers and their allies chose another path.</b> <b><i>If they pooled their vast resources, they could fond an interlocking array of organizations that could work in tandem to influence and ultimately control academic institutions, think tanks, the courts, statehouses, Congress, and, they hoped, the presidency.</i></b></span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Richard Mellon Scaife, the mercurial heir to banking and oil fortunes, had the brilliant insight that most of their political activities could be written off as tax-deductible "philanthropy."</span></b></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">These organizations were given innocuous names such as Americans for Prosperity. Funding sources were hidden whenever possible. This process reached its apotheosis with the allegedly populist Tea Party movement, abetted mightily by the Citizens United decision—a case conceived of by legal advocates funded by the network.</span></i></b></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The political operatives the network employs are disciplined, smart, and at times ruthless.</b> <b><i>Mayer documents instances in which people affiliated with these groups hired private detectives to impugn whistle-blowers, journalists, and even government investigators. And their efforts have been remarkably successful. </i></b></span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i></i></b><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Libertarian views on taxes and regulation, once far outside the mainstream and still rejected by most Americans, are ascendant in the majority of state governments, the Supreme Court, and Congress. Meaningful environmental, labor, finance, and tax reforms have been stymied.</span></b></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Jane Mayer spent five years conducting hundreds of interviews—including with several sources within the network—and scoured public records, private papers, and court proceedings in reporting this book. In a taut and utterly convincing narrative, she traces the byzantine trail of the billions of dollars spent by the network and provides vivid portraits of the colorful figures behind the new American oligarchy.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Dark Money is a book that must be read by anyone who cares about the future of American democracy.</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">………………..</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">THIS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SHOCKING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>EYE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OPENER <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WHAT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>GOING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ON <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BEHIND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SCENES, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BEHIND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CLOSED <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DOORS. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TRULY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THERE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ARE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SOME <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MILLIONAIRES/BILLIONAIRES <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WHO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SECRETLY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ARE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OUT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MANIPULATE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>USA <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>POLITICS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>EFFECTUALLY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BRING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THEIR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CRAZY, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SILLY, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SELFISH, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DAFT, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>UNBALANCED, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IDIOTIC, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ABSURD, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MAD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HATTER, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FROM <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PLANET <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PLUTO LIBERTARIAN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BELIEFS, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THAT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ONLY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SERVE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THEMSELVES <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THEIR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MONEY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HUNGRY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>GREED.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">INDEED <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THIS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BOOK <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>EVERY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AMERICAN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SHOULD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>READ, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TELL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OTHERS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ABOUT, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>INFORMED <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WHAT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>SOME <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>EXTREMELY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WEALTHY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PEOPLE, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ARE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TRYING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>INFLUENCE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>POLITICIANS, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CREATE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AMERICA <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BENEFIT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FILTHY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>RICH.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Keith Hunt</span></p>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-92100994186504180482024-03-17T15:36:00.000-07:002024-03-17T20:51:25.172-07:00NOAH'S FLOOD NOT UNIVERSAL #4<p> </p><center><h1 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 24pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Noah's Flood - Universal?</span><span style="color: #5a876c;"> #4</span></h1><h2 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Still more reasons it was not</span></h2></center><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="60" cellspacing="3" style="color: black;"><tbody><tr align="left" valign="top"><td align="left" valign="top"><blockquote><b><pre style="color: #385243; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
Written and compiled
by
Keith Hunt
</span><span style="font-size: large;">THE ARK,
ITS SIZE AND PURPOSE
Woodrow in his book asks the questions if you can for
certain know how large the ark was, did it take 120 years to
build, and if the flood was REGIONAL were there some people in
other parts of the world who were not effected by that flood?
Genesis 6:15 gives the dimensions of the ark 300 cubits
long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. Some say that was
proportionally ideal - being six times as long as wide.
The problem arises with knowing how many inches to the cubit
it was back in Noah's day, or Moses day, as it was Moses who is
held by most scholars as writing the first five books of the
Bible.
If we go with 18 inches to the cubit, then the dimensions
would be as Woodrow states, 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45
feet high.
Woodrow suggests that the door way would not have been over
13 feet high, because dividing the three levels would give 15
feet to each level. with this calculation Woodrow says there had
to be large supporting beams to hold the weight of each level,
hence the doors ways would be, or could be, about 13 feet in
hight. This would of course mean large Elephants and Giraffes
would not be able to go through the door ways as Woodrow
suggests.
But the problem with this reasoning is that the top floor
may have been open at first and a ramp may have been built to
allow these huge animals to ascend to the top of the ark and then
a ramp could have been built to have them descend to a floor that
did not have to have a doorway at all. After all the animals were
in that top shaft door closed tight, so no other humans could
have a way into the ark.
Now if as Woodrow suggests the cubit in past ages differed
and was smaller than 18 inches in length during Noah's time, then
of course a smaller ark would have been built, which if it was
only for a regional flood would have sufficed. Woodrow quotes
from Harper's Bible Dictionary these words:
"Metrology (the science of measurement of mass, length, and time)
presents a confused picture in Palestine ... and the peripheral
countries ... Not even well-grounded Babylonian metrology adhered
to the same standard throughout its history. In the matter of
weights and measures, the Hebrew people were influenced by
Babylonian, Egyptian, Canaanite-Phoenician, and Greco-Roman
systems ... With the coming of each new conqueror, and with every
fresh trend in trade, weights and measures continued to vary."
Woodrow gives proof from the Bible itself that a cubit may
have varied in length at times and in different ages. Esther
5:14; 7:9 shows the gallows which Haman was to be hanged on was
50 cubits, and so if we go with 18 inches for a cubit the gallows
was 75 feet high. Either it was built with a high foundation as
to make sure everyone from a far distance could see Haman get
hanged, or the cubit was much less than 18 inches during the time
of Esther.
Woodrow does SPECULATE with things in this section of his
study, but he does admit it is only "speculation." He wonders
that if the ark was 450 long how it could have been built as the
tallest tree in the world is a California Coast Redwood at 366.2
feet.
Once more I will say that looking at what is TODAY does not
mean if was that way in Noah's time. Maybe there were trees
taller than the tallest trees of today in existence during Noah's
life time, or there were ways of building ships back then that
are lost in building today. Science is still amazed at how the
GREAT PYRAMID of Egypt was ever built.
As Woodrow himself admits, this is all conjecture and
speculation for we simply cannot be certain as to the length of a
cubit in Noah or Moses' time.
And with all that said, we come back to the conclusion that
none of what we have talked about concerning the size of the ark
can prove a world-wide flood or a regional flood.
LENGTH OF TIME IN BUILDING THE ARK?
Most people have either been taught or have presumed from a
too casual reading of Genesis 6, that Noah was building the ark
for 120 years. Of course this also makes it easy to believe that
the ark was so large that it took 120 to build it. Genesis 6:3
says, "My spirit shall not always strive with man ... yet his
days shall be a hundred and twenty years."
This is talking about God allowing mankind to continue
living, doing "their own thing" for another 120 years, and then
JUDGMENT would come upon them, if they did not repent of their
wickedness. The "ark" of Noah is not mentioned here. It is not
till later verses AFTER God once more looked upon mankind and saw
their violence that God turned to Noah (who remained faithful to
the Lord) and told him He would destroy the evil doers, but save
him and his wife and three sons and their wives. Then Noah was
told to build the ark.
Ralph Woodrow has correctly seen that 120 years before the
flood Noah was 480 years old, for at the time of the flood
Genesis tells us Noah was 600 year old - see chapter 7:11. The
sons of Noah had not yet been born. They were born when Noah was
500 years old (Gen.5:32). It was AFTER his sons were born and
married that Noah was told to build the ark. Look what Genesis
6:14-18 says, "Make you an ark ... I do bring a flood of waters
... and you shall come into the ark, you, and your sons, and your
wife, and your sons' wives with you."
It should now be clear from putting these verses together
that Noah was NOT working on building the ark for 120 years. We
really have no teaching from the Bible any more than this. We
just do not know have long it took Noah to build the ark.
NO RAIN BEFORE THE FLOOD?
The Bible passage used which supposedly supports this idea
is Genesis 2:4,5.
"These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth
when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the
earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was
in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the
Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was
not a man to till the ground..."
I have heard this "no rain before the flood" teaching, MANY
times over the last 40 years. It is so used that it is taught
by many as something the Bible is quite certain and dogmatic
about. Many are certain that no rain fell before Noah's flood,
which they say would have made Noah the greatest laughing joke on
the earth, and especially as he was building this wooden ship for
120 years. The people believing and teaching this "no rain"
before Noah doctrine, say that the earth was covered with a type
of water vapor, I guess something like the heavy humidity that is
in Florida, but even more so, because Florida does get rain.
Maybe they think it was a really wet due every night. But
whatever they think the climate of the earth was like before
Noah's flood, they believe Genesis 2:4,5 is teaching that there
was no rain until it started to rain at Noah's flood time.
But a careful reading of this verse says no such thing. God
created the plants before they were in the earth, that is, before
they were seeded. They were created full grown and mature. And
they were created full grown because there was RILL THEN no rain
upon the earth. God did not create the seeds first and have them
grow up through the action of rain and sun. He created them full
grown plants before it had rained and before man was created.
This was done on the THIRD day (Gen.1:9-13). Yet on the 6th day
mankind was created.
All this passage says is that up to the creating of mature
plants and trees, it had not rained.
The Bible does not say when it first rained, but to try and
use this passage in Genesis 2 as teaching it did not rain until
the time of Noah's flood, is to me, reading into a few verses
things that are not meant to be read into them.
And another teaching that has often been a part of all the
story telling of Noah's ark is that Noah preached for 120 years
to others to come on board and save themselves. Noah we are told
in the New Testament was a preacher of righteousness, but there
is not one word in either the Old or New Testament that he
preached to others to save themselves by joining him on the ark.
God told Noah that it was he and his wife and his sons and their
wives that had been shown grace to be saved from death, but God
told Noah that He would destroy all the other wicked people, that
and "end" to them was coming (Gen.6:9-13). We are told that God
saw that all others on the "erets" - earth - land - had corrupted
their ways (verse 12). We are given no suggestion that with
Noah's preaching (by word or life) ANY would REPENT. There is
nothing in the Bible to suggest that Noah tried to persuade
others to come on board the ark and save themselves.
WERE ALL PEOPLE EVERYWHERE ON THE PLANET DESTROYED?
The writers of the Bible sometimes wrote in a way that would
make THEIR hub of the world seem like the WHOLE world. Certainly
we can know from the Bible that God worked with people that were
in a particular AREA of the MAIN HUB of a certain progressive
population of the planet. The part of the planet we know and call
as "The Middle East."
The Gospel of Luke chapter two, verse one, is a fine
example. What was happening in the Roman Empire in Palestine,
concerning "enrollment" (Margin of the KJV Bible), is written as
if ALL THE WORLD should be enrolled. So when Peter wrote in
1 Peter 3:20, "few, that is, eight souls were saved" in the
ark," it could be assumed he meant only 8 lives were saved from
off the entire planet, but it may have meant that in the context
of the "erets" or land, that Noah lived in, there were only 8
human lives saved from destruction from the flood of Noah's time.
Peter was possibly NOT trying to teach that Noah's flood
destroyed every single human life from the entire planet earth,
with only 8 person escaping that destruction with their lives.
If the flood was regional and not world-wide, though it
covered a very vast area, it then would not have killed people
thousands of miles away from the land where Noah lived.
The Indians in Canada have a recorded history that goes back
10,000 years, they claim. Now either the famous chronology of Usher is
completely way off the mark of true chronology, or Noah's flood
was no where near in the century B.C. where it is usually placed
(according to Usher's chronology, which would still mean Usher
was incorrect). Or, it would mean the Indians of North America
were not in the least effected by Noah's flood. Oh, they may have
"stories" about it in their history, but nearly all people have
stories of super magnitude from other parts of the world, in
their history telling. Huge physical tragedies on the earth do
have a way of getting around and becoming stories related in a
nations history files, passed on from generation to generation.
The Bible is not a history book on all parts of the planet
earth, and the nations of peoples in various parts of this globe,
but is mainly focussed on the area of the Middle East.
Yet people have been taught by many well meaning and sincere
Christian writers and leaders that the New Testament and Jesus
Himself, were very dogmatic about "the truth" that ALL persons
except 8, on the entire planet were destroyed. The writers of the
book "The Genesis Flood" present the proof for this teaching in
saying that Jesus taught this was true in the passage found in
Luke 17:26-30.
But as Woodrow in his book on this subject has correctly
stated,"When we turn to this passage, however, it is far from
conclusive that "all" means all people throughout the
entire world."
The verse reads: "In the days of Noe...they did eat, they
drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the
day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and
destroyed them ALL. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot;
they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted,
they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it
rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them
ALL"(Luke 17:26-30).
Ah, did you notice it? Did you see that Jesus used the word
"all" in both Noah's flood and in the day that Lot went out from
Sodom. In Lot's situation, the "all" we know did not mean ALL on
the ENTIRE planet, for the fire from the Lord that came only
destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. "The Lord rained upon
Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire ... he overthrew those
cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities"
(Genesis 19:24,25). Obviously this "all" did not include the town
Lot fled to, or the other cities and people in the Middle East,
or in China, or the Indian people in North America.
This verse and these words by Jesus have a CONTEXT, and the
"all" is used WITHIN a CONTEXT of the thought Jesus was relating
to His listeners.
A newspaper headline may read: "Flight 103 has Crashed - ALL
are Dead!" The "all" here does not mean all people on the planet,
and we do not take it to so mean. We all know the "all" is used
within a certain CONTEXT.
We must all (pun on all is intended) be careful how we read
"all" as used in the Bible or other literature. The "all" for
Lot's time had a context of not being all people on the planet,
and Jesus used Noah's "all" in the same breath, without any
qualifying words to clearly tell us that Noah's time meant all
people on the whole planet, while Lot's destruction did not.
All then destroyed by the Noah's flood could very well be
the all on the "erets" - land - area where Noah and the hub of
the world of people God was dealing with, was located, and not
anything to do with the Indians of North America.
I must agree with Ralph Woodrow's examination of verses that
use "world" in connection with the flood; i.e. Hebrews 11:7 and 2
Peter 2:5. The Greek word is "kosmos" and Woodrow gives the
meaning from Strong's Concordance (#2889); "arrangement, i.e.,
decoration, and by implication the world (in a wide or narrow
sense)."
I believe as does Woodrow that in the case of Noah's flood,
it is best to understand this Greek word in a narrow sense - not
the entire world. There is a "figure of speech" often used in the
known as "synecdoche," - a whole is used for a part, and a part
for a whole (Bullinger's book "Figures of Speech in the Bible"
explains it all in detail) and so even words like "all" can be
used in a limited sense. I have already given you "all the world
was taxed" (Luke 2:1). Another would be Acts 2:5, "men out of
every nation under heaven" assembled on the day of the feast of
Pentecost. This surely did not include the Indians from North
America, or the native people of Japan.
NOAH A MISSIONARY TO AMERICA?
We learn from 2 Peter 2:5 that Noah was a "preacher of
righteousness" - if that means he was preaching the ways and
judgment of God to come, then did Noah travel to the American
continent to preach the way of the Lord and His destructive
judgment to come, if we suppose the flood was going to be
world-wide? I really do not think many believe Noah travelled
outside his land.
And we do know, if we stay with Usher's chronology for the
creation of mankind, that people were living in China, India, and
North America before the time of Noah's flood, according to
Usher's chronology. I have already said that the Indians in
Canada have a history that goes back 10,000 years, a history way
before Noah' flood, if you stick with how Usher tried to figure
Bible chronology. </span><span style="color: black;"> </span></pre></b></blockquote><blockquote><b><pre style="color: #385243; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Then again, the Indians of north-America could be very wrong</span></pre></b></blockquote><p> <span style="font-size: large;"> <b>in dating their history but convenient for to make a point in </b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b> discussions with the white man's evolution idea.</b></span><span style="color: #385243; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold;"></span></p><blockquote><b><pre style="color: #385243; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> And this is one reason to me, as to why God did it this way.
He could have decided to destroy them a hundred different ways.
Noah was to be a witness to them, a preacher of righteousness and
a witness that destruction was coming to his civilization for its
great sins. This was the hub of the world at Noah's time, and
that hub of people had sinned mightily, but some other tribes in
other parts of the world had probably not degenerated in sins as
Noah's society. There is in Scripture no reference to Noah ever
having travelled to distant lands to preach destruction to them
for their great sins. A regional flood would be best fitted for
this context of Noah preaching of righteousness and sin.
As Woodrow says, some who believe in the local flood, say it
was in one sense universal, in that all mankind did perish,
because all mankind was still in that part of the earth. But
today the facts are in, and unless you are closing your eyes and
refusing to admit the facts that have been clearly found, mankind
had wandered to distant lands, including North America.
Ralph Woodrow points out some of the passages written by the
Jewish Pharisee historian of the first century - Josephus. They
indicate he did not believe every person on the planet perished
in Noah's flood. It is worth recording those passages here.
Josephus writes concerning the words of Nicolaus of Demascus:
"There is a great mountain in Armenia ... upon which it is
reported that many who fled at the time of the Deluge were saved;
and that one who was carried in an ark came on shore upon the top
of it; and that the remains of the timber were a great while
preserved. This might be the man about whom Moses the legislator
of the Jews wrote" (Antiquities of the Jews - 1957 edition, 1,
3:6).
Josephus goes on to say:
"Now the sons of Noah were three ... these first of all descended
from the mountains into the plains, and fixed their habitation
there; and persuaded others who were greatly afraid of the lower
grounds on account of the flood, and so were very loth to come
down from the higher places, to venture to follow their examples.
Now the plain in which they first dwelt was called Shinar."
(Ibid., 1, 4:1).
Who might have been those others who were persuaded to come
down from the high places?
Woodrow takes us back to Genesis 4 and 5.
EVIDENCE MOST HAVE NEVER NOTICED!
In the fourth and fifth chapters of Genesis two family lines
are mentioned descending from Adam, the line of which Noah was
part, the other line being Adam, Enoch, etc. and Lamech and his
three sons - Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-cain.
Most universal flood teachers would say all these were
destroyed in the flood, that is both lines, except Noah of course
and his three sons, were killed in the flood. As Woodrow points
out, that gives us a problem, for Moses who wrote Genesis speaks
of descendants of Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-cain, as STILL LIVING
when he wrote Genesis.
Note it: Genesis 4:20-22.
"Jabal ... was the father of such as DWELL in tents, and of such
as HAVE cattle. And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the
father of all such as HANDLE the harp and organ. And...
Tubal-cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron
(Genesis 4:20-22).
Did you notice it? The writer says "DWELL" not "dwelled" and
they "HAVE" not "had" cattle. They "HANDLE" the harp not
"handled"
If they had all been killed in the flood, this tense of the
words used would be incorrect!
Woodrow then gives two quotes, one form the INTERPRETERS
BIBLE which say they were "nomads, musicians, and metal workers
existing at the time of writing." and HASTING'S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
RELIGION AND ETHICS, which states, "...this wording implies 'an
unbroken history of civilization and that the writer of this
section did NOT, obviously, regard the flood as 'a universal
Deluge.'"
Were some of these descendants of this line of people, the
Indians of Canada and North America that claim they have been in
North America for at least 10,000 years? Or people closer to
home as when Moses wrote all this, but knowing that some people
in a different area of the known world at the time, had indeed
not been effected by the flood of Noah's day. From the tense of
the words he used it would indeed imply this was the case.
Genesis 10 tells us how the descendants of Shem, Ham, and
Japheth divided and migrated. or as the Hebrew word used for
"divided" can mean - "dispersed" (Strong's concordance #6504).
Woodrow's thoughts are that the descendants of the three
sons of Noah were dispersed among other nations that were not
effected by the flood. It certainly is food for thought when we
take everything else we have seen into consideration.
There are those who believe that there are great problems
with trying to claim all peoples of the earth descended from
Noah's three sons. One of those problems Ralph Woodrow brings out
in his study is the huge population of some parts of the earth
and its cities, in a very relatively short span of time after
Noah's flood.
LARGE POPULATIONS?
According to Genesis 10:8-12 we have only three generations
to a mighty area of the world by Nimrod.
A few generations later we have Abraham travelling among
large populations and well developed nations of people. We can
see from Genesis 15:19-21 that Canaan was populated by many
tribes of people. Woodrow points out that 26 cities in Canaan are
mentioned in Genesis at this time in history. He then talks about
what Genesis 12:15 tells us about Egypt and Genesis 14:1-16 about
certain kinds who had captured Lot.
Woodrow calculated for us the time from Shem becoming a
father in Genesis 11 to the time Terah, the father of Abraham,
and it adds up to 222 years.
No one is completely sure how old Terah was when Abraham was
born, but even allowing 75 years or so, say a total of 300 years,
from Noah's flood to the birth of Abraham, that time span can
hardly allow for the great nations and cities that we find in
existence at Abraham's time.
Let's say Shem, Ham, and Japheth each had 76 children
between them, that gives us 76 people on earth, plus Shem, Ham,
and Japheth and their wives (6 of them) - a total of 82 people on
earth for one generation. But pairs for reproduction would be 38
pairs, rounding it off. Say those 38 pairs all had 30 children
(being very generous here for sure), that gives us 1,140 people
plus the 76, and if Shem, Ham, and Japheth and their wives were
still alive, we can add them in also. But let's just take the
1,140 - that gives is 570 pairs for reproduction. If they all had
30 children we would have 17,100 people plus the 1,140, plus the
76, plus the 6, if still all alive back to just after Noah's
flood.
We could go on like this for a few more generations until
Abraham was born.
Not that many people on earth by the time of Abraham, and I
have been very generous I would say with how many children each
couple had, and I did not include some children dying as
children, or from death in other ways.
The way Genesis reads at the time of Abraham the population
of even just that part of the world reads like a MUCH LARGER
population than could EVER have come from just 8 people left
alive on Noah's ark.
But the universal flood advocates are at this point very
willing to agree that the chronology in the Bible and that used
by Usher as about 400 B.C. for the creation of mankind, is
FLAWED, or just is not what we should understand as it seems to
read.
WHEN WAS NOAH'S FLOOD?
As Woodrow says the writers of "The Genesis Flood" book
suggest there may be "gaps of an undetermined length in the
patriarchal genealogy of Genesis."
They would claim the flood of Noah's time was many centuries
before what appears in the chronology of Genesis. Some hold to an
Hebrew way of saying things, that saying "son of" or "so in so
begat" could mean generations are missed out and only certain
names are mentioned. A kind of "short hand" for what otherwise
would be more pages of boring names and lists of chronology.
To use such "gap" chronology here and not think of using it
from Abraham to David or David to Christ, is to say the least
inconsistent and the worst, trying to make your "theology ideas"
fit the Bible as you choose and when you choose.
As Woodrow has said in his book on this subject, "The
regional flood viewpoint, on the other hand, can leave
the years from the flood to Abraham exactly as they are - without
gaps or guesses - allowing that only part of the world's
population was destroyed. This provides a satisfactory
explanation for the existence of developed civilizations only a
few generations after the flood at the time of Abraham."
Yet, some Christian scholars, in the last 100 years or more,
with all these difficulties of a universal Noah's flood teaching,
have come to say and write that Noah's flood was REGIONAL and not
universal or world-wide.
The land that came to be know as Mesopotamia, mainly now
within the country called Iraq, is the largest lowland of the
Middle East, about 45,000 square miles. Some scientists do admit
that there is evidence there to believe at one time a huge
inundation did take place on those plains of Iraq.
Woodrow quotes from HARPER'S BIBLE DICTIONARY and the old
well recognized work of M'CLINTOCK AND STRONG to add support that
it is correct to understand this part of Iraq was covered with
water at some time in the past, and probably that time was the event
of Noah's flood.
There are a number of ways God could have flooded that
Mesopotamia region, as Woodrow points out. With earth upheaval
acting as a dam, or with the command of His voice and will as
water "upright as an heap" (Exodus 15:8).
As the Scriptures say, nothing is impossible with the Lord.
OVERVIEW
With this chapter and the previous ones, it is to me beyond
reasonable doubt to conclude that there was only ONE VIOLENT
UNIVERSAL flood of the entire earth, and that is the one that WAS
OVER AND DONE WITH AS WE ARE BROUGHT ON THE SCENE IN GENESIS 1:2.
This one universal flood destroyed the age of the world of
the Dinosaurs and the huge vegetation that lived in that age. An
interesting point to note here is that scientists say that some
of the great Dinosaurs had such an appetite that they would have
consumed today's elephant for a mid-morning snack. It was so
violent that even all the sea creatures were destroyed. All upon
the earth at that flood was destroyed, hence God had to create
all that we read about in Genesis chapter one. It was the time
when seams of coal, oil, natural gas, were created by the
violence and pressure. It was the time when diamond seams were
formed. It was the time when through much violence the strata we
often see in rocks, such as evident in the great Canadian
Rockies, was formed. So quick and violent was this flood (that
was upon the earth as Genesis 1:2 tells us) that some mighty
animals of that age have been found preserved in some parts of
the world, still with the grass and vegetation in their mouth,
that they were eating when the violent flood covered them.
What many have tried to attribute to the flood of Noah's
time, was in actual fact done by the violent flood that came upon
the earth through the battle Satan the Devil and his angels had
with the Eternal God and His righteous angels. The scares of this
battle can still be seen on places like the earth's moon and the
planet Mars.
I have covered this battle and that ancient age in other
studies on my Website.
................
December 2004
</span><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></pre></b></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-39390472134397099932024-03-17T15:27:00.000-07:002024-03-17T20:20:30.519-07:00NOAH'S FLOOD NOT UNIVERSAL #3<p> </p><center><h1 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 24pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Noah's Flood - Universal?</span><span style="color: #5a876c;"> #3</span></h1><h2 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">More reasons it was not</span></h2></center><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="60" cellspacing="3" style="color: black;"><tbody><tr align="left" valign="top"><td align="left" valign="top"><blockquote><b><pre style="color: #385243; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;">
Written and compiled
by
Keith hunt</pre></b></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote><b><pre style="color: #385243; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: large;">CARE AND MANAGEMENT
An argument put forth by those who hold to a local flood is
that it is hard to imagine how all those animals from around the
world were cared for, as some animals need mud and water to live
in. Some live in trees, some under ground, and others need this
or that physical environment to exist.
The counter argument by the "universal flood" advocates
would be that God "worked miracles" and the animals, for a year,
were just not "themselves" but completely different, or they did
not have this type of living nature before Noah's flood - only
after Noah's flood did they live and act the way they do today on
the earth.
Yet surely if such miracles were done by God, Moses would
have mentioned a few at least, or just told us that God worked
many mighty miracles for all the animals to survive out of their
natural habitat for a year - nothing by Moses comes close to
stating such a thing.
But again our "universal flood" advocates would dismiss such
thoughts as "none-essentials" because God worked miracles, or the
animals did not do these things until after Noah's flood. They
would say wood-peckers did not peck wood until after Noah's day
or that God made them not to want to peck wood while on the ark.
Yet Moses recorded no such miracles being done by God while the
animals were on the ark for a year.
As Woodrow points out, we also have the huge problem of all
the manure from all these world-wide animals while on the ark for
a year. We have only EIGHT people to feed and care for and remove
manure. Those eight people also have to feed themselves and
sleep.
Well, as the animals were sleeping, so our universal Noah's
flood people would say, little manure was made by them. But we
have already seen, from the Scriptures, that Noah was told by God
to take food enough for the humans and FOR the animals. So
the animals DID eat and did NOT sleep for a year. Even if some
followed their hibernation nature, that would still only account
for a VERY SMALL animal population on the ark, and hibernation is
only for a number of months, not a year. Elephants do not
hibernate - think of the feed needed and manure produced just
from ONE pair of Elephants. I know what a horse eats and how much
manure it produces in ONE day, then double that. For a pair of
Elephants - eating as much as they do each day, the manure is
LARGE to say the least. Then we have all the other large animals
of the world - seven cows and seven bulls for a while (until some
were killed for human food), and the food and manure to move
would have been reasonable, maybe not that much manure to remove
for eight people, but we have to add ALL the other large animals
of the world also, under the universal flood teaching.
As for the various climates that some animals live in, and
even survive in only certain parts of the earth; i.e. the
Platypus of Australia only survives in Australia. Have you ever
seen a Platypus in a Zoo outside of Australia? It is one of the
strangest creatures to see and surely would be in any large Zoo
in any country IF it could survive outside of Australia.
Yes, the global flood advocates would reply with "miracle" -
God performed miracles with these world-wide animals. Of course
God could do miracles with them so none of their way of living
today, their specialized environment, was needed on the Ark. But
if such miracles was done by the Lord, it is not recorded in the
words of the book of Genesis.
The local flood advocates mention the mighty changes of
climate, temperature, and so forth with the ark rising to a
height that was over the top of Mount Everest, to a height that a
lot of airliners fly, and say it just could not be possible for
humans and animals (maybe polar bears could if there was still
enough oxygen up there above Everest).
Our "universal flood" advocates will again dismiss this
and say that the mountains were not very high. They try to tell
us the Canadian Rockies did not exist until after Noah's flood,
and the climate was temperate all over the world until after
Noah's flood, and the animals did not live in a climate like they
do today. Or they will have God performing yet more miracles. But
Moses recorded no such miracles done by God for the year on
Noah's ark. I will not dogmatically try to claim those great
mountain chains like the Canadian Rockies existed BEFORE the days
of Noah, maybe they did and then maybe they did not. I know of no
way to prove either view. If those mountain ranges did exist
before Noah, then for most of the life, if not all of it, going
above Mount Everest would have meant sure death. I know of no
bird that flies over the top of Mount Everest.
But for local flood advocates to use all this to say the
waters would have frozen solid at such a height as to cover
Everest, and other arguments that go along with that supposition,
is rather silly to my thought. Why? Well IF indeed Everest
existed at Noah's time, and the waters did extend over its peak,
we know from the Scriptures that the water REMAINED as water with
the ark floating upon it. So what is the obvious conclusion? It
is simply that God CHANGED the climate, the air pressure, the
oxygen content and anything else needing to be changed to have
the Genesis Scriptures read the way they do. Once more with God
He only needs to speak and it is done.
If mountain ranges of today did NOT exist in Noah's time, if
the climate of the earth was different, if creatures then were
adapted for that different world climate and many even today can
adapt - the horse left outside in the Canadian winter grows a
good winter coat and with some trees or shelter to keep out of
the wind, that horse can survive even in minus 30 or 40 degree
weather. The horse in warm Florida or southern California, never
grows a winter coat when left outside, then we have an
altogether different picture for the belief of a universal world-
wide Noah's flood.
I do have in my library two books that show you the various
objects, maps, drawings, inventions, etc. that have been
discovered in different parts of the world, discovered from the
distant past. Modern evolutionary science does not know where to
place them, so most of the time, such items are never shown to
the public at large. Those items smack in the face the concept of
gradual evolution of mankind. They show that sometime in the
distant past parts of the earth were VERY ADVANCED. There was a
time in the past when much of the world was NOT what evolution
would have you believe, it was way different than evolution wants
to portray to you.
The argument put forth by Woodrow and others that plant life
would have been totally destroyed under 800 tons of pressure per
each square inch of the earth's surface, is based on the waters
covering Mount Everest. But if such mountain ranges as what
Everest dwells in did NOT exist at Noah's time, if oceans were no
where near as large or as deep as they are today (salt water
damage argument) then again we have a totally different set of
circumstances for mainly fresh water from springs and from clouds
to come and cover the earth.
On the other hand the argument of universal Noah's flood
people that God did some RE-creating AFTER Noah's flood, is also
very weak in evidence, if not plainly NOT provable in any way.
They will try to tell you that God re-created again after
Noah's flood, and will try to show you a few verses in the Psalms
that they claim prove their point of re-creation once more after
Noah's flood. Such verses prove no such thing. They read INTO
those verses what they want to believe. God had Moses tell us
plainly about "creation" in Genesis chapter one. Surely if God
did more "creating" after Noah's flood it would have been
recorded in clear words for us such as the words we find in
Genesis one - no such words can be found anywhere in the Bible of
another re-creation after Noah's flood.
The argument by local flood believers about "fish" - that
some live in salt water and others in fresh, that some need warm
water and others cold, is also a pretty fishy argument. First, we
do not know how large the oceans were at Noah's time and how
salty they were. Second, we must take God's will and command into
consideration as how He would preserve the various fish. Thirdly,
we know that today there are "water" currents of cold and warm
water, where cold and warm water fish seem to naturally know and
stay within the bounds they need to be in, to live and reproduce
and exist. It could well have been this way during the year of
Noah's flood. Fourthly, we have fish today like salmon that are
BOTH fresh and salt water fish. There may have been many more so
adaptable fish at Noah's time.
Even if many fish did die when fresh and salt water
collided, we know like many other creatures, nature is adaptable.
What they have now found in the North Pole and way down deep in
the blackest depths of the oceans, is truly amazing. Either such
water creatures were created for that environment or they
adapted.
It would have been nothing for God to have said the word
"adapt" and it would be done - in a second. He only has to speak
and it is done.
Also as being very weak is the argument by the local flood
advocates that animals coming from different parts of the world
with different climates, and food, etc. to Noah, would find great
danger in their new environment.
It is a weak argument, because it is based upon the climate
of the world THEN, as being what it is TODAY. And from the Bible
at least, there is no mention that what we have today for
climates in different parts of the world, were the climates in
those parts of the world in Noah's life before the flood.
Even in our time, the last 40 years, there has been a HUGE
climate change in Canada, and the far north even to the extent of
the North Pole. I can well remember in the 1960s on the prairies
of Canada we often got minus 30 and minus 40 degrees for 4 or 5
weeks at a time in the winter months. Today (as I write in 2004)
IF (and that is an "if") we get minus 30 or 40 for a WEEK on the
prairies, it is on NATIONAL news! The icebergs are melting! The
ice-fields all over the planet are melting! The polar bears are
in danger because their winter is shorter! What is happening in
the far north concerning climate changes is breath-taking! You
see all this reported in detail on various TV programs. And this
is all happening within the last 30 years.
Who knows what the climate of the earth in all its regions
was like in Noah's life. It may well have been vastly different
than the climate modern man has been accustomed to.
So there indeed could be a point of truth in what our
universal flood teachers say, in that in Noah's life, the world
was not anywhere near like it is today, that there was a
different climate, less oceans, or land masses joined together in
certain ways. Their view on this cannot be dismissed or lightly
thrown out. With the changes we have seen and are continuing
to see since about 1970, the physical world Noah lived in MAY
have been quite different from the physical world we know.
Going back to the Platypus of Australia. It is only found in
Australia. How did it get to Noah? How did it jump the ocean? And
why did it head back to Australia, and why can it not live
outside of Australia? At first these questions may seem concrete
arguments for the local flood advocates. But if we take the
possibility that Australia was not an island like it is today, if
we take of course God's guidance in bring the Platypus to Noah,
and if we take the hand and guidance of God to return the
Platypus back to the land of Australia. Then add to that God's
WILL that this creature only lives in Australia, just to throw a
curve ball at the evolutionists, the concrete argument above is
not so concrete at all.
I'm just going back and forth with all this, to show you
that the evidence for a local flood or the evidence for a global
flood CANNOT be built upon such argument reasonings as many would
like to cling to, to try and prove their side and their teaching
of the topic is the correct one.
And so in saying this, it is also true that Australia may
have been an island all along, the Platypus created there, meant
to stay there, and was not effected by Noah's flood because that
flood was local and not world-wide.
A PROMISE
Woodrow does point out an interesting phrase of words as
used in Genesis 9:8-10 " ...from all that go out of the ark, to
every beast of the earth" (Genesis 9:8-10). He says that some
people do recognize a distinction with the beasts that went "out
of the ark" and with "every beast of the earth" - animals not in
the ark, who were never in the ark. He admits this is only "a
theory" but then gives the Pulpit Commentary as saying it may
have been an idiomatic expression for the totality of the animal
creation, yet the same Commentary, Woodrow shows, goes on to say
that in all probability there were animals which never had been
in the ark.
It is an interesting set of words used in this part of
Genesis, and while it gives no concrete proof for either position
taken on the local or universal Noah's flood topic, it does show
that some have questioned before now, the thoughts that Noah's
flood was regional and not world-wide.
Woodrow does return to the "snail" example, and I believe he
has a valid point. I do indeed find it beyond my human mind to
think that a pair of snails could leave the ark, not get trampled
upon (unless they were the very last to leave) and multiply in
whatever numbers, and that "kind" make it all the way across to
the west coast of the United States of America, taking the speed
they travel. How many thousands of years would it take a snail to
walk from the middle east to California? How many thousands of
years would it take a snail to walk across North America, let
alone from the Middle East.
You may argue the snails got a ride on some Indian canoe or
wagon train that was going west (the Indians have been in North
America for THOUSANDS of years), but what about the worm, and all
kinds of other small creatures and insects, that are on the west
coast of North America (or South America for that matter)? Did
they all get rides on Indian boats or wagon trains?
It just seems too improbable that it could all happen that
way.
Maybe some would argue the tiny eggs or whatever of all
these small creatures were "picked up by the wind" and with God's
miraculous hand carried around the earth to be planted by the
Lord on all the lands He had created. And if the land masses were
closer together in Noah's time, than they are today, I guess such
a spreading abroad of all the small and tiny creatures and
insects of the world would have been relatively easy for the Lord
to do. But then anything is easy for the Lord if He so desires to
do it.
Woodrow gives the example of the "sloth" - with a ground
speed of 0.068 miles per hour, only twice as fast as a snail. As
he points out it is a South America animal. How did they get from
the ark to South America?
It may have been possible they also caught the wagon train
of the Indians and ended up in South America, in a much faster
time than Woodrow ever thinks of. The horse in North America did
not come with the Indians, it came via the Spanish as they moved
into America. It did not take that long to have THOUSANDS of
horses on this side of the pond.
Such arguments by local Noah's flood advocates do not
conclusively prove that Noah's flood was NOT universal. It is at
best a thought, but certainly no concrete proof they have the
correct belief on the subject of Noah's flood.
EVERY ANIMAL DIED?
Woodrow correctly points out that though Genesis 6:17 says
"every" animal in the earth died, the Hebrew word for "earth" is
"erets" which can often mean "land." He gives the example of the
plagues upon Egypt with the use of "every" herb of "erets" being
destroyed (Exodus 10:5-15). And as he points out no one takes
this to mean every herb of the planet was destroyed. Hence the
same can be said of the context of Noah's flood. Only the animals
and creeping things and fowls of the air, were destroyed in that
land area where Moses lived.
The universal flood advocates would probably reply to the
fowl being destroyed with, "If this flood was only local or
regional, the birds could have just flown away from that region."
But we must remember the skies opened up with rain, and probably
a rain not seen by mankind since, and continued with that rain
for 40 days. Such a storm of rain together with the waters of the
deep coming forth would have made it impossible for the birds to
have flown away to distant lands, if we put it in the context of a global food.
As local flood advocates like Ralph Woodrow say, if China
was NOT meant by the word "erets" then the giant panda that lives
there would not be on the ark. Same goes for the Platypus of
Australia, and the Giraffes and Elephants of central Africa were
not on the ark, nor the Buffalo of North America.
A local or regional flood would mean Noah was only saving
from extinction animals, creeping insects, and fowl of the air,
that were peculiar to that region, which would also make the
storage of food for them, and the care of them while on the ark
for a year, very manageable for only EIGHT people to supervise.
..................
TO BE CONTINUED</span></pre></b></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-16672145634571112742024-03-17T15:24:00.000-07:002024-03-17T18:49:55.359-07:00NOAH'S FLOOD NOT UNIVERSAL #2<p> </p><center><h1 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 24pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Noah's Flood - Universal?</span><span style="color: #5a876c;"> #2</span></h1><h2 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">More on the rest of the story</span></h2></center><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="60" cellspacing="3" style="color: black;"><tbody><tr align="left" valign="top"><td align="left" valign="top"><blockquote><b><pre style="color: #385243; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
Written and Compiled
by
Keith Hunt
</span><span style="font-size: large;">CREATURES OF ALL KINDS
It is true, as the "world-wide flood" advocates say, only
one pair of bears, one pair of snakes, one pair of dogs etc.
would be needed, as all dogs can come from just one pair of dogs.
Science knows that animals of their kind can mutate. A well known
book in the 13th printing of 1958 (which I still have in my
library) was called "After Its Kind" - showing how indeed animals
after their kind can mutate to give us the variety of say the
domestic dog.
While this argument at first may seem to answer how all the
creatures got on Noah's ark. If we stop and think about even just
the insect world, I think the argument starts to fall. Science
tells us that there are WAY MORE insects on the earth than
humans. Their variety of kind is massive. Are we to suppose all
their variety came from two of a kind of each kind? And how did
some kinds of insect that are only found in a certain part of the
world, cross oceans to be with Noah? Yes, of course some will say
that that action of insects was all a miracle from God. And
naturally I have no answer for those who use at every turn the
"miracle of God" reply.
There are some creatures, like the Australian Platypus,
that only lives in Australia. How did they get to Noah? Somewhat
very puzzling I would say, unless you again use the "miracle"
reply, or the argument that maybe Australia was not an island
back in Noah's time.
Even with the size of the ark, which no one for sure really
knows for no one for sure knows exactly how long a cubit was in
Noah's time, there is I believe a large problem with believing
ALL the pairs of all the different kinds of animals, insects,
fowl, managed to fit on the ark.
Also remember that according to Genesis, we had SEVEN PAIR
of the CLEAN animals on the ark. Seven pair of cows would take up
a reasonable amount of space, even if Noah penned them together
in pairs of two. Sure I guess seven pairs of chickens could all
fit in one pen, and so also you could get seven pair of goats in
one pen. Yet, to think that one pair of all unclean animals and
seven pair of clean animals, birds, and insects, from ALL AROUND
the planet not only came to Noah, but all managed to be houses on
the ark, to me stretches the logic, unless again you answer with
the "miracle" argument.
The people who wrote the "Genesis Flood" book arguing with
a certain framework of certain inches to the cubit, say
about 522 railroad stock-cars would fit on the ark, and so argue
from the position of every kind of pairs of animals, fowl, and
insects, could be put on the ark. Be that as it may (no one
really knows what the length of a cubit was in Noah's time), and
allowing them that side of their reasoning to be correct, we
still have the problem of some creatures and insects crossing
water masses or oceans. And then we have not yet come to the
space and volume of FOOD needed to feed all those creatures. We
shall look at that aspect closer later on in this study.
But if we take the word "erets" - earth - to mean what it
usually means in a lot of other places in the Bible, as "land" -
then the whole animal, fowl, insect, situation takes on quite a
different set of proportions.
To argue as Woodrow does that some crocodiles are 14 to 16
feet while others are 20 feet, and certain lizards in some parts
of the world are about 8 feet in length, and there are about
3,000 species of lizards in the world, is no argument to be used
by the "local flood" advocates, as the "world-wide flood" people
answer that all lizards come from one pair, and that pair on the
ark may have been quite small. They would answer with the
"mutation" reply, which could be a very reasonable argument -
a valid answer. And if God worked "mutation miracles" I will call
them, AFTER Noah's flood, then that would account for the 3,000
species of lizards on earth today. And so with the species of
dogs, cats, horses, etc.
As to the argument that Woodrow tries to use about the
peacock having a plumage spread of 7 feet, and the albertross of
the southern oceans having a wing span of over 10 feet. This is a
very weak argument insomuch that for the length of time on the
ark, God could have worked His work by not having the albertross
needing to spread its wings, and the peacock not needing to
spread its plumage.
I do believe Woodrow has a valid point in his example of him
owning a house on a lot slightly larger than 100 feet by 100
feet, all lots in that section being about the same, and putting
10 of those lots together would give an area within a fence of
318 feet by 318 feet, which would be about the area of ALL THREE
levels of the ark. And to think that all the pairs of animals,
fowl, insects, from around the world, got into that space, does
stretch the imagination.
And still remember we have not yet meditated upon all the
foods stuffs to be stored on the ark for about a year to feed all
those creatures.
As for the argument by some "local flood" advocates that
many of these animals needed to roam, to run around, keep fit,
fly, chase, jump, as they naturally do in the wild, can be
answered by the "world-wide flood" advocates reply that God
suspended those needs for those creatures during the stay on the
ark. Like turning a tap for water on or off. And certainly as all
things are possible with God, He could have done so. Hence I find
that argument of logic by some local flood people, no valid
argument for their position.
Then again some of the "universal" advocates will probably
come back with "God had all the animals go to sleep for the
year." And if people want to believe that, there is no more
debate, for how do you debate with such an idea, which is an idea
by the way, NOT found and NOT mentioned in the Bible. So people
can come up with all kinds of none-rational ideas of the
"miracles" God performed, but I say again, such "miracles" or
"special effects" [like they do in movies these days] like
falling asleep for a year, from God, are not mentioned as ever
being done in this whole account, EXCEPT that at the beginning
God did lead the animals to Noah.
The coming of water in the account is from heavenly rain,
and under-water springs, all VERY NATURAL things.
God simply used them all at the same time for that "earth"
or land area where Noah was, to be covered. I read the coming of
the waters as from natural things that God used and not some type
of Niagra Falls that would have been necessary to cover the
highest mountain on earth all over the globe, in such a
relatively short time as recorded in Genesis.
So overall, when we take ALL aspects of this flood so far
considered, the local flood is to me still the best thought in
keeping with the whole context of this passage of Scripture and
the context of the natural physical earth and all the creatures
upon it.
Let me state again, just think about, for starters, seven
pairs of cows, seven pair of sheep, seven pair of goats, and go
from there with all the "clean" animals (Gen.7:1-2). Think of the
space needed for just ONE pair of Elephants, even if lying down
in hibernation for a year. Even if arguing from an hibernation
point of invention [I say invention because the Bible gives no
evidence the animals on Noah's ark hibernated - the ones that
usually never hibernate that is], it still is beyond physical
reason that such a ship could contain pairs on all the unclean
animals, fowls of the air, and every creeping thing (fish of the
seas were not include), showing a proof that goes better with a
regional flood than a WILD STRATA LAYING deluge that many want to
teach that Noah's flood was. The vast and main strata laying
deluge took place in the UNIVERSAL food that DID actually happen
on the ENTIRE globe, the flood we see of Genesis 1:2, when the
waters did indeed cover the ENTIRE planet and everything on it
[including fish in the seas] was killed and wiped off the face of
the earth. THAT flood and how it came to be, I have covered in
other studies on my Website.
There is the argument put forth by some who hold to a local
flood that says nothing is told to us that Noah separated the
animals and so reproduction could have taken place, hence the ark
would have been too crowded by the time a year had ended. This
cannot be used as any viable argument to support a local and not
universal flood, simply by the fact that God could easily have
"turned off the reproductive" tap in those creatures for a year
or so, after all doing such a thing for Him would be nothing,
He just has to speak and it is done.
Also as Woodrow argues there had to be reproduction on the
ark, because as he says some creatures (and he gives examples of
some, like the fly, and the grasshopper) do not live over a year,
much less in many cases.
But that argument presupposes that things were normal for
those creatures on the ark. If God did a miracle by having those
creatures that die under a year, live to over a year, then that
argument falls flat. It is just impossible to be dogmatic that
God did not intervene with certain miracles for that duration on
the ark for certain creatures.
We are given very few in-depth details in Genesis concerning
ALL the things God did or did not do, in the period Noah and the
creatures lived on the ark. We must try to build our case of a
regional or universal flood from what is told us, and not from
suppositions of "normal" conditions or "miraculous" conditions
which are not told us. We simply do not know all the details of
all those conditions during that year of living on the ark.
DISCOVERING MALE AND FEMALE
A valid argument I believe Woodrow does have is in stating
that it must have been very difficult if not impossible in some
cases to know male from female in some creatures, if he was to
take on board the ark pairs from all creatures of the world.
The wording in Genesis 7:2 and "THOU shall take to thee ..."
indicates it was Noah who had to pick and sort the male and the
female from all the beasts after their kind, the cattle after
their kind, every creeping thing after its kind, and every bird
after its kind (verse 14). The wording of "THOU" does NOT
indicate God did the sorting of male and female for Noah.
It would have been easy for Noah to find male from female in
animals like horses, cows and bulls. But in the case of other
creatures indeed very difficult and if not impossible at times.
How do you find the male and female in creatures like ants, or
flies, or snakes, or creeping things that can hardly be seen with
the human eye?
Unless you again argue that God miraculously told Noah which
was the male and female in some creatures, we have to face the
fact that sometimes it would have been impossible for Noah to
have known male from female in many of the living creatures and
insects on the entire earth, if Noah's flood was indeed a global
happening.
Once more the "universal flood" advocates would have to
resort to "the miracle" answer. God brought the pairs to Noah,
God knows male and female, so Noah did not have to. You cannot
debate with such "miracle" answers. So many miracles would have
to be done for a "universal Noah's flood" idea that it is really
not understandable by the human mind, though books like
"The Genesis Flood" and "After It's Kind" and "Deluge Story in
Stone" try to make it all humanly understandable. Just the
thought of God bringing to Noah all those TINY creeping things
that are practically INVISIBLE to the human eye, is enough to
blow my mind away. Remember, for those who think "erets" means
the whole globe of the earth, it is written that ALL living
things, on the land, in the air, and all things that creep, were
to be destroyed (life from off the earth was to be destroyed, so
that was vegetation life also) - only that which was in the seas
were to be spared from death, as life in the seas is not
mentioned as going to be killed or destroyed.
THE AMOUNT OF FOOD FOR ANIMALS
Some creatures eat creatures to live. This alone is mind
bending to think about in connection to keeping creatures alive
on the ark for a whole year.
Of course "miracle universal flood" advocates would respond
by saying God made a miracle and no animals would eat one another
during life on the ark. Or they would argue it was not the nature
of creatures to eat creatures until AFTER Noah's flood.
Okay, let's give them that, let's say either one of their
responses to animals eating animals was the fact. I want you to
notice carefully Genesis 6:17-22. Did you catch it? We cannot use
the argument that God put all the creatures into a hibernation
"sleep" for a year and so they needed NO food! Mark verses 20,
and 21. Noah was to take FOOD onto the ark for himself (his wife
and three sons and their wives) and FOOD FOR THE CREATURES, to
KEEP THEM ALIVE!! The food was FOR "THEE AND FOR THEM"!!
I am a horseman. The average principle for feeding a horse
is dividing the body weight by 100 and times it by 2.5, so an
eleven hundred pound saddle horse, NOT working, should be given
about 30 pounds of hay per day. Let's round it out at 25 pounds
of hay, which is half a bail of a 50 pound hay bail per day. And
that is three and a half bails (50 pound bails) of hay per week.
We have two horses (male and female - one pair of unclean animals
in the horse kind) on board Noah's ark, that is 7 bails of hay
per week. Now times that by 52 weeks for the year on the ark
during the flood, and we get 364 bails of hay needed just to
feed TWO horses!! You put 364 fifty pound bails of hay together
and it would amount to a fairly good size room on the ark, just
to feed two horses for a year.
Now that is for two horses. As Woodrow points out, consider
just ONE Elephant. His study showed him that one elephant ate
about 62,000 pounds of food a year. I will not question his
figure, for it should be very obvious to all that an elephant
would eat WAY more than a horse each and every day. The amount of
food needed to feed TWO elephants for a year would have been
mind-bending to imagine, going on to the ark, with all the other
food needed for all the other animals from around the world.
Woodrow gives the example of the domestic cow, with about 20
pounds of hay and 50 pounds of silage per day, or 25,550 pounds
for the year. And as he points out THERE WERE SEVEN PAIRS (God
commanded Noah to take seven pair of clean animals onto the ark),
7 bulls and 7 cows, a total of FOURTEEN! Multiple 25,550 pounds
by FOURTEEN. The amount of space needed on the ark just for the
storage of food to feed 7 cows and 7 bulls was huge.
Probably our "miracle flood" advocates would say "well God
worked a miracle and they did not need anywhere as near as much
food as usual" - but how much not as usual is the question -
maybe only a tenth as much or a one hundredth as much? Even a
one hundredth as much would still amount to a HUGE tonnage for
all the animals of the entire globe. Then the Scriptures say
NOTHING on any such miracle given by God as animals reducing
their amount of food eating by anything. Maybe because they did
not run around they needed slightly less food. I am a horseman
and saddle horses, even when not working on the trail or range,
still need about 25 to 30 pounds of hay per day.
Ralph Woodrow also points out that some creatures have a
specialized diet. He gives the example of the giant Panda of
China, which lives pretty well only on bamboo, and the Koala bear
of Australia feeds exclusively on the leaves of a species of
eucalyptus tree.
Did Noah travel around the world before the flood gathering
the food for these animals?
Our "many miracle" flood advocates would probably want to
argue that those animals just mentioned did not have this
"special" diet back then, but were given it later by God after
the flood, or God worked a miracle by changing their specialized
dieting during the year on the ark. But nowhere in the Bible is
such a miracle taught or even close to being mentioned.
A local flood for the time of Noah would solve many of the
above staggering facts on just the amount of food needed to be
taken onto the ark.
WATER WATER EVERYWHERE - BUT FRESH?
Woodrow shows in his book on this subject that WATER,
drinking water, would also be a MASSIVE problem to solve for all
on the ark.
Sure "fresh" water poured onto the land from springs and
from the clouds of heaven, but it would still have been mingled
with salt water from the oceans, and unless God once more worked
a miracle, the water all around them would not have been "good
water" per se. And if we take the idea from some "universal
flood" advocates that the high mountain ranges of the Canadian
Rockies and those in Alaska, and other mighty mountain ranges of
the world, did NOT exist until AFTER Noah's flood, then no where
near as much fresh water from springs and the clouds was needed
to cover the earth, and so the salt water of the oceans was even
more present in all that water now covering the planet. But yes
of course our "miracle" flood people would say God made all the
water "fresh" for that particular situation and for that
particular year that the globe was covered with water.
The universal flood advocates must argue with such arguments
because they know how much fresh water would be needed per day
for creatures like Elephants. Horses alone if not grazing on
pasture (which contains water) but only eating dry hay, would
require a good big jug of water per day. And TWO Elephants,
dozens of gallons of water per day is what they drink.
The fresh water problem alone would have been a HUGE
problem for Noah if all creatures from around the world was on
the ark. Unless Noah had a way of making all that water around
him fresh and drinkable. Maybe he did have a way, or maybe the
Lord worked another miracle.
FOOD FOR THE HUMANS
Food just for the humans aboard that ark would have been
significant. Yes, the SEVEN pairs of "clean" animals were
probably indeed intended for food for the eight people on the
ark.
Yet MUCH other food varieties would be needed to keep the
physical body healthy during that year floating around only on
water, water everywhere and no land to spare.
You can figure what your family eats in a week. If you have
two or three teenage children, then you will get an even better
idea of the food needed for a whole year to feed 8 adult people,
who would indeed be getting a pretty good amount of exercise each
day from just looking after all those small to massive creatures
on the ark from around the world, if Noah's flood was indeed a
global flood.
Yes, the food and water supply and STORAGE would have taken
up a very large part of the ark, for the humans and all the
creatures on it, from around the world, if THAT flood covered the
entire earth. Even if you want to reduce everything normally
needed by all to HALF the usual amount for the year-long stay on
the ark, the space required to store even that amount would have
been very considerable.
...............
TO BE CONTINUED
</span></pre><div><br /></div></b></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-14859668857349728412024-03-17T15:21:00.000-07:002024-03-17T15:48:37.812-07:00NOAH'S FLOOD NOT UNIVERSAL #1<p> </p><center><h1 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 24pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Noah's Flood - Universal?</span><span style="color: #5a876c;"> #1</span></h1><h2 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="color: red;">Things that may surprise you</span></h2></center><table border="0" cellpadding="60" cellspacing="3" style="color: black;"><tbody><tr align="left" valign="top"><td align="left" valign="top"><b><blockquote><b><pre style="color: #385243; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Written and Compiled
by
Keith Hunt
</span><span style="font-size: large;">INTRODUCTION
I grew up like MANY believing that Noah's flood was word-wide,
covering the entire planet earth. I never really proved it,
though I thought at one time I did by reading books like "The
Genesis Flood" - but I never read the other side of the question.
I was challenged on the matter, when reading a book by Ralph
Woodrow. When I read his study on it all, in 1999, I was indeed
challenged. After much meditation, and not being able to answer
the main arguments put forth by Woodrow, I have to agree with him
that Noah's flood was REGIONAL and NOT universal. Others I have
discovered down through the last few hundred years have also
written on this subject, claiming Noah's flood was REGIONAL and
not all over the entire globe.
WAS THE FLOOD UNIVERSAL?
Many if not most "religious" people of different faiths have
grown up being taught about Noah's flood and that it was a flood
that covered the whole planet earth. Some books down through the
last canruties have been written by well meaning people, I'm sure
quite sincere, trying to prove and uphold the teaching that
Noah's flood covered all the surface of the earth and all the
mountains upon it, and that all present human life and animal
life are so descended from the eight humans and the animal
creatures on board that ship Noah built.
But was the flood universal, covering the entire globe? Or
was it regional, involving human and animal life in one specific
area of land on earth? There are, of course, dedicated Christians
on both sides of this question, and each side has its able
defenders. But looking at the main evidence, I believe the bulk
of that evidence favors Noah's flood as being REGIONAL, and not
universal, covering the entire planet.
If the flood was universal, then as stated before every
animal on earth today would have descended from those on that
ark. As Woodrow has stated in his book "This raises questions, of
course, as to how this many animals would be able to fit into
Noah's ark, how they were able to cross vast continents to get to
the ark, and how they managed, after the flood, to get back
home."
According to Ussher the flood was in 2,348 B.C. Does this
really give enough time for tiny creatures like the worm and
snail (and we all know how fast they travel) to get from Noah's
ark to the other side of the world.
The snail, some could argue got to North America by catching
a ride with the Indians, but could snails, or say worms, get to
cover North America in such a relatively short time (if we go
with Ussher's chronology of the Bible)? Then they say there are
more "species" of insects than any other living thing. Sure, as
the argument goes, all "flies" (fruit and other) come from the
same stock, but could Noah really have all "species" of insects
from around the whole earth come to him and be on the ark, and
then get back to all parts of the globe again, in such a
relatively short time (if we go with Ussher's chronology that
is)? As Woodrow says, that part of it is just the tip of the
iceberg.
Many will point to the verse in Genesis six, and say, "There
you are, this verse say Noah's flood was world-wide, for the
verse reads, 'A flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all
flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and
every thing that is in the earth shall die'" (Genesis 6:17).
The same people will then take you to Genesis chapter seven:
"The waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all
the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered
... and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved
upon the earth ... Noah only remained alive, and they that were
with him in the ark (verses 19-23).
Hummmm, does kinda sound like Noah's flood covered the
entire globe. But don't run off into the sunset too quickly, not
without taking a good long look at the Hebrew word used -
"erets." The Englishman's Concordance of the Hebrew Old
Testament, will give you every place where this word "erets" is
used. by looking at the context where this Hebrew word is found,
we can clearly see the word itself does not mean a dogmatic
"universal" aspect. many passages certainly within the very
context cannot mean, or canot have, a GLOBAL meaning!
"Erets" (#776 in Strong's Concordance'), if you want to use
that popular concordance of the Bible, will show you it is
translated "country" 140 times, and 1,476 times it is translated
"land." Hence we can see the word "erets" is used with
LIMITATIONS!
The example of Abraham:
"Get thee out of thy country [erets]... unto a land [erets]
that I will shew thee" (Genesis 12:1).
Was Abraham told to leave planet earth?
Later, "Abraham journeyed from there toward the south
country [erets], and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur" (Genesis
20:1).
Does this mean there are to plantes being talked about?
Obviously that was not the case.
As Woodrow points out we also have these verses:
"the whole land [erets] of Havilah," "the whole land [erets]
of Ethiopia," "the land [erets] of Nod, on the east of Eden,"
"the land [erets] of Shinar," "the land [erets] of Canaan," "the
land [erets] of Egypt," "the Philistines' land [erets]," "the
land [erets] of Moriah" (Genesis 2:11,13,etc.).
No one would think of the entire earth, or the entire planet
from these verses.
Also as Woodrow discovered "erets" is used in the plural. We
read of Gentiles "in their lands [erets]," of "enemies' lands
[erets]," and of various nations called "lands [erets]" (Genesis
10:5; Lev. 26:36; 2 Kings 19:11,17; etc.). The word "every" is
used with erets: "I will get them praise and fame in every land
[erets] where they have been put to shame" (Zeph.3:19).
Again to think these verses mean entire planets is quite
rediculous and nobody jumps to so understand those verses.
Genesis 41:54,57. People from different planets are not here
being taught as coming to Egypt.
The reader can look at MANY more places from the above two
Bible Concordances aforementioned, and see for themselves that
the Hebrew word "erets" HARDLY EVER means the ENTIRE GLOBE of
this earth.
So, it is not then at all out of the question that this word
"erets" as used in the account of Noah's flood, was NOT meaning
the entire earth being covered with water. The word "erets"
itself and the context it is used in for Noah and the flood of
his days,does not automatically mean we are to understand the
account as a UNIVERSAL flood, covering ALL nations and ALL the
mountains on the earth.
When we understand "erets" as used with reference to Naoh's
flood, with our English words "land" and "country" we can readily
see that Moses (who most argee wrote the first five books of the
Bible) was NOT trying to teach us that the flood of Noah's time
covered the entire planet earth.
In other words, the use of the Hebrew word "erets" with
Noah's flood does NOT automatically prove THAT flood was over the
entire globe we call "earth." If you are going to try and prove
Noah's flood was a world-wide flood you will have to do it
another way entirely than from the argument of the word "erets"
and the context it is used for Noah's flood.
WITHIN THE CONTEXT
Why a flood to destroy? We are told the "wickedness of man
was great in the earth (erets)" Genesis 6:5. Did man inhabit
every single nation or land mass on the planet at this time in
human history? It is very doubtful that this was so. And even if
it was, were the reletively few, say in Alaska (if mankind was
all over the globe) so sinnful that they also had to be destroyed
together with obviously the sinful ones in Noah's land? and why
did God have to destroy the animals, creeping things, and fowls
of the air, say in Alaska, or Australia?
Genesis 7:17. The water were lifted above the "eret" -
earth or land. This again cannot by itself prove "above the hight
of the planet, or highest mountains anywhere on the globe.
"God made a wind to pass over the earth [erets -land]" and
the waters receded (Genesis 8:1). A wind picks up water (though
we do not see it happening per se) and the vapore water rises to
form clouds that float away (excuse the pun), but the water does
not DISAPPEAR into space. It moves on in those clouds to be
dropped as rain on another part of the globe. If the entire
planet was covered with water this would be like scouping out
water from a bath tub with one hand and putting it back in with
the other hand. The logic of the sentence does not make any
logic, unless you take these words to be telling us in a kind of
human way that God worked a miracle. But Moses knew all about
miracles, so he could have simply told us that the Lord worked a
miracle and "just made the water go away." But he put it the way
he did because it was a logical and human way to tell us what
happens everyday, wind or air evaporates water, carries it up to
form clouds and the clouds move on to later drop that wtaer in
other parts of the globe. So indeed the water that Noah and the
ark was floating on did recede in a natural way, for it was taken
by the wind and dropped on to dry parts of other lands at a later
time.
This I maintain is the normal logical sense of the sentence
here used in genesis 8:1 and 3.
"The waters were dried up from off the earth [erets - land]"
(Genesis 8:13).
If we understand this to mean the whole planet, in the
context of Noah's flood, then there is a large problem, when you
think of three-quarters or so of the globe is covered with water.
but if the context is talking only about a reginal flood then it
can be understood with normal logic.
UNDER THE WHOLE HEAVEN WAS COVERED?
"And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth
[erets]; and all the high hills, that were under the whole
heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters
prevail; and the mountains were covered" (Genesis 7:19,20).
Sounds like this is saying the whole globe was covered with
water, well if you again take the word "erets" to mean the entire
planet.
And "under the whole heaven" - surely some will say, that
phrase clinches it, the flood of Noah's day covered the entire
planet.
Once more, this expression and other very similar in the
Bible are there for all to read if they will but look for them,
and many times the context is clearly of a LIMITED nature.
Deuteronomy 2:25: "...the nations which are under the whole
heaven," is limited by the context. The nations and tribes of
people on the African continent or over in India or China are NOT
meant by this phrase.
Please note such passages as Isaiah 13:5,7. Did "end of
heaven" mean they came from Spain or Brazil? Cities that were
"walled up to heaven" (Deut.1:28) did not mean the walls rose
thousands of feet into the sky. The context limits the phrase
used.
Note the phrase "all the world should be taxed" in Luke 2:1.
Obviously such a phrase used in the context did not mean for us
to understand that it meant people from Japan were to come to
Palestine to be taxed.
The Bible uses MANY types of "figures of speech" just as we
use figures of speech today in our writings and in our
conversations. If we say about some great Olympic wrestler that
"he was as big and as strong as a bull" it is a figure of speech,
and not a phrase we should take to its literal end. It gets a
point across but no Olympic wrestler is as big as a bull, let
alone as strong as one.
Figures of speech are so numberous in the Bible that
Dr.Bullinger thought it important enough to write a 1,000 page
book on the subject. I have that book of his in my personal
library.
I agree with the conclusion Ralph Woodrow came to when he
wrote in his book on this subject, "the expression about all the
high hills 'under the whole heaven' is best understood as all
hills a person might see from one place - from horizon to
horizon. There is no reason to suppose this included hills
thousands of miles away on the other side of the planet!"
The "local flood" advocates try to argue that the waters
would have been just way to high to have covered Mount Everest,
way over 30,000 feet.
Then of course the argument put forth by the "entire globe
covered by water" advocates is that mountains like Everest, did
not form until AFTER the universal food of Noah's time - but that
is EVERY QUESTIONABLE indeed. It is more probable that mountain
chains like Everest is in and the great Canadian Rockies were
formed in Genesis chapter one, when God made the dry land appear
from the waters. The fact is there is no concrete proof for any
date as to when the largest mountain chains on earth were formed.
The natural logic to my mind is that the Genesis flood of
Noah's time is talking within a context of REGINAL scope, and not
addressing the thought of vastly larger in height, mountain
ranges being covered than those in Noah's part of the world. But
again I know the "world-wide" flood advocates would like to say
those mountain ranges like the one where Everest stands, did not
form until after Noah's flood. But I say again, such an idea
cannot be proved.
We shall discuss later again, the idea that the waters did
cover Everest, if believing Everest was created in Genesis
chapter one. Which of course also cannot be positively proved to
have been created in that first chapter of Genesis.
THE WATER FROM WHERE?
Believing the flood covered every mountain on earth, we must
ask the questions, "Where did all this amount of water come from?
And what became of the water when the flood subsided? The classic
book "The Genesis Flood," (I have it in my library), a book
written to uphold the universal flood concept, admits:
"A global rain continuing for forty days, as described in the
Bible, would have required a completely different mechanism for
its production than is available at the present day. If all
the water in our present atmosphere were suddenly precipitated,
it would only suffice to cover the ground to an average depth of
less than two inches."
Yes, the Bible does say the spings of the deep also opened
up, water then under the earth came forth. And I guess if you
want to argue that with God nothing is impossible, you have an
answer as to where all the water came from to cover the entire
planet. Then add to that argument the argument that mountain
ranges like the Canadian Rockies did not exist or were not formed
until after Noah's flood, then you could come away believing
Noah's flood did cover the whole globe.
But, as we shall see in more chapters, there are many other
factors to consider and to answer, before we can come to a
dogmatic conclusion that Noah's flood did in fact engulf the
entire planet earth.
Continuing now to quote from The Genesis Flood:
"The process of evaporation could not have been effective during
the rain, of course, since the atmosphere immediately above the
earth was already at saturation level. The normal hydrologic
cycle would, therefore, have been incapable of supplying the
tremendous amounts of rain the Bible record describes."
Some of course would argue that, "Well with God anything is
possible. He just makes a miracle." Such arguing cannot
be answered per se. But the book "The Genesis Flood" at least
looks at the normal sight of things, and admits it just could not
be possible in the world as we have it today.
It is really futile to try and argue as Woodrow does in his
book on this subject that in forty days "ex" amount of water
would have to come and rise on the earth (an amount per day or
hour that would amount to hundreds of feet) to cover Mount
Everest, for as stated above the universal flood advocates would
simply dismiss his reasoning with their teaching that Everest and
other mighty high mountains, did not exist until after the days
of Noah's flood.
Woodrow does argue this: "After it stopped raining and the
water began to go back down, the Bible implies the water receded
at the rate of 15 cubits in 74 days (Genesis 7:20; 8:4,5). A
number of recognized commentators have mentioned this point? If
we figure a cubit at about 18 inches, the water level would have
dropped 270 inches during this time or, to round it off, 4 inches
a day. If the flood depth was 29,050 feet (348,600 inches) and
the water level dropped 4 inches a day, it would take 87,150 days
to get back down to normal sea level. That would be almost 239
years! The whole time of the flood is normally figured at around
a year in duration certainly not 239 years! All of this argues
against the idea that the flood was thousands of feet in depth
and strongly suggests, rather, that it was a flood of regional
proportions."
A nice try on Woodrow's part, but once more the universal
flood advocates would answer with, "The mountain ranges like that
in which Mount Everest is found were not created until AFTER the
time of Noah's flood, so no need to be thousands of feet in
depth. And, with God anything is possible, He is a miracle
working God, and hence the waters could have receded in other
parts of the world MUCH faster than in the Ararat area where Noah
was in the ark."
And they do, I admit, have an argument with those arguments.
But there is more to this subject, we have to have the rest of
the story.
..............
TO BE CONTINUED
</span><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></pre><div><br /></div></b></blockquote></b></td></tr></tbody></table>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-12411920098239290142024-03-17T14:55:00.000-07:002024-03-17T15:00:19.623-07:00THROUGH THE BIBLE— NEHEMIAH 7— LIST OF RETURNING EXILES<p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: x-large;"><b> <span face="system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial">Nehemiah 7</span></b></span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: x-large;"><b><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial"><br /></span></b></span></p><h1 class="passage-display" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; width: 484.078125px;"><div aria-haspopup="listbox" aria-labelledby="dropdown-3e787" class="bcv d-container go2888862000" id="dropdown-3e787" role="button" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-size: 1.6rem; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 16px 0px 0px; min-width: auto; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-display" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex: 1 1 0%; justify-content: space-between; min-width: 0px; padding-right: 20px; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-icon" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px 4px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; white-space: nowrap;" tabindex="0"><svg height="6.5" viewbox="0 0 11.5 6.5" width="11.5" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path d="M11.28.22a.75.75 0 0 0-1.06 0L5.75 4.69 1.28.22A.75.75 0 0 0 .22 1.28l5 5a.73.73 0 0 0 .53.22.74.74 0 0 0 .53-.22l5-5a.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.06z"></path></svg></div></div><span class="d-root"></span></div><div aria-haspopup="listbox" aria-labelledby="dropdown-b020c" class="translation d-container go2888862000" id="dropdown-b020c" role="button" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-size: 1.6rem; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 16px 0px 0px; min-width: auto; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-display" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex: 1 1 0%; justify-content: space-between; min-width: 0px; padding-right: 20px; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-display-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;">New King James Version</div><div class="dropdown-display-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="dropdown-icon" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px 4px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; white-space: nowrap;" tabindex="0"><svg height="6.5" viewbox="0 0 11.5 6.5" width="11.5" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path d="M11.28.22a.75.75 0 0 0-1.06 0L5.75 4.69 1.28.22A.75.75 0 0 0 .22 1.28l5 5a.73.73 0 0 0 .53.22.74.74 0 0 0 .53-.22l5-5a.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.06z"></path></svg></div></div><span class="d-root"></span></div><div class="clearfix" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; float: left; font-size: 1.6rem; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 16px 0px 0px; min-width: auto; position: relative;"></div></h1><div class="passage-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.7em; margin-top: 50px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="passage-content passage-class-0" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;"><div class="version-NKJV result-text-style-normal text-html" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-1"><br /></span></h3><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-1" id="en-NKJV-12422"><span style="color: #990000;">List of Returning Exiles</span></span></h3><p class="chapter-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-1"><span class="chapternum" style="bottom: -0.1em; display: inline; font-size: 2.4rem; font-weight: 700; left: 0px; line-height: 0.8em; position: relative;">7 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">Then it was, when the wall was built and I had hung the doors, when the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed, </span></span><span class="text Neh-7-2" id="en-NKJV-12423"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">2 </span>that I gave the charge of Jerusalem to my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the leader of the <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12423a" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12423a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12423a" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote a">a</a>]</span>citadel, for he <i>was</i> a faithful man and feared God more than many.</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-3" id="en-NKJV-12424"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">3 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">And I said to them, “Do not let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot; and while they stand <i>guard,</i> let them shut and bar the doors; and appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, one at his watch station and another in front of his own house.”</span></span></span></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-4" id="en-NKJV-12425"><span style="color: #990000;">The Captives Who Returned to Jerusalem</span></span></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-7-4"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">4 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Now the city <i>was</i> large and spacious, but the people in it <i>were </i>few, and the houses <i>were</i> not rebuilt. </span></span><span class="text Neh-7-5" id="en-NKJV-12426"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">5 </span>Then my God put it into my heart to gather the nobles, the rulers, and the people, that they might be registered by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of those who had come up in the first <i>return,</i> and found written in it:</span></span></span></p><div class="child-vertical-none left-1 top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.6rem; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-6" id="en-NKJV-12427"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">6 </span><span style="color: #990000;">These <i>are</i> the people of the province who came back from the captivity, of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his city.</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-6"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-6" face="system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial" style="font-size: 1.6rem;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">[SO WE SEE UPFRONT AND CLEARLY STATED</span></span><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-size: 25.600000381469727px;">— IT WAS PEOPLE FROM THE HOUSE OF JUDAH CAPTIVITY TO BABYLON, THAT SOME RETURNED TO JERUSALEM AND JUDAH. IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL CAPTIVITY TO ASSYRIA OVER ABOUT TWO HUNDRED YEARS BEFORE — Keith Hunt]</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial" style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(204, 0, 0); font-size: 25.600000381469727px;"><br /></span></span></p></div><div class="child-vertical-none left-1 top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.6rem; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-7" id="en-NKJV-12428"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">7 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Those who came with Zerubbabel</span> <i>were</i> Jeshua, Nehemiah, <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12428b" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12428b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12428b" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote b">b</a>]</span>Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12428c" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12428c" title="See footnote c">c</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12428c" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote c">c</a>]</span>Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, and Baanah.</span></p></div><div class="child-vertical-none left-1 top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.6rem; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-7">The number of the men of the people of Israel: </span><span class="text Neh-7-8" id="en-NKJV-12429"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">8 </span>the sons of Parosh, two thousand one hundred and seventy-two;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-9" id="en-NKJV-12430"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">9 </span>the sons of Shephatiah, three hundred and seventy-two;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-10" id="en-NKJV-12431"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">10 </span>the sons of Arah, six hundred and fifty-two;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-11" id="en-NKJV-12432"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">11 </span>the sons of Pahath-Moab, of the sons of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight hundred and eighteen;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-12" id="en-NKJV-12433"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">12 </span>the sons of Elam, one thousand two hundred and fifty-four;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-13" id="en-NKJV-12434"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">13 </span>the sons of Zattu, eight hundred and forty-five;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-14" id="en-NKJV-12435"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">14 </span>the sons of Zaccai, seven hundred and sixty;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-15" id="en-NKJV-12436"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">15 </span>the sons of <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12436d" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12436d" title="See footnote d">d</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12436d" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote d">d</a>]</span>Binnui, six hundred and forty-eight;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-16" id="en-NKJV-12437"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">16 </span>the sons of Bebai, six hundred and twenty-eight;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-17" id="en-NKJV-12438"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">17 </span>the sons of Azgad, two thousand three hundred and twenty-two;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-18" id="en-NKJV-12439"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">18 </span>the sons of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-seven;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-19" id="en-NKJV-12440"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">19 </span>the sons of Bigvai, two thousand and sixty-seven;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-20" id="en-NKJV-12441"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">20 </span>the sons of Adin, six hundred and fifty-five;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-21" id="en-NKJV-12442"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">21 </span>the sons of Ater of Hezekiah, ninety-eight;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-22" id="en-NKJV-12443"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">22 </span>the sons of Hashum, three hundred and twenty-eight;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-23" id="en-NKJV-12444"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">23 </span>the sons of Bezai, three hundred and twenty-four;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-24" id="en-NKJV-12445"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">24 </span>the sons of <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12445e" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12445e" title="See footnote e">e</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12445e" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote e">e</a>]</span>Hariph, one hundred and twelve;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-25" id="en-NKJV-12446"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">25 </span>the sons of <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12446f" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12446f" title="See footnote f">f</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12446f" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote f">f</a>]</span>Gibeon, ninety-five;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-26" id="en-NKJV-12447"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">26 </span>the men of Bethlehem and Netophah, one hundred and eighty-eight;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-27" id="en-NKJV-12448"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">27 </span>the men of Anathoth, one hundred and twenty-eight;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-28" id="en-NKJV-12449"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">28 </span>the men of <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12449g" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12449g" title="See footnote g">g</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12449g" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote g">g</a>]</span>Beth Azmaveth, forty-two;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-29" id="en-NKJV-12450"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">29 </span>the men of <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12450h" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12450h" title="See footnote h">h</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12450h" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote h">h</a>]</span>Kirjath Jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty-three;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-30" id="en-NKJV-12451"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">30 </span>the men of Ramah and Geba, six hundred and twenty-one;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-31" id="en-NKJV-12452"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">31 </span>the men of Michmas, one hundred and twenty-two;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-32" id="en-NKJV-12453"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">32 </span>the men of Bethel and Ai, one hundred and twenty-three;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-33" id="en-NKJV-12454"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">33 </span>the men of the other Nebo, fifty-two;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-34" id="en-NKJV-12455"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">34 </span>the sons of the other Elam, one thousand two hundred and fifty-four;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-35" id="en-NKJV-12456"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">35 </span>the sons of Harim, three hundred and twenty;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-36" id="en-NKJV-12457"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">36 </span>the sons of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-37" id="en-NKJV-12458"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">37 </span>the sons of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred and twenty-one;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-38" id="en-NKJV-12459"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">38 </span>the sons of Senaah, three thousand nine hundred and thirty.</span></p></div><div class="child-vertical-none left-1 top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.6rem; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-39" id="en-NKJV-12460"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">39 </span>The priests: the sons of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred and seventy-three;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-40" id="en-NKJV-12461"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">40 </span>the sons of Immer, one thousand and fifty-two;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-41" id="en-NKJV-12462"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">41 </span>the sons of Pashhur, one thousand two hundred and forty-seven;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-42" id="en-NKJV-12463"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">42 </span>the sons of Harim, one thousand and seventeen.</span></p></div><div class="child-vertical-none left-1 top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.6rem; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-43" id="en-NKJV-12464"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">43 </span>The Levites: the sons of Jeshua, of Kadmiel,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-43"><i>and</i> of the sons of <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12464i" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12464i" title="See footnote i">i</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12464i" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote i">i</a>]</span>Hodevah, seventy-four.</span></p></div><div class="child-vertical-none left-1 top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.6rem; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-44" id="en-NKJV-12465"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">44 </span>The singers: the sons of Asaph, one hundred and forty-eight.</span></p></div><div class="child-vertical-none left-1 top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.6rem; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-45" id="en-NKJV-12466"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">45 </span>The gatekeepers: the sons of Shallum,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-45">the sons of Ater,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-45">the sons of Talmon,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-45">the sons of Akkub,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-45">the sons of Hatita,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-45">the sons of Shobai, one hundred and thirty-eight.</span></p></div><div class="child-vertical-none left-1 top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.6rem; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-46" id="en-NKJV-12467"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">46 </span>The Nethinim: the sons of Ziha,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-46">the sons of Hasupha,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-46">the sons of Tabbaoth,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-47" id="en-NKJV-12468"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">47 </span>the sons of Keros,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-47">the sons of <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12468j" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12468j" title="See footnote j">j</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12468j" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote j">j</a>]</span>Sia,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-47">the sons of Padon,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-48" id="en-NKJV-12469"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">48 </span>the sons of <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12469k" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12469k" title="See footnote k">k</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12469k" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote k">k</a>]</span>Lebana,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-48">the sons of <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12469l" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12469l" title="See footnote l">l</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12469l" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote l">l</a>]</span>Hagaba,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-48">the sons of <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12469m" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12469m" title="See footnote m">m</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12469m" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote m">m</a>]</span>Salmai,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-49" id="en-NKJV-12470"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">49 </span>the sons of Hanan,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-49">the sons of Giddel,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-49">the sons of Gahar,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-50" id="en-NKJV-12471"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">50 </span>the sons of Reaiah,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-50">the sons of Rezin,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-50">the sons of Nekoda,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-51" id="en-NKJV-12472"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">51 </span>the sons of Gazzam,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-51">the sons of Uzza,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-51">the sons of Paseah,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-52" id="en-NKJV-12473"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">52 </span>the sons of Besai,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-52">the sons of Meunim,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-52">the sons of <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12473n" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12473n" title="See footnote n">n</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12473n" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote n">n</a>]</span>Nephishesim,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-53" id="en-NKJV-12474"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">53 </span>the sons of Bakbuk,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-53">the sons of Hakupha,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-53">the sons of Harhur,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-54" id="en-NKJV-12475"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">54 </span>the sons of <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12475o" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12475o" title="See footnote o">o</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12475o" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote o">o</a>]</span>Bazlith,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-54">the sons of Mehida,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-54">the sons of Harsha,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-55" id="en-NKJV-12476"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">55 </span>the sons of Barkos,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-55">the sons of Sisera,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-55">the sons of Tamah,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-56" id="en-NKJV-12477"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">56 </span>the sons of Neziah,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-56">and the sons of Hatipha.</span></p></div><div class="child-vertical-none left-1 top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.6rem; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-57" id="en-NKJV-12478"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">57 </span>The sons of Solomon’s servants: the sons of Sotai,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-57">the sons of Sophereth,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-57">the sons of <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12478p" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12478p" title="See footnote p">p</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12478p" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote p">p</a>]</span>Perida,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-58" id="en-NKJV-12479"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">58 </span>the sons of Jaala,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-58">the sons of Darkon,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-58">the sons of Giddel,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-59" id="en-NKJV-12480"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">59 </span>the sons of Shephatiah,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-59">the sons of Hattil,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-59">the sons of Pochereth of Zebaim,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-59">and the sons of <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12480q" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12480q" title="See footnote q">q</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12480q" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote q">q</a>]</span>Amon.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-60" id="en-NKJV-12481"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">60 </span>All the Nethinim, and the sons of Solomon’s servants, <i>were</i>three hundred and ninety-two.</span></p></div><div class="child-vertical-none left-1 top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.6rem; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-61" id="en-NKJV-12482"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">61 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">And these <i>were</i> the ones who came up from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Cherub, <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12482r" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12482r" title="See footnote r">r</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12482r" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote r">r</a>]</span>Addon, and Immer</span>, but they could not identify their father’s house nor their lineage, whether they <i>were</i> of Israel: </span><span class="text Neh-7-62" id="en-NKJV-12483"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">62 </span>the sons of Delaiah,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-62">the sons of Tobiah,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-62">the sons of Nekoda, six hundred and forty-two;</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-63" id="en-NKJV-12484"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">63 </span>and of the priests: the sons of Habaiah,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-63">the sons of <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12484s" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12484s" title="See footnote s">s</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12484s" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote s">s</a>]</span>Koz,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-63">the sons of Barzillai, who took a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called by their name.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-63"><br /></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-64" id="en-NKJV-12485"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">64 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">These sought their listing <i>among</i> those who were registered by genealogy, but it was not found; therefore they were excluded from the priesthood as defiled.</span> </span><span class="text Neh-7-65" id="en-NKJV-12486"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">65 </span>And the <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12486t" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12486t" title="See footnote t">t</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12486t" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #517e90; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote t">t</a>]</span>governor said to them that they should not eat of the most holy things till a priest could consult with the Urim and Thummim.</span></p></div><div class="child-vertical-none left-1 top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.6rem; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-66" id="en-NKJV-12487"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">66 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b style="background-color: #fcff01;">Altogether the whole assembly <i>was</i> forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty, </b></span></span><span class="text Neh-7-67" id="en-NKJV-12488"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b style="background-color: #fcff01;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">67 </span>besides their male and female servants, of whom <i>there were</i> seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven; and they had two hundred and forty-five men and women singers.</b></span> </span><span class="text Neh-7-68" id="en-NKJV-12489"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">68 </span>Their horses were seven hundred and thirty-six, their mules two hundred and forty-five, </span><span class="text Neh-7-69" id="en-NKJV-12490"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">69 </span><i>their</i> camels four hundred and thirty-five, <i>and</i> donkeys six thousand seven hundred and twenty.</span></p></div><div class="child-vertical-none left-1 top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1.6rem; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; position: relative;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-70" id="en-NKJV-12491"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">70<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span></span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">And some of the heads of the fathers’ <i>houses</i> gave to the work. The <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12491u" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12491u" title="See footnote u">u</a>]" style="display: inline; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+7&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12491u" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote u">u</a>]</span>governor gave to the treasury one thousand gold drachmas, fifty basins, and five hundred and thirty priestly garments. </span></span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span class="text Neh-7-71" id="en-NKJV-12492"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">71 </span>Some of the heads of the fathers’ <i>houses</i> gave to the treasury of the work twenty thousand gold drachmas, and two thousand two hundred silver minas. </span><span class="text Neh-7-72" id="en-NKJV-12493"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">72 </span>And that which the rest of the people gave <i>was</i> twenty thousand gold drachmas, two thousand silver minas, and sixty-seven priestly garments.</span></span></p></div><p class="top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-73" id="en-NKJV-12494"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">7</span><span><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;"><span style="font-size: large;">3</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, <i>some</i>of the people, the Nethinim, <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>and all Israel dwelt in their cities.</b></span></span></span></span></p><p class="top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-73"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><b>[OBVIOUSLY <i><u>ALL ISRAEL</u></i>, MEANS IN CONTEXT, ALL THAT RETURNED FROM BABYLON TO JUDAH AND JERUSALEM, ALL OF THEM DWELT IN THE CITIES THEY CAME FROM.</b></span></span></p><p class="top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-73"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><b><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial">ACTS TWO SHOWS MANY OF THE HOUSE OF JUDAH NEVER DID RETURN TO THE PROMISED LAND; THEY LIVED IN VARIOUS PART OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE - Keith Hunt]</span></b></span></span></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-73" style="background-color: #fcff01;"><span style="color: #990000;">Ezra Reads the Law</span></span></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-73"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: x-large;">When the seventh month came, the children of Israel <i>were</i> in their cities.</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-73"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">ALL OF THE 12 TRIBES OF ISRAEL ARE ISRAELITES; THE HOUSE OF JUDAH IS VERY MUCH CHILDREN OF ISRAEL [JACOB HAD HIS NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL AS WE READ OF IN THE BOKK OF GENESIS].</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-73"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">ALL PEOPLE OF THE 12 TRIBES ARE ISRAELITES.</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-7-73"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Keith Hunt</span></span></p><div class="footnotes" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; min-width: 0px;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div></div></div></div>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-67801182369710543042024-03-17T14:34:00.000-07:002024-03-17T14:34:02.882-07:00THROUGH THE BIBLE— NEHEMIAH 6— CONSPIRACY AGAINST NEHEMIAH<p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: x-large;"><b> <span style="font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial;">Nehemiah 6</span></b></span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial;"><br /></span></b></span></p><h1 class="passage-display" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; width: 484.078125px;"><div aria-haspopup="listbox" aria-labelledby="dropdown-8fa28" class="bcv d-container go2888862000" id="dropdown-8fa28" role="button" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-size: 1.6rem; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 16px 0px 0px; min-width: auto; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-display" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex: 1 1 0%; justify-content: space-between; min-width: 0px; padding-right: 20px; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-icon" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px 4px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; white-space: nowrap;" tabindex="0"><svg height="6.5" viewbox="0 0 11.5 6.5" width="11.5" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path d="M11.28.22a.75.75 0 0 0-1.06 0L5.75 4.69 1.28.22A.75.75 0 0 0 .22 1.28l5 5a.73.73 0 0 0 .53.22.74.74 0 0 0 .53-.22l5-5a.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.06z"></path></svg></div></div><span class="d-root"></span></div><div aria-haspopup="listbox" aria-labelledby="dropdown-35575" class="translation d-container go2888862000" id="dropdown-35575" role="button" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-size: 1.6rem; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 16px 0px 0px; min-width: auto; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-display" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex: 1 1 0%; justify-content: space-between; min-width: 0px; padding-right: 20px; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-display-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;">New King James Version</div><div class="dropdown-display-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="dropdown-icon" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px 4px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; white-space: nowrap;" tabindex="0"><svg height="6.5" viewbox="0 0 11.5 6.5" width="11.5" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path d="M11.28.22a.75.75 0 0 0-1.06 0L5.75 4.69 1.28.22A.75.75 0 0 0 .22 1.28l5 5a.73.73 0 0 0 .53.22.74.74 0 0 0 .53-.22l5-5a.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.06z"></path></svg></div></div><span class="d-root"></span></div><div class="clearfix" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; float: left; font-size: 1.6rem; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 16px 0px 0px; min-width: auto; position: relative;"></div></h1><div class="passage-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.7em; margin-top: 50px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="passage-content passage-class-0" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;"><div class="version-NKJV result-text-style-normal text-html" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-6-1"><br /></span></h3><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-6-1" id="en-NKJV-12403"><span style="color: #990000;">Conspiracy Against Nehemiah - he overcame!</span></span></h3><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-6-1"><span class="chapternum" style="bottom: -0.1em; display: inline; font-size: 2.4rem; left: 0px; line-height: 0.8em; position: relative;">6</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span class="chapternum" style="bottom: -0.1em; display: inline; font-size: xx-large; left: 0px; line-height: 0.8em; position: relative;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Now it happened when Sanballat, Tobiah, <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12403a" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12403a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+6&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12403a" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote a">a</a>]</span>Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall, and <i>that</i> there were no breaks left in it (though at that time I had not hung the doors in the gates), </span></span></span><span class="text Neh-6-2" id="en-NKJV-12404"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">2 </span>that Sanballat and <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12404b" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12404b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+6&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12404b" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote b">b</a>]</span>Geshem sent to me, saying,</span><span style="color: #38761d;"><b> “Come, let us meet together <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12404c" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12404c" title="See footnote c">c</a>]" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+6&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12404c" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote c">c</a>]</span>among the villages in the plain of Ono.”</b></span> <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>But they thought to do me harm.</b></span></span></span></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-6-3" id="en-NKJV-12405"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">3<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span></span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">So I sent messengers to them, saying</span>, “<span style="color: #cc0000;">I <i>am</i> doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?”</span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-6-4" id="en-NKJV-12406"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">4 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">But they sent me this message four times, and I answered them in the same manner.</span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-6-5" id="en-NKJV-12407"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">5 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Then Sanballat sent his servant to me as before, the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand. </span></span><span class="text Neh-6-6" id="en-NKJV-12408"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">6 </span>In it <i>was</i> written:</span></span></span></p><div class="left-1 top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; margin-left: 1.6rem; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; position: relative;"><p class="first-line-none" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: large;"><b><span class="text Neh-6-6">It is reported among the nations, and <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12408d" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12408d" title="See footnote d">d</a>]" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+6&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12408d" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote d">d</a>]</span>Geshem says, <i>that</i> you and the Jews plan to rebel; therefore, according to these rumors, you are rebuilding the wall, that you may be their king. </span><span class="text Neh-6-7" id="en-NKJV-12409"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">7 </span>And you have also appointed prophets to proclaim concerning you at Jerusalem, saying, “<i>There is</i> a king in Judah!” Now these matters will be reported to the king. So come, therefore, and let us consult together.</span></b></span></p></div><p class="top-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-6-8" id="en-NKJV-12410"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">8 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Then I sent to him, saying</span>, <span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>“No such things as you say are being done, but you invent them in your own heart.”</b></span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-6-9" id="en-NKJV-12411"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">9 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">For they all <i>were trying to</i> make us afraid, saying,</span> “<span style="color: red;">Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done.”</span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-6-9"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">Now therefore, <i>O God,</i> strengthen my hands.</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-6-10" id="en-NKJV-12412"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">10 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Afterward I came to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who <i>was</i> a secret informer; and he said</span>, <span style="color: #800180;">“Let us meet together in the house of God, within the <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12412e" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12412e" title="See footnote e">e</a>]" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+6&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12412e" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote e">e</a>]</span>temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you; indeed, at night they will come to kill you.”</span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-6-11" id="en-NKJV-12413"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">11<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span></span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">And I said,</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> “Should such a man as I flee? And who <i>is there</i> such as I who would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in!” </span></span><span class="text Neh-6-12" id="en-NKJV-12414"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">12 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Then I perceived that God had not sent him at all, but that he pronounced <i>this</i> prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him</span>. </span><span class="text Neh-6-13" id="en-NKJV-12415"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">13<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span></span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">For this reason he <i>was</i> hired, that I should be afraid and act that way and sin, so <i>that</i> they might have <i>cause</i> for an evil report, that they might reproach me.</span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-6-14" id="en-NKJV-12416"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">14<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span></span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">My God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat, according to these their works, and the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who would have made me afraid.</span></span></span></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-6-15" id="en-NKJV-12417"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">The Wall Completed</span></span></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-6-15"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">15 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth <i>day</i> of Elul, in fifty-two days. </span></span><span class="text Neh-6-16" id="en-NKJV-12418"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">16 </span>And it happened, when all our enemies heard <i>of it,</i>and all the nations around us saw <i>these things,</i> that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was done by our God.</span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-6-17" id="en-NKJV-12419"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">17<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span></span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Also in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and <i>the letters of</i> Tobiah came to them. </span></span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span class="text Neh-6-18" id="en-NKJV-12420"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">18 </span>For many in Judah were pledged to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shechaniah the son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah. </span><span class="text Neh-6-19" id="en-NKJV-12421"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">19 </span>Also they reported his good deeds before me, and reported my <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12421f" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12421f" title="See footnote f">f</a>]" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah+6&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12421f" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote f">f</a>]</span>words to him. Tobiah sent letters to frighten me.</span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial; font-size: large;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(43, 0, 254);">…………………………………</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial; font-size: large;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(43, 0, 254);">SO IT IS IN LIFE— AT TIMES WE MUST FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT, FOR SATAN IS EVER READY TO PULL US DOWN, HOW AND WHEN HE CAN—— Keith Hunt</span></span></p><div class="footnotes" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; min-width: 0px;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div></div></div></div>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-35896501662854015312024-03-17T14:22:00.000-07:002024-03-17T14:22:02.563-07:00THROUGH THE BIBLE— NEHEMIAH 5— NO USURY!<p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: x-large;"> <span style="font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial;">Nehemiah 5</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial;"><br /></span></span></p><h1 class="passage-display" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; width: 484.078125px;"><div aria-haspopup="listbox" aria-labelledby="dropdown-d1be4" class="bcv d-container go2888862000" id="dropdown-d1be4" role="button" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-size: 1.6rem; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 16px 0px 0px; min-width: auto; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-display" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex: 1 1 0%; justify-content: space-between; min-width: 0px; padding-right: 20px; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-icon" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px 4px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; white-space: nowrap;" tabindex="0"><svg height="6.5" viewbox="0 0 11.5 6.5" width="11.5" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path d="M11.28.22a.75.75 0 0 0-1.06 0L5.75 4.69 1.28.22A.75.75 0 0 0 .22 1.28l5 5a.73.73 0 0 0 .53.22.74.74 0 0 0 .53-.22l5-5a.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.06z"></path></svg></div></div><span class="d-root"></span></div><div aria-haspopup="listbox" aria-labelledby="dropdown-65bb1" class="translation d-container go2888862000" id="dropdown-65bb1" role="button" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-size: 1.6rem; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 16px 0px 0px; min-width: auto; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-display" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex: 1 1 0%; justify-content: space-between; min-width: 0px; padding-right: 20px; position: relative;"><div class="dropdown-display-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;">New King James Version</div><div class="dropdown-display-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="dropdown-icon" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px 4px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; white-space: nowrap;" tabindex="0"><svg height="6.5" viewbox="0 0 11.5 6.5" width="11.5" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path d="M11.28.22a.75.75 0 0 0-1.06 0L5.75 4.69 1.28.22A.75.75 0 0 0 .22 1.28l5 5a.73.73 0 0 0 .53.22.74.74 0 0 0 .53-.22l5-5a.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.06z"></path></svg></div></div><span class="d-root"></span></div><div class="clearfix" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; float: left; font-size: 1.6rem; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 16px 0px 0px; min-width: auto; position: relative;"></div></h1><div class="passage-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.7em; margin-top: 50px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="passage-content passage-class-0" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;"><div class="version-NKJV result-text-style-normal text-html" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-5-1"><br /></span></h3><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-5-1" id="en-NKJV-12384"><span style="color: #990000;">Nehemiah Deals with Oppression</span></span></h3><p class="chapter-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-5-1"><span class="chapternum" style="bottom: -0.1em; display: inline; font-size: 2.4rem; font-weight: 700; left: 0px; line-height: 0.8em; position: relative;">5 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">And there was a great outcry of the people and their wives against their Jewish brethren. </span></span><span class="text Neh-5-2" id="en-NKJV-12385"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">2 </span>For there were those who said, “We, our sons, and our daughters <i>are</i> many; therefore let us get grain, that we may eat and live.”</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-5-3" id="en-NKJV-12386"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">3 </span><span style="font-size: large;">There were also <i>some</i> who said, <span style="color: #38761d;"><b>“We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.”</b></span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-5-4" id="en-NKJV-12387"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">4 </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">There were also those who said,</span> <span style="color: #bf9000;"><b>“We have borrowed money for the king’s tax <i>on</i> our lands and vineyards. </b></span></span></span><span class="text Neh-5-5" id="en-NKJV-12388"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;"><b><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">5 </span>Yet now our flesh <i>is</i> as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and indeed we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and <i>some</i>of our daughters have been brought into slavery. <i>It is</i> not in our power <i>to redeem them,</i> for other men have our lands and vineyards.”</b></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-5-6" id="en-NKJV-12389"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">6 </span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-5-7" id="en-NKJV-12390"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">7 </span>After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers, and said to them,</span> <span style="color: #990000;">“Each of you is <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12390a" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12390a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah%205&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12390a" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote a">a</a>]</span>exacting usury from his brother.”</span> <span style="color: #2b00fe;">So I <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12390b" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12390b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah%205&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12390b" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote b">b</a>]</span>called a great assembly against them. </span></span><span class="text Neh-5-8" id="en-NKJV-12391"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">8 </span>And I said to them</span>, <span style="color: #990000;">“According to our ability we have redeemed our Jewish brethren who were sold to the nations. Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren? Or should they be sold to us?”</span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-5-8"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Then they were silenced and found nothing <i>to say.</i> </span></span><span class="text Neh-5-9" id="en-NKJV-12392"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">9 </span>Then I said, </span><span style="color: #990000;">“What you are doing <i>is</i> not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies? </span></span><span style="color: #990000;"><span class="text Neh-5-10" id="en-NKJV-12393"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">10 </span>I also, <i>with</i> my brethren and my servants, am lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop this <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12393c" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12393c" title="See footnote c">c</a>]" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah%205&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12393c" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote c">c</a>]</span>usury! </span><span class="text Neh-5-11" id="en-NKJV-12394"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">11 </span>Restore now to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine and the oil, that you have charged them.”</span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-5-12" id="en-NKJV-12395"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">12<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">So they said,<b> </b></span><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>“We will restore <i>it,</i> and will require nothing from them; we will do as you say.”</b></span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-5-12"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Then I called the priests, and required an oath from them that they would do according to this promise. </span></span><span class="text Neh-5-13" id="en-NKJV-12396"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">13 </span>Then I shook out <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12396d" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12396d" title="See footnote d">d</a>]" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah%205&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12396d" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote d">d</a>]</span>the fold of my garment and said</span>, <span style="color: #cc0000;">“So may God shake out each man from his house, and from his property, who does not perform this promise. Even thus may he be shaken out and emptied.”</span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-5-13"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">And all the assembly said</span>, <span style="color: #2b00fe;">“Amen!” and praised the <span class="small-caps divine-name" style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;">Lord</span>. Then the people did according to this promise.</span></span></span></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 20px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-5-14" id="en-NKJV-12397"><span style="color: #990000;">The Generosity of Nehemiah</span></span></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-5-14"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">14</span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;"> </span>Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the governor’s provisions. </span></span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;"><span class="text Neh-5-15" id="en-NKJV-12398"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">15 </span>But the former governors who <i>were</i> before me laid burdens on the people, and took from them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver. Yes, even their servants bore rule over the people, but I did not do so, because of the fear of God. </span><span class="text Neh-5-16" id="en-NKJV-12399"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">16 </span>Indeed, I also continued the work on this wall, and <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NKJV-12399e" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-12399e" title="See footnote e">e</a>]" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Nehemiah%205&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-12399e" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px; vertical-align: text-top;" title="See footnote e">e</a>]</span>we did not buy any land. All my servants <i>were</i> gathered there for the work.</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-5-17" id="en-NKJV-12400"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">17<span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span></span><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">And at my table <i>were</i> one hundred and fifty Jews and rulers, besides those who came to us from the nations around us. </span></span><span class="text Neh-5-18" id="en-NKJV-12401"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">18 </span>Now <i>that</i> which was prepared daily <i>was</i> one ox <i>and</i> six choice sheep. Also fowl were prepared for me, and once every ten days an abundance of all kinds of wine. Yet in spite of this I did not demand the governor’s provisions, because the bondage was heavy on this people.</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Neh-5-19" id="en-NKJV-12402"><span class="versenum" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; position: relative; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">19<span style="background-color: #fcff01; color: #2b00fe;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: #fcff01; color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">Remember me, my God, for good, <i>according to</i> all that I have done for this people.</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial; font-size: large;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(43, 0, 254);">……………………………..</span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; min-width: 0px;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial; font-size: large;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(43, 0, 254);">USURY [LENDING MONEY WITH RATES OF INTEREST] IS NOT ALLOWED IN GOD'S WALK OF LIFE IN ANCIET ISRAEL; SO IT WILL BE IN GOD'S KINGDOM ON EARTJ IN THE AGE TO COME; NEHEMIAH GOVERNED ACCORDING TO GOD'S LAW - Keith Hunt]</span></span></p><div class="footnotes" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial; font-size: 16px; min-width: 0px;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div></div></div></div>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-9046926984583558902024-03-17T14:01:00.000-07:002024-03-17T14:01:22.913-07:00ARCHEOLOGY OF THE BIBLE #5—— CREATION AND MORE<p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: x-large;"> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; letter-spacing: -0.3px; text-indent: -5.3px;">Creation and Flood, the Tower of</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; letter-spacing: -0.3px; text-indent: -5.3px;"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 32.1px; min-height: 27px; text-indent: -5.3px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: x-large;"><span class="s1" style="letter-spacing: -0.3px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 32.1px; text-indent: -5.3px;"><span class="s2" style="letter-spacing: -0.4px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: x-large;">Babel, and the Cities of the Plain</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 32.1px; text-indent: -5.3px;"><span class="s2" style="letter-spacing: -0.4px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 32.1px; min-height: 11px; text-indent: -5.3px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 32.1px; min-height: 11px; text-indent: -5.3px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the first 11 chapters in Genesis are the most-criticized portions of the Bible. They record extraordinary events such as the creation of the world, Noah's cataclysmic flood, and the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel. Critics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have assumed these events were part of a much earlier Mesopotamian myth tradition, in which one's religion and folklore are merely expressions of fantasy, storytelling, or lessons in which great glory is given to the king or one's gods, rather than actual historical narrative. However, upon closer examination of these extra-biblical accounts in relation to the biblical record, we find that the Mesopotamian accounts provide us with an earlier, independent record containing a core historical theme that corresponds to the events recorded in Genesis.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Creation</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The <i>Enuma Elish</i>, the major Mesopotamian (Babylonian and Assyrian) creation account, was originally discovered as part of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipals literary collection, which was unearthed at Nineveh. Other parts of the story were found at Ashur (Assyria) and Uruk. These seven Akkadian cuneiform tablets, taken to the British Museum, were then rediscovered by a young man named George Smith at the British Museum. In 1876 he published their text as <i>The Chaldean Genesis.</i> The tablets were originally composed during the early second millennium BC as a mythic creation account featuring the Babylonian god Marduk as its central creative figure. Its similarities with Genesis were immediately recognized by scholars.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Enuma Elish is not the only story of creation to surface in the ancient Near East. Before the time of Abraham, Egypt had their creation account of Ptah (god of Memphis) who became chief of the other gods, assuming the role of First Principle and the giver of life to all other gods. For the most part, the Egyptian myth of creation with Ptah as the primary mover, according to James Pritchard, was a justification for why the First Dynasty established Memphis as their capital.1 Naturally, Ptah would be given a promotion as first among the creator-gods of Egypt since the privileged location of Memphis would then be accepted by all. There are some similarities of this account with the Genesis record of creation. First, Ptah is said to be the creator of all things. Second, Ptah is the giver of life. Third, the origin of creation began in the creators heart and then was spoken by the tongue.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In Mesopotamia, not long after Abraham left Ur, a more detailed account of creation emerged known as the Enuma Elish. The name of the epic was taken from the opening line of the story, which is translated "When on high...." Here, the story features an assortment of Babylonian gods who represent the physical world such as Apsu (fresh/sweet water), Tiamat (revenge-seeking female deity of oceans/salt water), <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Tiamat (revenge-seeking female deity of oceans/salt water), Ea (the antagonist who kills Apsu), Kingu (son of Tiamat and leader of the revenge-seeking gods), and Marduk (one of many gods in Babylon, who will emerge as the chief creator-god after he promises to vanquish Tiamat and the revenge-seeking others). Marduk emerges as the creator of the constellations (out of the parts of slain Tiamat), firmament, dry land, planets, and human beings. Though creation is one part of the epic, the god Marduk emerges as the myth's main theme. In the end, Marduk is celebrated as the chief of the gods, representing the strength and power of Babylon.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Accounting for Similarities Between Genesis and the Myths</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Critical scholars often argue that the similarities found in the Genesis account to the earlier myths are simply a continuation of the kind of stories we find in the Mesopotamian and Egyptian creation records. After all, both Genesis and these myths tell of a chief god who creates through the spoken word; the natural elements of creation are the same (water, firmament, dryland, light, sun, moon, stars, and humans). Since these Mesopotamian accounts are dated much earlier than Moses' account of creation, it is argued, Moses must have borrowed from them.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Though there are few similarities between the Genesis and mythic accounts, they are too close to simply dismiss as outright coincidence. What can be learned from them is not only found in their thematic similarities, but in their crucial differences. Indeed, the differences are the only way to distinguish one thing from another. This standard practice is found in law-enforcement officers' attempts to make a distinction between counterfeit and genuine currency. Besides this, there are several reasons why conservative scholars do not believe Moses was dependent upon these earlier creation myths.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">First, the critical scholars' overemphasis on similarities has blinded their eyes to the many differences that set the accounts apart as unique. Unlike the mythic stories, the Genesis account offers one monotheistic God as the creator of all things. The Mesopotamian epic speaks of a pantheon of gods involved in creation. Genesis offers a loving and all-powerful Lord as creator, unlike the <i>Enuma Elish,</i> which portrays the gods as conspiring, vengeful monsters who are seeking ill for one another. In the <i>Enuma Elish,</i> human beings are created from the blood of a rebel god and are seen as lowly slaves created to serve and feed the gods. This is in stark opposition to the Genesis account, which records that man was made in the image of God and meant to be like His creator—the highest of His creation. Moreover, in the epic, creation was made out of something evil (Tiamats body) and pre-existing (that is, <i>ex deo</i> or <i>exmateria</i>), whereas Genesis describes a creation from a good source (that is, God) and out of nothing (<i>ex nihilo</i>).</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Second, the similarities may be accounted for by the fact that different groups were writing about the same original historical event (creation). If the creation of the world actually occurred, and various civilizations later reinterpreted the story within the contexts of their polytheistic religions and purposes, it would account for the basic similarities in content. Moses would have received his monotheistic creation account directly from God or from oral tradition that was passed down through Noah and his descendants.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Third, we now know the Genesis account is not dependent on or identified with any earlier Mesopotamia/Egyptian, or Assyrian creation tradition because of the recognized direction of myth. Near-Eastern scholar D. J. Wiseman and others familiar with myth literature (for example, C.S. Lewis) have understood that an early myth can become even more mythical over time, and that earlier historical events can become embellished with myth over time. But never do we see earlier myth traditions (such as these Mesopotamian and Egyptian creation accounts) become more historical-sounding, believable, and simpler over time. The Genesis record is more simple, historical, natural, and believable than these early myth traditions, and therefore it cannot possibly be dependent on them or classified as just another Near-Eastern creation account. The mythical tone is obvious in the <i>Enuma Elish</i>, but it is absent in the Genesis account. The epic tells of Marduk killing Tiamat and splitting her in two parts like a "shellfish" and creating the sky from her body. However, Genesis simply opens with the statement: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). It continues with the simple and natural formula, "Then God said, 'Let there be...'" (Genesis 1:3,6,11,14).</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Fourth, some critical scholars forget that early creation myths are not necessarily concerned with creation per se; rather, they are attempts to justify or elevate the standing of particular deities or cities in the eyes of the people. For example, creation is not the main story of <i>Enuma Elish</i>; it is the relatively unknown Babylonian god Marduk. It appears now that the story is an effort by its author to elevate Marduk as the chief god of Babylon, though prior to this story he was not given prominence among the multitude of other deities. In the above example of the Egyptian account, most scholars recognize that the creation elements present are not the main theme, but the raising of the city of Memphis and its god (Ptah) to prominence in order to justify Memphis as the location of the capital city of Egypt.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">For these reasons, we must consider the Genesis account as an independent historical tradition, without dependency on the earlier Mesopotamian or Egyptian myth literature.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Food</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Epic of Gilgamesh.</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The broken tablet pictured here, dated to the fourteenth century BC, is a fragment of the Mesopotamian flood story known as the <i>Epic of Gilgamesh.</i> This piece was discovered at Megiddo in the 1950s, and is part of a much older tradition that began in 2600 BC. Fragments of 12 tablets have been recovered at various sites spanning different time periods including neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal's (668-627 BC) library at Nineveh, which was destroyed in 612 BC. The extreme popularity of the epic is evident from its wide geographic exposure in lands such as Asia Minor (Anatolia), the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and Babylonia, as well as its translation into Hitrite, Hurrian, and Babylonian cuneiform languages.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">This fragment of the Epic of Gilgamesh was discovered in Megiddo and is a copy of a much earlier version of the flood story. (Photo by Zev Radovan.)</span></i></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Gilgamesh flood tradition emerged from the Sumerian literature tradition of myth and legend (third millennium BC), though most scholars are convinced that Gilgamesh (king of the Sumerian city of Uruk/Erech) was a historical person, as attested in other early documents. Eventually, Gilgamesh's search for immortality and special standing as a god led to his popularity among Mesopotamian readers. As George Smith of the British Museum began translation of the texts in the late nineteenth century, he discovered a story line of a great flood that highly resembled at many points the biblical account of Noah's Flood recorded in the book of Genesis. For example, tablet XI of the <i>epic</i> says the gods were displeased with humans; a god (Ea) warns Utnapishtim (the Babylonian "Noah") to build a square ship with pitch inside and out and to bring animals and family aboard; a weeklong deluge ensues; all of humanity is killed in the flood except the inhabitants of the boat; the boat came to rest on Mount Nisir in Kurdistan; the waters subsided and dry land emerged; the last of three birds sent out did not return; Utnapishtim offers sacrifices to the gods; the gods are saddened; and they grant Utnapishtim divine immortality.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Atrahasis Epic</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This kind of flood story line is also found in the seventeenth-century B C Babylonian <i>Atrahasis Epic.</i> Like the Gilgamesh account, humans have displeased the gods, causing alienation; a god (Enki) warns Atrahasis of the coming flood; the gods instruct Atrahasis how to survive the deluge; Atrahasis builds a boat and gathers animals and birds into it; all mankind is destroyed except Atrahasis, who makes an offering to the gods in order to restore divine-human relations. As the god Enki speaks to Atrahasis concerning the flood the epic reads:</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Flee the house, build a boat, Forsake possessions, and save life. The boat which you build,... be equal.... Roof her over like the depth, so that the sun shall not see inside her, Let her be roofed over fore and aft. The gear should be very strong, the pitch should be firm, and so give (the boat) strength. I will shower down upon you later a windfall of birds, a spate offishes.2</span></i></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Then, Atrahasis brings his family and the animals on board the boat, bolts the door shut, and seals it with pitch. It reads:</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">He brought pitch to seal the door. Adad was roaring in the clouds. The winds were furious as he set forth. He cut the mooring rope and released the boat...the flood [came forth], its power came upon the peoples [like a battle]. One person did not see another, they could [not] recognize each other in the catastrophe. [The deluge] bellowed like a bull, the wind [resound] ed like a screaming eagle. The darkness was dense, the sun was gone....3 </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Other Flood References</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Other references to the Flood have been found in the literature of nearly two dozen civilizations worldwide, including the Chinese, Jewish, Greek, Mexican, Hawaiian, Babylonian, Sumerian, and Algonquin Indian traditions.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">One particular reference to the Flood has been noted in the Sumerian King List, which is dated to the late third millennium BC. The list records pre- and post- flood kings, life spans and length of reigns, reading, "These are five cities, eight kings ruled them for 241,000 years. (Then) the flood swept over the earth. After the flood swept over (the earth) (and) when kingship was lowered (again) from heaven, kingship was (first) in Kish."4 Moreover, the kings prior to the flood are said to have lived extremely long lives—thousands of years. After the flood the life spans were drastically reduced, mostly to hundreds of years. The parallels to Genesis 6—9 in the epics and worldwide presence of flood narratives are striking, which have led some to believe that 1) the story of the great flood is altogether legend, or 2) that the Genesis account simply borrowed from these earlier myth records, or 3) that the Genesis Flood is confirmed by these texts.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">(NOAH'S <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FLOOD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WAS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NOT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WORLD-WIDE, GLOBAL, BUT REGIONAL, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PROVED <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>STUDIES <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ON <span class="Apple-converted-space"> NY</span> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WEBSITE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BUT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PEOPLE'S <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NEAR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DESCENDANTS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NOAH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HIS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FAMILY, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WOULD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NATURALLY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>RECORD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CERTAIN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WAYS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>GREAT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FLOOD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>STORY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Keith Hunt)</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Eridu Genesis</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Thorkild Jacobsen identified an additional flood story written in the Sumerian language, The <i>Eridu Genesis,</i> which most likely took form about 2000 BC. In this account, which is supported by discoveries of flood texts at Ashurbanipal's library in Nineveh and other similar Sumerian and Babylonian documents dated to the seventeenth century BC, the god Enlil sends the flood upon the world. Due to mankinds multiplication of cities and growing population on the earth, there was an increase in "noise" that disturbed the gods' sleep. Enlil decides to end this disturbance with a catastrophic deluge in which only Ziusudra, his family, and the animals he is instructed to bring aboard a boat survive. As with the other Babylonian and Sumerian records, the stories have a familiar order— creation of man and animals, the establishment and growth of kings, people, and cities, and then the flood. The order is identical in the biblical account offered in Genesis. The similarities can be seen when the god Enki informs Ziusudra of the coming flood.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">May you he[ed] my advice! By our hand a flood will sweep over (the cities of) the half-bushel bas[kets, and the country;] [the decision,] that mankind is to be destroyed, has been made. A verdict, a command of the assemb[ ly cannot be revoked]……</span></i></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">At the point when Ziusudra is instructed by Enki to build a boat to survive the coming deluge, the text is lost. Then the account starts again at the flood:</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">All the evil winds, all stormy winds gathered into one and with them, then, the flood was sweeping over the cities...for seven days and seven nights. After the flood had swept over the country, after the evil wind had tossed the big boat about the great waters, the sun came out spreading light over heaven and earth.5</span></i></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">After the waters subside, Ziusudra emerges from the boat and offers a sacrifice to the gods. Because of this, he is promptly rewarded with divine immortality.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Analysis of the Myths vs. Genesis</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Though the Mesopotamian flood accounts read much like myth, the historical reality of such an event behind them cannot easily be dismissed for several reasons.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>First,</b> there are numerous flood stories from different geographical regions and ethnic backgrounds. If the Flood actually occurred, this is what one would expect to see in the historical-archaeological record. Such an event surely would leave a lasting impression on the human psyche and demand an explanation from those who heard about it.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Second,</b> it has been recognized by Near-Eastern scholars (such as Jacobsen) that accounts such as these are part of a mytho-historical tradition in which historical narrative is interwoven with legendary elements that take on the form of the religious culture in which it is written.6 Therefore, we must be careful not to dismiss the historical nature of these accounts, though we must simultaneously recognize myth when it presents itself.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It has also been widely recognized that the biblical Flood narrative found in Genesis 6-9 cannot be dependent on or a product of these mytho-historical accounts; rather, Genesis emerges from its own tradition. There are five reasons for this conclusion.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">1. <i>The worldviews are opposed to each other.</i> The Mesopotamian records reveal a polytheistic or henotheistic (worshipping one main god among others) religious culture—unlike Genesis, which portrays a monotheistic religious environment. In the former, the gods are arbitrary, unduly concerned with selfish desires, and at war with each other. The latter reflects an unchanging and uncompromising divine mind that is concerned for His creation.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">2. <i>The focus of the divine characters is different.</i> In the Mesopotamian accounts, the gods finally realize they need man (for example, the gods become hungry and thirsty because mankind has not made offerings) and what he has to offer the gods. However, Genesis records the opposite: Man is to realize his need for God, and without Him we are prone to wicked selfishness.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">3. <i>Genesis has a world-view progression diametrically opposed to the myth accounts.</i> The Mesopotamian accounts begin with a positive view of existence— mankind originally is dysfunctional and in need of organization, but steadily progresses to a state that becomes better than it originally was. In the end, the survivor of the flood is either immortalized or given divine status. By contrast, Genesis begins with portraying man as "good" in the Garden of Eden, then the situation steadily worsens over time through the sinful and wicked character of mankind. By the end of the account, the survivor (Noah) is rebuked and chastised for inappropriate action. The former account holds to an optimistic view of life, whereas the biblical narrative reflects a pessimistic view of life. The contrast is made clearer when we recognize that the Genesis account is morally corrective, whereas the Mesopotamian stories are preoccupied with personal immortality and the anger of the gods.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">4. <i>The reasons for the flood are different.</i> In the Mesopotamian records the problems that precipitated the flood were nonmoral actions that disturbed the gods (for example, making noise, multiplying population, and so on). Unlike the Mesopotamian stories, Genesis makes clear that the reason for the Flood was due to man's immoral actions and wicked character.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">5. <i>The direction of myth makes literary dependency unlikely for Genesis.</i> As we discussed previously, the earlier Mesopotamian accounts are most certainly mythological in tone, but the later Genesis story possesses a natural and simple tenor. Though earlier myth can be transformed into a more elaborate mythological story line, it certainly does not become more natural, simple, and believable through time as we find in the later Genesis account. For example, compare the earlier Sumerian Kings List, which records the life spans of kings at tens of thousands of years. The later Genesis narrative notes long lives for many antediluvian individuals, yet they are believable because they are within several hundred years. The direction of myth principle eliminates the later Genesis account from being dependent upon the earlier legends.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">For these reasons it is best to classify Genesis within its own historical tradition and as a historical account rather than as part of the Mesopotamian mytho-historical tradition. The following chart will assist in clarifying the differences in the two traditions.</span></i></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Differences <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Mesopotamian <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Genesis <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Flood <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Accounts</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Mesopotamian</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Earlier (third millennium BC)</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mythological tone with some history</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Polytheistic or henotheistic worldview</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Gods are arbitrary and ill-tempered</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Focus is upon gang immortality (survival)</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Originally man is wretched</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Optimistic view of existence </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The problem is growing population and noise</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The solution to the problem is government or king</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Genesis</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Later (fifteenth century BC)</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Historical narrative without mythical tone. </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Monotheistic worldview</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">God is unchanging, patient, moral </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Focus is upon abolishing evil (moral)</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Originally man is good</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Pessimistic view of existence</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The problem is sin and wickedness </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The solution is right relationship to God</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Mesopotamia</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Exaggerated antediluvian life spans</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Savior is hero of story</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Survivor becomes divine or immortal</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Survivor offers sacrifice of appeasement </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The land was replenished by the gods</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Genesis</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Believable antediluvian life spans</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">God is hero of the story</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span>Survivor is rebuked and chastised</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Survivor offers sacrifice of thanksgiving</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s3" style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></span>The land was replenished by human activity</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">See chart and description found in Alfted J. Hoerth, <i>Archaeology and the Old Testament</i> (Gnaid Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), 53; see also K. A. Kitchen, <i>On the Reliability of the Old Testament</i> (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003), 425; Thorkild Jacobsen, "The Eridu Genesis,'' <i>Journal of Biblical Literature,</i> vol. 100, no. 4 (December 1981), 527-529.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Historical and Doctrinal Nature of the Flood</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">For Christians, the historical nature of Noah's Flood is well-established by the New Testament Scriptures, as well as being connected to crucial doctrines of salvation and Christ's second coming. Jesus and Peter refer to the Flood as a historical event and link the story (Matthew 24:37; Luke 17:26) to baptism, a type or picture of what saves us (1 Peter 3:18-22; 2 Peter 2:5), and to the future wicked conditions that immediately precede Christ's second coming (Matthew 24:37-39). This is seen in Peters statement: "Baptism, which corresponds to this [the waters of the Flood], now saves you" (ESV). The Flood provides the historical illustration type for actual salvation. It would make no sense for these statements to be used in support of Christian doctrine if they were actually mythological. It would be absurd to say, "Just as Noah and the Flood are myth, so also this corresponds to real baptism, which is a picture or type of what saves us."</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Tower of Babel</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The record of the tower of Babel is preserved for us in Genesis 11:1-9. There it states that the inhabitants of Shinar were building a city and a tower and spoke one language, but later these languages were confused by God. According to most critical scholars, this event found in Scripture is mythical and certainly could not have taken place in Mesopotamia, where it is said to have occurred. Originally, support for this notion was found in the fact that no extra-biblical Mesopotamian record existed that documented such an incredible event. However, archaeological and canonical sources discovered in Mesopotamia give evidence of the historical nature of the Genesis account of the Tower of Babel. There are several reasons why the Genesis account should be viewed as historical.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Ziggurats</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>First, </b>there have been at least 30 zigzurat tower remains found throughout the Mesopotamian region, the oldest of which was located at Eridu, dating to the late fifth to mid fourth millennium BC (the Ubaid period). Ziggurats are built man ascending stair-stepped pyramid structure similar to the Egyptian pyramids. Though there is still much debate about the function of the ziggurat in Mesopotamian culture, they did include at temple or shrine to a god or gods.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Excavations <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>conducted <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>between 1922 and 1934 by Sir Leonard Woolley at Abrahams birth city of Ur have located the Ziggurat of Ur-Nammu, which was dedicated to the moon-god Nanna. This structure dates to the late third millennium BC. The ziggurat tradition continued down through the Neo-Babylonian and Persian period as attested through excavations conducted at Babylon, where the city's ziggurat was discovered. The timing and multiple remains throughout the Mesopotamian region confirm there actually existed towers of the sort mentioned in Genesis 11.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Second,</b> the building materials described in Genesis are consistent with those used to build Mesopotamian ziggurats. Genesis 11:3 reports that the builders sought to use "bricks" that were thoroughly "burnt" as well as "bitumen for mortar" (ESV). Near-Eastern scholars have recognized that sun-dried bricks were in use within the area of Canaan by the eighth millennium BC (Neolithic Period); by the sixth millennium B C sun-dried bricks appear in Mesopotamian sites such as the Samarran area. The Ziggurat of Ur-Nammu at Ur is an example of a tower structure that originally rose over 200 feet high, with its outer walls built of sun-dried mud bricks and bitumen mortar. This type of mortar was expensive; it was reserved for government and cultic buildings of importance, and stands in contrast to the mud mortar used in Israel during earlier periods. In contrast to sun-dried bricks, fired/baked bricks appear in the fourth millennium BC and are used with bitumen mortar, making the wall structure extremely strong.7</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">(NOTICE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MAN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HAS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BEEN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ON <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>EARTH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FOR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>LONGER <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THAN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>4004 <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>B. C. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BISHOP <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>USHER <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TRIED <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>GIVE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CREATION <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ADAM <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>EVE. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BIBLE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CANNOT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>USED <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"CHRONOLOGY" <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BACK <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ADAM <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>EVE. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>GOD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NOT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WORKING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ON <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>7,000 <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>YEAR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PLAN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SOME <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HAVE/DO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TEACH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Keith Hunt)</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Confusion of Languages</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Third,</b> Mesopotamian literature reflects the biblical account of the confusion of languages. For example, the fourth-millennium BC* Sumerian legend known as <i>Enmerkar</i> and the <i>Lord of Aratta</i>. appears to contain allusions to a unified language and the subsequent diversifying of language by the gods. The larger story is composed around two main figures, Enmerkar, who is the priest-king who ruled in Uruk, and the lord of</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">* <i>Though reflecting a tradition of the fourth millennium BC, the extant copy was most likely composed in the late third millennium BC.</i></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Aratta, who ruled a city (Aratta) located far to the east of Uruk, and their love for the woman Inanna. Inanna is the lord of Aratta's wife; however, it appears that Inanna loved Enmerkar more than she did her husband. A series of intellectual challenges between the two men is designed so one can gain the upper hand. The portion of the epic that contains the reference to the languages makes up part of a subsection called "The Spell of Nudimmud." Jacobsens translation reads:</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">In those days, there being no snakes, there being no scorpions, there being no hyenas, there being no lions, there being no dogs or wolves, there being no (thing) fearful or hair-raising, mankind had no opponents— in those days in the countries Subartu, Hamazi, bilingual Sumer* being the great country of princely office, the region of Uri being a country in which was what was appropriate, the country Mardu lying in safe pastures, (in) the (whole) compass of heaven and earth the people entrusted (to him) could address Enlil, verily, in but a single tongue... .Enki, lord of abundance, lord of effective command, did the lord of intelligence, the country's clever one, did the leader of the gods, did the sagacious omen-revealed lord of Eridu estrange the tongues in their mouths+ as many as were put there. The tongues of men which were one.++8</span></i></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some have suggested that these statements refer to the confusion of languages as an actual historical event that has been embedded in mythic language, similar to what we have seen with the Flood and creation accounts.** This appears to be the case since the god Enki is involved, the deity associated with the historical peoples of Eridu. The confusion of language is an event the memory of the people would not soon forget. It may very well be a recounting of the story of what happened in Shinar in terms of the causal connection between their god(s) and the confusion of language.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The </b><i>Word</i><b> Babel</b></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Fourth, it is also interesting to note that the word Babel*** the term associated with this event by God (Genesis 11:9) is still used today to refer to unintelligible speech. (<i>What</i></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">* Samuel Kramer translates this as "harmony-tongued" in Samuel Noah Kramer, "The Babel of Tongues: A Sumeriau Version," in <i>Joumal of the American Oriental Society</i> 88, no. 1:108-111.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">+ In "The Babel of Tongues" Kramer translates "estrange the tongues in their mouths" as "changed the speech in their mouths."</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">++ In "The Babel of Tongues" Kramer translates "The tongues of men which were one" as "Into the speech of man that (until then) had been one."</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">** As was the case for creation and the Flood, the presence of widespread testimony to the confusion of languages is expected to emerge from various people groups. For more on the confusion of language from other cultures see James George Frazer, <i>Folk-Lore in the OldTestament;</i> <i>Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend and Law</i> (New York: Macmillan Company, 1923), 384ff, in which he mentions cultures in Kenya (the Wasania), Australia, California (the Maidu), Guatemala (the Quiche Maya), and the Tlingit of Alaska, to name a few.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">*** Though the term means "the gate of God," it sounds like the Hebrew word for "confused" (<i>balat</i>). For more on the word association of "Babel" see Mark L. Howard, "Therefore it was called Babel," <i>Journal of Creation </i>23 (3) 2009,56-57.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>are you babbling about?</i>) It is also interesting that the Mesopotamian city (and area) of Babylon adopted this name from early times; Babylon is in the general vicinity of the land of Shinar, where the events originally took place. It is not only Babylon's beginnings that have been associated with the confusion of language; its fall as an empire is associated with unintelligible writing on the wall to the last Babylonian king, Belshazzar (Daniel 5).</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Theories of Language Origin</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">What is more, of the two main theories of the origin and development of language— namely, the <i>monogenesis theory,</i> which holds that all people come from a common genetic and linguistic source and the language evolved over time into diverse languages, and the <i>candelabra theory,</i> which holds that languages began in different separate geographical locations and developed based on the social grouping of the population—-neither can adequately explain the diverse linguistic phenomena we experience today. The former theory does not allow enough time for the linguistic evolution to take place. The latter theory cannot explain the presence of similar words and speech, which implies a common original language and not a radical division in geographical groups. However, the Genesis account of the Tower of Babel episode appears to overcome these problems, since all people spoke the same language originally, and the time needed to diversify the worlds languages is explained by the supernatural and immediate confusion of languages. Furthermore, the fact that there are today multiple languages utilized around the world is a consistent modern testimony to the result of such an extraordinary historical event. Despite our limited understanding of how the diversity of language occurred, the effects described in Genesis 11 are consistent with what we experience as a phenomenon in our modern world.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">(AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WORLD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THEN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BEING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ONE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>LANGUAGE…. WELL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TODAY'S <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WORLD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>GOING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SAME <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WAY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WITH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"ENGLISH" <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>LANGUAGE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NEARLY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ALL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NATIONS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NOW <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SPEAK <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ENGLISH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FIRST <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SECOND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>LANGUAGE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Keith Hunt)</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Though external evidence for the confusion of languages in Genesis 11:1-9 is admittedly thin, certainly it is consistent with the biblical account offered in the Scriptures.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Ancient Sodom.</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Discovery</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">The stone and mud-brick ruins of Bab edh-Dhra located southeast of the Dead Sea.</span></i></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The famed biblical "cities of the plain" (Genesis 10; 13:10-13; 19) were once thought by critical scholars to be merely legendary places used by biblical authors to explain a moral metaphor. In 1924, William P. Albright set out to explore the southern end of the Dead Sea, looking for the city of Sodom. As a result, he posited that the city lay beneath the Dead Sea waters, since the water level must have risen over the centuries. Later investigations of the southern sea floor revealed that the waterline had indeed risen as Albright suspected; however, no ancient structures were found. Albright began to survey an area near the southeast shores of the Dead Sea in modern Jordan, the city of Bab edh-Dhra pictured here, which he dated to the Early Bronze Age (3150—2200 B C).</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bab edh-Dhra was later excavated, in the mid-1960s, by Paul Lapp and again in 1973 by Walter Rast and Thomas Schaub. Evidence shows this well-settled and fortified city was equipped with a massive cemetery, homes, building structures, monoliths, cultic structures—enough infrastructure to house a large number of inhabitants. The examination of the cumulative data has revealed that the city was destroyed by an enormous fire, which is confirmed by an extremely thick layer of ash present at the site. In view of these facts, many scholars (including Bryant Wood) have identified Bab eclh-Dhra as the biblical city of Sodom.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">However, more recent ongoing research conducted by Dr. Steven Collins at the northeastern end of the Dead Sea region (in Jordan) has offered promising evidence supporting the northern location of Tall el-Hammam as the city of Sodom.9</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Background and Setting</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sodom and the other "cities of the plain" are referenced early within the table of nations (Genesis 10) and extend to the period of Abraham (Genesis 13; 19). Genesis 19:28 describes Sodom at the time of its destruction as existing in the "land of the valley [plain]." Collins argues for the location of Sodom based on 40 salient points about the geography of the cities of the southern Jordan valley. When referencing the biblical data, Collins noticed the word used for "plain," or in some translations "valley," is the Hebrew kik-kar, which means "disk" or "circle." The word is used in Old Testament Hebrew over 50 times to refer to "a talent of metal" or a "circular flat loaf of bread," but none of these usages employ the definite article to convey a sense of location (geography).</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Tall el-Hammam, southwest view of the upper tell surface.</span></i></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">However, there are 13 rare geographical usages of<i> kikkar</i> (found only in the Old Testament); 10 of these are found in the context of the Sodom story, which places the location of Sodom in the eastern disk of the southern Jordan valley (Genesis 13:1-12; immediately north of the Dead Sea).</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Collins notes that there are many other standard Hebrew terms for "plain" and "valley," but these are always avoided when the Bible speaks of the <i>kikkar </i>of the Jordan or the "cities of the kikkar." From an aerial map looking down on the<i> kikkar</i> it reveals that Jericho resides at the western edge of the disk, southeast of Bethel/Ai, where Abraham was positioned when he saw the smoke rising from Sodom after its destruction (Genesis 13:3-4). Genesis tells of Lot separating from Abraham; Lot saw that the Jordan <i>kikkar</i> (valley) was well-watered, like the Lord's garden and the land of Egypt (Genesis 13:10), so he travelled east and lived in the cities of the valley and pitched his tent near Sodom (Genesis 13:12). The Scriptures say that Lot viewed the entire Jordan disk with his naked eye, something that would be impossible when looking south toward Bab edh-Dhra. Moreover, Sodom was considered one of the cities of the plain, and no city south of the "mouth of the Jordan" (<i>hayarden</i>), like Bab edh-Dhra, would be considered as belonging to the cities of the <i>kikkar</i>. To include Bab edh-Dhra in the cities of the disk would force an unnatural meaning on the term <i>kikkar</i>. The "kikkar of the Jordan" appears to refer only to the disk-shaped alluvial plain directly east of Bethel/Ai and north of the Dead Sea; thus Sodom must be located on the eastern side of the Jordan disk. This conclusion is confirmed by Genesis 10:19, which describes the cities of the plain as the eastern extent of the Canaanite clans.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Tall el-Hammam is the largest tell in the southern Levant, with the upper tell alone measuring over 80 acres. (Photo courtesy of Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project [TeHeP].)</span></i></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Collins has identified Sodom's location as Tall el-Hammam, which is situated on the eastern edge of the Jordan disk, eight miles northeast of the mouth of the Jordan (hayarderi). It is the largest tell in the southern Levant, measuring 1,000 meters long and containing within its walls 85 acres, a much smaller area than the general occupational spread beyond the walls of 240 acres. The <i>tell</i> itself is comprised of a massive upper and lower area that most likely dates to the Early Bronze Age. The enormous size of the area was anticipated since 1) it is represented by the Bible to be the largest Bronze Age urban center in the eastern <i>kikkar,</i> much larger than Jericho, Jerusalem, and any other city in the southern Jordan valley; 2) it is the only<i> kikkar</i> city mentioned by itself; 3) King Bera of Sodom is the only spokesperson within the military coalition formed by the cities of the plain (Genesis 14:17-24); 4) Lot was accustomed to sitting in the gates of the city (Genesis 19:1), thus implying defensive fortification; 5) it was situated in close proximity to a major east-west trade route; 6) it had access to abundant fresh water and rich agricultural soil; 7) it had excellent sight lines into the Jordan valley; and 8) it is always mentioned first when speaking of the eastern cities of the plain.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Key Confirmations of Tall el-Hammam as the site of Sodom</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Human remains discovered at Sodom in the Middle Bronze Age destruction layer. (Photo courtesy ofTall el-Hammam Excavation Project [TeHeP].)</span></i></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>In addition to other high-heat indicators unearthed at Tall el-Hammam such as the thick layer of ash and debris, charred human remains, and destruction debris, this 4.5-inch-long piece of a melted Middle Bronze Age storage jar (in left of photo) was discovered. Its "frothy" and "glassy" melted appearance reveals that the sherd was briefly exposed to temperatures that far exceeded 2,000° F (which is about the same heat as volcanic magma). Additional melted sherds have been discovered at various locations across the site, indicating that the city was destroyed in a sudden, intense, high-heat catastrophic event A similar "melting" phenomenon resulting from brief high-heat exposure is found in the two small greenish pieces of Trinftite (or "desert glass," pictured in right of photo) taken from ground zero at the United States atomic weapon test area in New Mexico. Astoundingly, analysis of some soil and sand samples from Tall el-Hammam shows they possess qualities similar to Trinitite. (Photo by Michael C. Luddini. Courtesy of Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project [TeHeP].</i>)</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">After eight seasons of excavation at the site, Collins has discovered several key indicators that confirm the city as Sodom.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>First</b>, an abrupt occupational gap of several centuries immediately after the Middle Bronze Age II (1800-1550 BC) offers a perfect fit for the timing of the destruction of Sodom. For some reason, the city was no longer inhabited, which appears strange since it was located on a major trade route, had freshwater springs, possessed fortifications, and was located close to the Jordan River. Sodom had location, location, location! However, during the time of Moses and Joshua (1400 BC) the eastern Jordan disk ("plains of Moab") is called "the wasteland" below Pisgah (Numbers 21:20), which is consistent with the timing of its destruction and the lack of Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 BC) and Iron Age I (1200-1000 BC) material at the site.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Excavators at the <i>tell</i>, this author (Joseph Holden) being one of them, have noticed the transition from the Middle Bronze Age directly into the sudden appearance of occupation that begins in the tenth century BC (Iron Age II). An example of this abrupt transition can be seen in Field D on the upper <i>tell</i>. Our excavation team uncovered a massive Iron Age II defensive wall built over the Middle Bronze Age mud-brick fortification rampart. It appears the city lay in ruins for several centuries after the conflagration, until it was possibly rebuilt as one of the largest cities in the area under Solomon, as his administrative capital of the Gilead district (1 Kings 4:19).</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Second</b>, Tall el-Hammam contains a massive destruction and ash layer (one meter thick in some areas) distributed at various locations of the Middle Bronze Age layer of the city. The site reveals extensive destruction by fire of architectural features such as roofs, dwellings, walls, fortification barriers, as well as personal items such as jewelry, tools, and pottery. In addition to these, one of the most sobering and striking features involves human remains that depict catastrophic destruction. It appears that many of the inhabitants' bones are charred and distorted, like those pictured, and are situated in a way that indicates a violent high-heat flash event that may have thrown inhabitants to the western side of their dwellings, showing that the destruction could have originated from the east.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Theories positing an earthquake, accompanied by natural gas and bitumen released into the air, as responsible for the destruction have been largely dismissed since the nature of the destruction is not consistent with architectural collapse or lurching, nor is there evidence of pressurized gas and bitumen in the northern Dead Sea area. Besides, if an earthquake were responsible, the city would have simply been rebuilt immediately, as any city at a prime location such as this would have been.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Third</b>, in addition to the architectural destruction, distorted human remains, and pottery, environmental analysis of the site has revealed high-heat indicators that are consistent with the biblical description of Sodom's fiery destruction. For example, one sample of Middle Bronze Age pottery had its surface transformed into glass. After visual and scientific testing of the shard, its transformation could only be explained by an extreme high-heat flash event; only a temperature of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit (much hotter than kilns of that day could heat pottery) could achieve such a process. Related to this, samples of area soil and sand have been examined. These samples give evidence of a high-heat event that was hot enough to turn desert sand into "desert glass," a phenomenon more associated with lightning, airbursts, or atomic explosions in the deserts of New Mexico than the once fertile Jordan River valley. Collins describes the high-heat catastrophic remains when he says:</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">The latest Middle Bronze Age layer at Tall el-Hammam consists of 1.5 to 3 feet of heavy ash and destruction debris. A fortified town was then built atop the upper tall in the tenth century B.C.E. All of Tall el-Hammam and associated eastern kikkar sites also lay in ruins for this same period of time—-approximately seven centuries. The terminal destruction layer at Tall el-Hammam lies across both the upper and lower tall and consists of a matrix of heavy, dark ash mixed with fragments of pottery, mudbricks, a wide range of object fragments and human bone scatter. Numerous pottery fragments of this matrix lie across the site and have outside surfaces melted into glass, with some bubbled up like "frothy" magma, indicating they were burned in a flash heat event far exceeding 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The conflagration must have yielded extremely high heat and effected catastrophic damage.10</span></i></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In support of these archaeological finds are the many geographical reasons why Tall el-Hammam fits the biblical account of Sodom. As mentioned, Dr. Steven Collins has compiled a massive assortment of geographical data, some of which is adapted in the chart below. (For a complete listing of Collins's points, see appendix B, "Ascertaining the Geography of the Cities of the Plain: 40 Points.")</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Which Location of Sodom Accounts for the Biblical Geography of Genesis 13:1-12?</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Geographfical Criterion <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>for <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Bab edh-Dhra <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Tall el-Hammam</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Located on the <i>kicker </i>of the Jordan River</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bab <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Tall <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>YES</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Located on the kicker that is visible from Bethel/Ai</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bab <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Tall <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>YES</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Located on the farthest edge of the Jordan disk (perhaps easternmost of <i>kicker </i>cities)</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bab <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Tall <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>YES</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In area watered like the Garden of Yahweh</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bab <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MAYBE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Tall <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>YES</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In area of <i>hayarden </i>watered like Egypt</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bab <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Tall <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>YES</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In area of annual delta (<i>hayrden</i>) inundation (watered like Egypt)</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bab <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Tall <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>YES</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In lands east of Canaan boundary</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bab <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>YES <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Tall <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>YES</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Accessed by traveling eastward from Bethel/Ai</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bab <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Tall <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>YES</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Likely located on major east-west trade route</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bab <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Tall <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>YES</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">From Steven Collins, "40 Salient Points on the Geography of the Cities of the Kikkar," in <i>Biblical Research Bulletin</i>, vol. 7, no. 1: 5ff. Used by permission.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">*See Steven Collins and Latayne C. Scott, <i>Discovering the City of Sodom </i>(New York: Simon and Schuster/Howard Books, 2013).</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Biblical Significance</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ancient writers in the Near East, whether they were writing myth or history always used actual geographical markers familiar to them to adequately communicate their story. In the case of Tall el-Hammam, the geographical information appears to have exceeded the customary criteria needed to typically consider an ancient ruin a confirmed biblical city. Many existing biblical sites have been confirmed based on much less geographical evidence than that offered for Tall el-Hammam. Indeed, after reviewing the still-increasing amount of archaeological, biblical, and geographical evidence, if one denies that Tall el-Hammam is the biblical city of Sodom, every biblical city that has been confirmed on less than epigraphical evidence must be called into question.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Tall el-Hammam location seems to possess everything needed to be consistent with the biblical data and the historical context of the Middle Bronze Age, including the following:</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">1. It is confirmed by Middle Bronze Age chronology based on pottery reading, stratigraphy, and architectural design;</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">2. it displays catastrophic destruction of infrastructure with high-heat indicators; </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">3. pottery and human remains depict massive destruction with high-heat indicators; </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">4. it evidences an occupational hiatus for several centuries after its destruction as attested by Numbers 21:20 and absence of Late Bronze Age materials; </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">5. 40 points attest to Sodom's geographical location within the eastern <i>kikkar</i> (see appendix B, "Ascertaining the Geography of the Cities of the Plain: 40 Points"); </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">6. at least a dozen ancient cities exist in close proximity, none of which are major urban centers in the eastern Jordan disk; </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">7. the enormous size of the tell fits with the biblical descriptions of the site as a massive urban city-state; </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">8. the mud-brick sloping fortifications (glacis) descending approximately 100 feet from the outer walls of the upper tell down to the surface of the lower tell match the biblical account of Sodom's gates; </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">9. it is located east of Bethel/Ai; and </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">10. the site would be within view of Abraham while he was at or near Bethel, so he would have been able to see the smoke rising from Sodom after its destruction.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bab edh-Dhra does not appear to fit with the Middle Bronze Age dating or the geographical details mentioned in Scripture. The site is much too early (2600 BC) to fit with the Middle Bronze Age lives of Abraham and Lot.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Worthy of note is the fact that Sodom is the only major Bronze Age urban center mentioned in the Bible located on the eastern Jordan disk, and that Tall el-Hammam is the only major Bronze Age urban center on the eastern Jordan disk. There are a handful of other cities; however, they are much too small to be considered major urban centers by any means. In other words, Tal el-Hammam appears to be in the right place, in the right time, with the right stuff.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">These sixth-to seventh-century AD ruins (located near the Dead Sea in Jordan) of a Byzantine monastery and church mark the traditional site of Lot's cave. Genesis 19:30-38 tells of Lot and his two daughters fleeing from Sodom to Zoar to escape Sodom's fiery destruction. Later, they moved to the hills, where they settled in a cave (entrance pictured far left). The Madaba Map lists the Church of St. Lot in this very location; several mosaic floors dating to the sixth and seventh century AD—some of which bear dedications to "St. Lot"-—attest to this site as an early place of pilgrimage</span></i></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">………………..</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-size: large;">Taken from the book: THE POPULAR HANDBOOK of ARCHAEOLOGY and the BIBLE by Holden and Geisler </span><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CONTINUED</span></p>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-16564873676620813422024-03-16T23:46:00.000-07:002024-03-16T23:46:01.257-07:00ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE #4— ARCHEOLOGY AND THE OLD TESTAMENT<p> <b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: x-large;">ARCHEOLOGY AND THE OLD TESTAMENT</span></b></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27px; text-align: justify;"><b></b><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Archeological Evidence and the Bible</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Archaeology of the Old Testament offers us many benefits, such as the ability to clarify and illuminate past events, understand customs and cultures, and historically confirm people and places mentioned in Scripture. As noted in part 5, liberal scholarship has traditionally dismissed the Bibles narratives if they did not have extra-biblical support such as an inscription, literature, or an artifact. Moreover, some scholars (both liberal and evangelical) have allowed extra-biblical materials to determine the historicity of a given passage.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Gemariah seal impression was discovered at the City of David. Its paleo-Hebrew inscriprion reads, "Belonging to Gemaryahu [Gemariah] [son of] Shaphan." Gemariah and Shaphan are mentioned in the books of Jeremiah (36:10-12,25) and 2 Kings (22:3). Shaphan was the scribe under King Jehoiakim. (Photo by Zev Radovan.)</span></i></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Both approaches appear to unfairly marginalize the Bible, making it a second-class source, while simultaneously elevating extra-biblical materials and literature as primary sources. We must not forget that the Bible is the strongest and most reliably supported piece of literature from the ancient world in terms of its transmission (copy accuracy), number of manuscripts and their early dates, as well as being a historical document itself. Near-Eastern historian Edwin Yamauchi emphasizes the commonness of this fallacy among scholars in his book <i>The Stones and the Scriptures,</i> (1972).1 According to Yamauchi, the fallacy in thinking here is reflected in the notion that one cannot believe the biblical narratives unless there is corroborating material evidence sourced outside of Scripture. Though consistency between the two domains (that is, external sources and the Bible) is desirable, it has been made by some to be a necessary precondition of historicity.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Those who have adopted this latter approach display a presupposition of biblical skepticism from the outset. This is seen in cases where earlier external evidence (for example, an inscription) is found to overlap a later biblical text. There are occasions when discrepancies between the two sources are discovered and subsequently a later biblical narrative is discarded and the external source is upheld as reflecting earlier, accurate history.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">However, Yamauchi correctly notes that one cannot simply demand external corroboration of sources due to the fragmentary nature of the evidence and the kings vanity (that is, distortion or exaggeration) often present in earlier ancient inscriptions. Only a fraction of the archaeological evidence has survived the ravages of time and then been surveyed, excavated examined and published according to Yamauchi. Therefore, the demand for corroboration in every instance does not appear reasonable or productive. For example, there are many cases in which biblical persons had no corroboration until recent times. Among these are Pontius Pilate (first external corroboration discovered in 1961), Herod the Great (1965), and the Roman governor Felix (1966). It seems best to assume the Bible is historically reliable until evidence beyond reasonable doubt shows otherwise.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Dealing with the Lack of Data</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Scholars who demand corroboration prior to determining historicity have essentially engaged in an argument from silence. That is to say, they will not affirm the historicity of a biblical narrative because the historical record is silent on the issue. We must remember a fundamental principle: The lack of archaeological data relating to the Bible is not evidence against the historicity of the Bible. There is no guarantee that future excavations will not turn up corroborating evidence. Successful discoveries, some mentioned earlier in this book, have put to rest numerous debates concerning the historical nature of many biblical passages. These include discoveries relating to the existence of the Hittite civilization, Solomon, David, Balaam, Canaanites, and numerous biblical cities mentioned in Scripture, to name a few.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Archaeology also has its limitations. Although it deals with artifacts, features, measurements, and tangible data, archaeology also involves many interpretive judgments and probabilities. Any interpretations and conclusions must be considered in light of human fallibility and the sparse nature of the data itself. As mentioned above, this is compounded by the fact that only a small amount of the evidence has survived and can be either isolated or disconnected from its in-situ- environment. Floods, fires, warfare, natural deterioration, burial, temperature, political climate and time, have all collaborated to make the discovery of biblical artifacts difficult. Therefore, archaeology cannot be classified as an "exact" science; but neither can any empirical science for that matter. Despite its limitations, archaeology is governed by generally accepted principles and methods as a forensic science and is a valuable tool in uncovering the past. Therefore, archaeology has become an indispensable discipline in the historian's tool belt to unearth data supporting the historical reliability of the Bible beyond a reasonable doubt.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Archaeology of the Old Testament</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The base of an olive press is visible in the tenth-century BC ruins of the Philistine city of Gath (Tel es-Safi), Goliath's hometown. In approximately 830 BC the city was destroyed by the Aramean king Hazael (2 Kings 12:17), and later conquered by Nebuchadnezzar II on his way to Jerusalem.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">There are a greater number of artifacts that correspond to the Old Testament than those relating to the NewTestament. This is not because archaeologists have been unsuccessful in locating NewTestament sites, but because the storyline of the Old Testament has a much longer history to cover and for which to accumulate material remains (2500 BC to 400 BC) than does the NewTestament (7 BC to AD 100). Naturally, the Old Testament narratives offer more data to process and evaluate. Moreover, the Old Testament communities tended to use permanent materials, such as stone, which gave the artifact a greater chance to survive through the centuries of erosion. In addition, the older remains have been buried and preserved more securely than the more recent NewTestament materials, which are nearer the surface. By the time the NewTestament arrived, much writing was committed to more easily perishable substances like papyrus, which made for easier transport and storage.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">There is a growing confidence among many ancient Near-Eastern archaeologists today in the historical nature of many of the cities, people, and stories mentioned in the Old Testament. For example, 50 years ago it was not uncommon for Near-Eastern scholars to suggest that there were over 25,000 sites dating to Old Testament times that had been identified.2 However, today archaeologists have continued to locate remains from biblical times—a number that should increase anyone's confidence in the descriptions of customs and cultures mentioned in Scripture. This is primarily due to past and recent excavations that are unearthing biblical places such as the Temple Mount Walls and administrative buildings (under Benjamin Mazar and Leen Ritmeyer), the City of David (under Eilat Mazar), the Philistine city of Gath (under Aren Maeir), Sodom (under Steven Collins), Ai (under Bryant Wood), Hazor (under Yigael Yadin), Jericho (under Kathleen Kenyon), Qumran (under Roland de Vaux), and the Pool of Siloam (under Eli Shukron and Ronny Reich) among others, not to mention the Temple Mount Sifting Project (under Gabriel Barkay). Today, all the major biblical cities and geographical features have been located, including Jerusalem, Jericho, the Sea of Galilee, the Galilee region, the Dead Sea, the Jordan River, Caesarea, Dan, Caesarea Philippi, Beth Shan, Gezer, Hazor, Beersheba, Megiddo, Memphis, Alexandria, Luxor, Thebes, Babylon, Nineveh, Athens, Thessalonica, Corinth, Rome, Ephesus, Philippi, Smyrna, and dozens more.3</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Currendy, there are approximately 60 biblical figures in the Old Testament that have been identified through historical and archaeological research. These include Nebuchadnezzar II, Belshazzar, Sennacherib, Darius, Xerxes, Artaxerxes I, Cyrus, Jeroboam, Baruch the scribe of the prophet Jeremiah, Shema the servant of Jeroboam II, David, Solomon, Balaam, and many other kings of Israel and Judea, among others.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Along with these finds comes an increased awareness of the ancient past, and a more informed reconstruction of the people and places of</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Front and back view of a first-century AD silver Tyre shekel. Judas would have received 30 of these coins after betraying Jesus.</span></i></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">the Bible. However, the discoveries of inscriptions, coins, literature, architectural features, and the like, offer the archaeologist greater challenges in deciphering how these pieces fit together in biblical and extra-biblical history. The reason for this is that in every excavation there is data collected that has to do with the peoples, places, and events that surround the biblical storyline, though they are not necessarily mentioned in the Bible. There have been no contradictions demonstrated thus far, though many difficulties indeed remain. This part of the book is dedicated to assisting our readers in understanding some of the more crucial artifacts and remains that have a more direct bearing on validating the historical reliability of the Old Testament.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">……………….</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-size: large;">Taken from the book: THE POPULAR HANDBOOK of ARCHAEOLOGY and the BIBLE by Holden and Geisler </span><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CONTINUED</span></p>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-10401544637939613612024-03-16T23:37:00.000-07:002024-03-16T23:37:50.626-07:00DETAILED HISTORY OF APOSTOLIC CHURCH #4— MIRACLE OF PENTECOST<p> </p><center><h1 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 24pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">History of the Church #4</span></h1><h2 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">The Miracle of Pentecost</span></h2></center><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="60" cellspacing="3" style="color: black;"><tbody><tr align="left" valign="top"><td align="left" valign="top"><blockquote><b><pre style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #385243;">CHURCH HISTORY
From the multi-volume work of Philip Schaff (latter part of the
1800s)
THE MIRACLE OF PENTECOST
The ascension of Christ to heaven was followed ten days
afterwards by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon earth and the
birth of the Christian Church. The Pentecostal event was the
necessary result of the Passover event. It could never have taken
place without the preceding resurrection and ascension. It was
the first act of the mediatorial reign of the exalted Redeemer in
heaven, and the beginning of an unbroken series of manifestations
in fulfilment or his promise to be with his people "alway, even
unto the end of the world." For his ascension was only a
withdrawal of his visible local presence, and the beginning of
his spiritual omnipresence in the church which is "his body, the
fulness of him that filleth all in all." The Easter miracle and
the Pentecostal miracle are continued and verified by the daily
moral miracles of regeneration and sanctification throughout
Christendom.
</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(See how Schaff was brain-washed into the "Easter" stuff which of
course he would have grown up in from a child, never questioning
the tradition, although his study of Church Hitory of the 2nd
century A.D. should have smashed him right between the eyes, as
Easter was the replacement by the Roman church for Passover -
Keith Hunt)</span><span style="color: #385243;">
We have but one authentic account of that epoch-making event, in
the second chapter of Acts, but in the parting addresses of our
Lord to his disciples the promise of the Paraclete who should
lead them into the whole truth is very prominent, and the entire
history of the apostolic church is illuminated and heated by the
Pentecostal fire.
Pentecost, i.e. the fiftieth day after the Passover-Sabbath,
was a feast of joy and gladness, in the loveliest season of the
year, and attracted a very large number of visitors to Jerusalem
from foreign lands. It was one of the three great annual
festivals of the Jews in which all the males were required to
appear before the Lord. Passover was the first, and the feast of
Tabernacles the third. Pentecost lasted one day, but the foreign
Jews, after the period of the captivity, prolonged it to two
days. It was the "feast of harvest," or "of the first fruits,"
and also (according to rabbinical tradition) the anniversary
celebration of the Sinaitic legislation, which is supposed to
have taken place on the fiftieth day after the Exodus from the
land of bondage.
</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(Such rabbinic traditions as the law given on Pentecost, is
proved in studies on my website to be totally false and made up
by the Pharisees Jews - Keith Hunt)</span><span style="color: #385243;">
This festival was admirably adapted for the opening event in
the history of the apostolic church. It pointed typically to the
first Christian harvest, and the establishment of the new
theocracy in Christ; as the sacrifice of the paschal lamb and the
exodus from Egypt foreshadowed the redemption of the world by the
crucifixion of the Lamb of God. On no other day could the
effusion of the Spirit of the exalted Redeemer produce such rich
results and become at once so widely known. We may trace to this
day not only the origin of the mother church at Jerusalem, but
also the conversion of visitors from other cities, as Damascus,
Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome, who on their return would carry
the glad tidings to their distant homes. For the strangers
enumerated by Luke as witnesses of the great event, represented
nearly all the countries in which Christianity was planted by the
labors of the apostles.
The Pentecost in the year of the Resurrection was the last Jewish
(i. e. typical) and the first Christian Pentecost. It became the
spiritual harvest feast of redemption from sin, and the birthday
of the visible kingdom of Christ on earth. It marks the beginning
of the dispensation of the Spirit, the third era in the history
of the revelation of the triune God. On this day the Holy Spirit,
who had hitherto wrought only sporadically and transiently, took
up his permanent abode in mankind as the Spirit of truth and
holiness, with the fulness of saving grace, to apply that grace
thenceforth to believers, and to reveal and glorify Christ in
their hearts, as Christ had revealed and glorified the Father.
While the apostles and disciples, about one hundred and twenty
(ten times twelve) in number, no doubt mostly Galileeans, were
assembled before the morning devotions of the festal day, and
were waiting in prayer for the fulfilment of the promise, the
exalted Saviour sent from his heavenly throne the Holy Spirit
upon them, and founded his church upon earth. The Sinaitic
legislation was accompanied by "thunder and lightning, and a
thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet
exceeding loud, and all the people that was in the camp
trembled." The church of the new covenant was ushered into
existence with startling signs which filled the spectators with
wonder and fear. It is quite natural, as Neander remarks, that
"the greatest miracle in the inner life of mankind should have
been accompanied by extraordinary outward phenomena as sensible
indications of its presence." A supernatural sound resembling
that of a rushing mighty wind, came down from heaven and filled
the whole house in which they were assembled; and tongues like
flames of fire, distributed themselves among them, alighting for
a while on each head. It is not said that these phenomena were
really wind and fire, they are only compared to these elements,
as the form which the Holy Spirit assumed at the baptism of
Christ is compared to a dove. The tongues of flame were gleaming,
but neither burning nor consuming; they appeared and disappeared
like electric sparks or meteoric flashes. But these audible and
visible signs were appropriate symbols of the purifying,
enlightening, and quickening power of the Divine Spirit, and
announced a new spiritual creation. The form of tongues referred
to the glossolalia, and the apostolic eloquence as a gift of
inspiration.
"AND THEY WERE ALL FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT." This is the
real inward miracle, the main fact, the central idea of the
Pentecostal narrative. To the apostles it was their baptism,
confirmation, and ordination, all in one, for they received no
other. To them it was the great inspiration which enabled them
hereafter to be authoritative teachers of the gospel by
tongue and pen. Not that it superseded subsequent growth in
knowledge, or special revelations on particular points (as Peter
received at Joppa, and Paul on several occasions); but they were
endowed with such an understanding of Christ's words and plan
of salvation as they never had before. What was dark and mys-
terious became now clear and full of meaning to them. The Spirit
revealed to them the person and work of the Redeemer in the light
of his resurrection and exaltation, and took full possession of
their mind and heart. They were raised, as it were, to the mount
of transfiguration, and saw Moses and Elijah and Jesus above
them, face to face, swimming in heavenly light. They had now but
one desire to gratify, but one object to live for, namely, to be
witnesses of Christ and instruments of the salvation of their
fellow-men, that they too might become partakers of their
"inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven."
But the communication of the Holy Spirit was not confined to the
Twelve. It extended to the brethren of the Lord, the mother of
Jesus, the pious women who had attended his ministry, and the
whole brotherhood of a hundred and twenty souls who were
assembled in that chamber. They were "all" filled with the
Spirit, and all spoke with tongues; and Peter saw in the event
the promised outpouring of the Spirit upon "all flesh," sons and
daughters, young men and old men, servants and handmaidens. It is
characteristic that in this spring season of the church the women
were sitting with the men, not in a separate court as in the
temple, nor divided by a partition as in the synagogue and the
decayed churches of the East to this day, but in the same room as
equal sharers in the spiritual blessings. The beginning was a
prophetic anticipation of the end, and a manifestation of the
universal priesthood and brotherhood of believers in Christ, in
whom all are one, whether Jew or Greek, bond or free, male or
female.
This new spiritual life, illuminated, controlled, and directed by
the Holy Spirit, manifested itself first in the speaking with
tongues towards God, and then in the prophetic testimony towards
the people. The former consisted of rapturous prayers and anthems
of praise, the latter of sober teaching and exhorta tion. From
the Mount of Transfiguration the disciples, like their Master,
descended to the valley below to heal the sick and to call
sinners to repentance.
The mysterious gift of tongues, or glossolalia, appears here for
the first time, but became, with other extraordinary gifts of the
Spirit, a frequent phenomenon in the apostolic churches,
especially at Corinth, and is fully described by Paul. The
distribution of the flaming tongues to each of the disciples
caused the speaking with tongues. A new experience expresses
itself always in appropriate language. The supernatural
experience of the disciples broke through the confines of
ordinary speech and burst out in ecstatic language of praise and
thanksgiving to God for the great works he did among them. It was
the Spirit himself who gave them utterance and played on their
tongues, as on new tuned harps, unearthly melodies of praise. The
glossolalia was here, as in all cases where it is mentioned, an
act of worship and adoration, not an act of teaching and
instruction, which followed afterwards in the sermon of Peter.
It was the first Te Deum of the new-born church. It expressed
itself in unusual, poetic, dithyrambic style and with a peculiar
musical intonation. It was intelligible only to those who were in
sympathy with the speaker; while unbelievers scoffingly ascribed
it to madness or excess of wine. Nevertheless it served as a
significant sign to all and arrested their attention to the
presence of a supernatural power.
So far we may say that the Pentecostal glossolalia was the same
as that in the household of Cornelius in Ceesarea after his
conversion, which may be called a Gentile Pentecost, as that of
the twelve disciples of John the Baptist at Ephesus, where it
appears in connection with prophesying, and as that in the
Christian congregation at Corinth.
But at its first appearance the speaking with tongues differed in
its effect upon the hearers by coming home to them at once in
their own mother-tongues; while in Corinth it required an
interpretation to be understood. The foreign spectators, at least
a number of them, believed that the unlettered Galileeans spoke
intelligibly in the different dialects represented on the
occasion. We must therefore suppose either that the speakers
themselves were endowed, at least temporarily, and for the
particular purpose of proving their divine mission, with the gift
of foreign languages not learned by them before, or that the Holy
Spirit who distributed the tongues acted also as interpreter of
the tongues, and applied the utterances of the speakers to the
susceptible among the hearers.
The former is the most natural interpretation of Luke's language.
Nevertheless I suggest the other alternative as preferable, for
the following reasons: 1. The temporary endowment with a
supernatural knowledge of foreign languages involves nearly all
the difficulties of a permanent endowment, which is now generally
abandoned, as going far beyond the data of the New Testament and
known facts of the early spread of the gospel. 2. The speaking
with tongues began before the spectators arrived, that is before
there was any motive for the employment of foreign languages. 3.
The intervening agency of the Spirit harmonizes the three
accounts of Luke, and Luke and Paul, or the Pentecostal and the
Corinthian glossolalia; the only difference remaining is that in
Corinth the interpretation of tongues was made by men in audible
speech, in Jerusalem by the Holy Spirit in inward illumination
and application. 4. The Holy Spirit was certainly at work among
the hearers as well as the speakers, and brought about the
conversion of three thousand on that memorable day. If he applied
and made effective the sermon of Peter, why not also the
preceding doxologies and benedictions? 5. Peter makes no allusion
to foreign languages, nor does the prophecy of Joel which he
quotes. 6. This view best explains the opposite effect upon the
spectators. They did by no means all understand the miracle, but
the mockers, like those at Corinth, thought the disciples were
out of their right mind and talked not intelligible words in
their native dialects, but unintelligible nonsense. The speaking
in a foreign language could not have been a proof of drunkenness.
It may be objected to this view that it implies a mistake on the
part of the hearers who traced the use of their mother-tongues
directly to the speakers; but the mistake referred not to the
fact itself, but only to the mode. It was the same Spirit who
inspired the tongues of the speakers and the hearts of the
susceptible hearers, and raised both above the ordinary level of
consciousness.
Whichever view we take of this peculiar feature of the
Pentecostal glossolalia, in this diversified application to the
cosmopolitan multitude of spectators, it was a symbolical
anticipation and prophetic announcement of the universalness of
the Christian religion, which was to be proclaimed in all the
languages of the earth and to unite all nations in one kingdom of
Christ. The humility and love of the church united what the pride
and hatred of Babel had scattered. In this sense we may say that
the Pentecostal harmony of tongues was the counterpart of the
BabyIonian confusion of tongues.
The speaking with tongues was followed by the sermon o Peter; the
act of devotion, by an act of teaching; the rapturous language of
the soul in converse with God, by the sober words of ordinary
self-possession for the benefit of the people.
While the assembled multitude wondered at this miracle with
widely various emotions, St. Peter, the Rock-man, appeared in the
name of all the disciples, and addressed them with remarkable
clearness and force, probably in his own vernacular Aramaic,
which would be most familiar to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
possibly in Greek, which would be better understood by the
foreign visitors. He humbly condescended to refute the charge of
intoxication by reminding them of the early hour of the day, when
even drunkards are sober, and explained from the prophecies of
Joel and the sixteenth Psalm of David the meaning of the
supernatural phenomenon, as the work of that Jesus of Nazareth,
whom the Jews had crucified, but who was by word and deed, by his
resurrection from the dead, his exaltation to the right hand of
God, and the effusion of the Holy Ghost, accredited as the
promised Messiah, according to the express prediction of the
Scripture. Then he called upon his hearers to repent and be
baptized in the name of Jesus, the founder and head of the
heavenly kingdom, that even they, though they had crucified him,
the Lord and the Messiah, might receive the forgiveness of sins
and the gift of the Holy Ghost, whose wonderful workings they saw
and heard in the disciples. This was the first independent
testimony of the apostles, the first Christian sermon: simple,
unadorned, but full of Scripture truth, natural, suitable,
pointed, and more effective than any other sermon has been since,
though fraught with learning and burning with eloquence. It
resulted in the conversion and baptism of three thousand persons,
gathered as first-fruits into the garners of the church.
In these first-fruits of the glorified Redeemer, and in this
founding of the new economy of Spirit and gospel, instead of the
old theocracy of letter and law, the typical meaning of the
Jewish Pentecost was gloriously fulfilled. But this birth-day of
the Christian church is in its turn only the beginning, the type
and pledge, of a still greater spiritual harvest and a universal
feast of thanksgiving, when, in the full sense of the prophecy
of Joel, the Holy Spirit shall be poured out on all flesh, when
all the sons and daughters of men shall walk in his light, and
God shall be praised with new tongues of fire for the completion
of his wonderful work of redeeming love.
..................
To be continued
Note </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Schaff's last sentence: yes the prophecy of Joel in its
context, is yet in the future, at the time of the end of this
age, when Jesus will return, when mighty miracles will accompany
his return. This passage of Joel I have expounded in my book "The
Biblical Prophets for Toady" and is all on my website</span><span style="color: #385243;"> - Keith Hunt
</span></span><span style="color: #385243; font-size: 12pt;">
</span></pre></b></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-84876324184623192372024-03-16T23:26:00.000-07:002024-03-16T23:26:33.947-07:00BREIF HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY #36— THE CHURCH AND THE SCIENTISTS<p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: medium;"><b>BREIF HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY #36 </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 32px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 32px;"><span style="color: red;">THE CHURCH AND THE SCIENTISTS</span></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 32px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 37px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">One of those historical myths that enjoy popular currency, even though they cannot survive the scrutiny of serious historical study, is that, at the dawn of the Christian era, there was a thriving Hellenistic scientific culture that Christianity — through some supposed hostility to learning and reason — methodically destroyed; and that this Christian antagonism to science persisted into the early modern period - as is evident from Galileo's trial in Rome - until the power of the Church was at last broken, and secular faculties of science began to appear.</span></p><p class="p8" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.6px 0px 0px; min-height: 11px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">[The geocentric view of the universe postulated by the brilliant mathematician and astronomer Ptolemy, as portrayed by the German mapmaker Andreas Cellarius in his celestial atlas of 1660, Harmonia Macrocosmica. Ptolemy's system held sway until the modern development of new theories of motion]</span></i></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 6.7px 0px 0px 0.9px; min-height: 11px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This story is impossible to reconcile with the historical evidence, ancient, Medieval, or modern. It misrepresents the characters both of Hellenistic science and of early Christianity, as well as that of Medieval intellectual culture; and it entirely belies the fascinating reality that, in the 16th and 17th centuries, Christian scientists educated in Christian universities and following a Christian tradition of scientific and mathematical speculation overturned a pagan cosmology and physics unchallenged since the days of Aristotle.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.9px 0px 0px 82.1px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Ancient and Medieval Science</span></b></p><p class="p11" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.9px 0px 0px 82.1px; min-height: 11px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">There never was a particularly advanced culture of Hellenistic 'science' — at least, not in the sense the word has now: a systematic and analytic use of experiment and observation to correct and refine hypotheses. Careful astronomical observation had led to the invention of the astrolabe, some of the remedies prescribed by medical 'science' were effective (or, at least, not harmful), some fine work in the geometry of optics was achieved by Ptolemy (c. 100—c. 170), and a few clever mechanical inventions had appeared by the end of the first century ad; but Greek science had never been much interested in concrete experiment, and as a whole had declined towards encyclopaedism and commentary before the Christian age. But research of a sort did persist in Alexandria, and was pursued during the Christian period as avidly by Christian scholars as by pagan.</span></p><p class="p12" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cosmology was at once the most elaborately developed and the most static area of scientific erudition. From antiquity through the late Middle Ages, almost all scientists - pagan, Christian or Muslim - accepted some version of the Aristotelian model of the universe, and some version of Ptolemy's attempt to describe a geocentric universe mathematically. According to the former, the stationary earth is surrounded by a series of revolving concentric crystalline planetary spheres, the lowest of which contains the moon; the 'sublunar' realm is the region of change and decay, of the elements of air and fire, earth and water; the 'superlunar' realm, however, is composed of the 'quintessence' or 'aether', and there all is changeless.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Beyond the farthest planetary sphere lies the sphere of the fixed stars. And the whole machinery of the cosmos is driven by its outermost sphere, the 'first moved'.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ptolemy's exquisitely complex model of the heavens was an attempt to make this model of reality somehow consonant with the observable movements of heavenly objects - including the apparent 'retrograde' movement of certain planets — but this, in the end, was impossible. Ptolemy was forced to introduce such bizarre devices as 'eccentrics' (extraterrestrial axes for certain planetary orbits), 'equants' (imaginary secondary axes that allowed orbits to be measured as mathematically uniform) and 'epicycles' (small local orbital axes located within the planetary spheres) into his calculations. Nor did Ptolemy trouble overly much about empirical observation (one could disprove his description of the lunar cycle, for instance, simply by looking at the moon several nights in succession). None of his mathematical devices, moreover, was compatible with Aristotelian physics, but — while scientists occasionally attempted to improve upon the model thus produced - few ever thought to reject it outright.</span></p><p class="p12" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">One exception to this rule was the sixth-century Christian scientist John Philoponus, who speculated that heavenly bodies are in fact mutable, that above the atmosphere there was perhaps a vacuum, that the stars were not (as pagan scientists believed) spiritual intelligences, but merely masses of fire, and that the planets might move by an 'impressed' impetus. A few later Muslim astronomers addressed Philoponus' ideas, without adopting them, and by that route they entered into Western Christian scholastic science, where they were taken up and explored by men like Thomas Bradwardine (c.1290-1349), Richard Swineshead (ft. 1348), Jean Buridan (1300-58) and Nicholas Oresme (c. 1320-82).</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p14" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.6px 0px 0px 48.7px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Heliocentric Revolution</span></b></p><p class="p15" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.6px 0px 0px 48.7px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) was a beneficiary of this tradition; but he was the first Christian theorist explicitly to argue for a heliocentric cosmos, in his treatise <i>De revolutionibus orbiutn coelestium</i> (published 1543). His argument was not particularly compelling, as it happens; his mathematical models were defective and almost as<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>complicated as Ptolemy's (and as fraught with 'epicycles'). His basic model did seem to explain why Mercury andVenus remain always near the sun, but so did the later system of Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) according to which all the planets above revolve around the sun, while only the sun revolves directly around the earth. By the time of the trial of the most famous defender of the Copernican theory, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), many of the best astronomers (a great many of whom were Jesuits) had adopted the 'Tychonic' model.</span></p><p class="p12" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">When challenged by theologians, Galileo quite correctly appealed to the Church Fathers to defend the claim that the scriptures ought not to be mistaken for cosmological treatises. In the 17th century, though, under the pressure of Protestant criticism, the Catholic Church had become much more diffident in the latitude with which it read scripture, and had begun to incline towards greater literalism. That said, in the years leading up to his trial, Galileo had enjoyed the esteem of many prominent churchmen; several Jesuit astronomers helped to confirm many of his telescopic observations; and even when his Copernican sympathies became clear in 1613 he was not censured by ecclesial authority. Galileo's most important admirer and ally in the Church, in fact, was Cardinal Maffeo Barberini (1568-1644), who in 1623 became Pope Urban VIII - the very man who would ultimately command Galileo to recant.</span></p><p class="p12" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Galileo, however, was a frequently unpleasant man, who often refused to give other scientists credit for their own discoveries, belittled those he saw as rivals (such as Johannes Kepler), and insisted on provoking disputes. His demands for unconditional acceptance of his theories led to an ecclesial consultation in 1616. When he failed to produce a single convincing proof for his position, the consultation admonished him against teaching Copernican theory as a fact. Even so, Urban himself encouraged Galileo to write the book that became the Dialogue concerning the Two Chief World Systems, the Ptolemaic and Copernican (1632), enjoining only that it include a statement to the effect that Copernican theory was only an unproven hypothesis. Galileo did include such a statement in his dialogue, but placed it on the lips of a clownishly obtuse character named Simplicio.</span></p><p class="p12" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Galileo on trial in Rome. It is a myth that Galileo was tortured by the Roman Inquisition (though, in keeping with the unsavoury forensic procedures of the time, he was reminded that torture could be applied as a penalty for perjury). But he definitely was ordered to recant his Copernicanism, an instruction with which he complied.</span></p><p class="p16" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">This seemed an unwarranted insult of a generous friend; Urban took offence and resolved upon a trial. Moreover, as it turned out, Urban was quite right about the unproven nature of the Copernican theory. For all his brilliance as a physicist, Galileo was an amateur astronomer at best, and seemed unaware how mathematically and empirically incoherent Copernicus' book was. The only evidence he provided for the Earth's movement was a theory about the tides that was completely irreconcilable with observable tidal sequences. He could have defended heliocentrism better if he had been willing to adopt Kepler's theory of elliptical planetary orbits — of which he was aware — but he was loath to do so.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The ultimate effect of Rome's authoritarian meddling was to make the Church hierarchy appear ridiculous. The case was, though, an aberration, and not a true indicator of the relation between the Catholic Church and the sciences. In fact, the Church was a generous patron of the sciences, while the Jesuits fostered many of the most original scientific minds of the age. But the embarrassment created for the Catholic Church by Urban's outraged pride has never entirely faded.</span></p><p class="p12" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p17" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 13.2px 0px 13.9px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">COSMIC HARMONIES</span></b></p><p class="p17" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 13.2px 0px 13.9px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="p18" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was a brilliant astronomer, natural scientist, theorist of optics and mathematician, but was also a metaphysician, an astrologer and something of a mystic; in his youth, he had intended to become a theologian, and to the end of his life he regarded his scientific endeavour as a sacred vocation, which allowed him to discover the sublime harmonies informing creation, and the ways in which the Trinity is reflected in them. In Copernicus' heliocentrism - which he encountered in the early 1590s - Kepler believed he had found (if only in intuitive form) a model of the cosmic order that adequately mirrored the divine governance of the universe: the sun's centrality being, as it were, a physical symbol of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit ruling over and guiding all things. And even in his discovery of the elliptical shape of planetary orbits (in which he was aided by Tycho Brahe's meticulously precise astronomical observations) he believed he could discern depths of geometric perfection in which the divine archetypes of all things shone forth.</span></p><p class="p12" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p18" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Though a devout Lutheran, Kepler had no interest in sectarian disputes; he was on good terms with many Calvinists and Catholics (with many friends and protectors among the Jesuits). He was content to labour under Catholic or Lutheran princes; he was not, however, shown comparable tolerance. At one point, he was expelled from the Lutheran communion; at another, Catholic authorities confiscated his books and told him to send his children to mass.</span></p><p class="p12" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p18" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Kepler, though, laboured on, inspired to the end by his vision of a cosmic order of intricate beauties and delicate concords. The work that probably best expresses his vision of reality is his <i>Harmonices Mundi</i> of 1619, in which he gave free rein to his Christian Platonist and semi- Pythagorean tendencies. He described there the structure of the cosmos in terms of a 'universal music', found in all the geometric ratios of the natural order, and especially in the subtle consonances - and spiritual influences -between heavenly bodies and the human soul.</span></p><p class="p18" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">.....................</span></p><p class="p16" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p18" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CONTINUED</span></p><p class="p12" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-76867814795637102002024-03-16T23:20:00.000-07:002024-03-16T23:21:15.410-07:00BREIF HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY #35——COLONIES AND MISSIONS<p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: medium;"><b>BREIF HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY #35</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 32px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 32px;"><span style="color: red;">COLONIES AND MISSIONS</span></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 32px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 37px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">From the time of the rise of the Islamic caliphate to the early modern period, Christendom was ever more strictly confined to Europe, and Christianity was largely a European faith, with a few isolated and often beleaguered outposts to the South and East. In the 16th and 17th centuries, however, Christianity became a truly global faith, spreading to the South, West and East. In part, this happened by way of colonization of the newly discovered Americas, and in part by way of missions. And among the Christian missionaries of the age, the most remarkable were the Jesuits.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The way to European settlement of the Americas was, of course, opened by the four transatlantic voyages of Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), from 1492 to 1504, and so Spain — which sponsored Columbus's venture — became the first European nation to profit from and establish itself in the New World. By 1497, however, England gained a foothold in the Americas by its sponsorship of another Italian explorer, Giovanni Caboto (c. 1450—r. 1499) - or John Cabot - the discoverer of Newfoundland. The 1500 voyage of the Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvarez Cabral (1467-1520) opened up Brazil. And, between 1523 and 1528, Giovanni da Verrazzano (1485-1528) - who ended up being eaten by cannibals in the Antilles - planted the French standard in North America and the 'West Indies'.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.9px 0px 0px 0.9px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The New World</span></b></p><p class="p7" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.9px 0px 0px 0.9px; min-height: 11px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The nations that established colonies in the New World, needless to say, were interested primarily in the acquisition of territory and the gathering of spoils, not in the advance of Christianity into heathen lands. But where the new colonial empires spread, missionaries followed. And in some cases, as with the Jesuit missions to Latin America, these missionaries were the only allies the indigenous peoples had against governments that wished to enslave or displace them. A testament to the idealism and the talents of the Jesuits of Latin America were the 'Reductions' (reducciones) they established in Paraguay, Argentina and southern Brazil: these were autonomous Indian communities, with townships, schools, churches, libraries, public arts and native industries; from 1609 to 1768, many of these Reductions together constituted an independent republic, administered only by the Society of Jesus. Ultimately, though, Spain and Portugal invaded and destroyed the Reductions, seized the land, subjugated the Indians, and expelled the Jesuits.</span></p><p class="p8" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The English settlements in North America were not organized imperial ventures, but independent colonies; and their religious configurations were determined by the conditions of their original charters, and in part by the vicissitudes of English religious history. It is imprecise, but not entirely inaccurate, to say (using the terms provided by the English Civil Wars of 1642 to 1651) that the colonies of the South - Virginia (1607), Maryland (1634) and Carolina (1670) - were 'Cavalier' country, while the colonies of the North were generally 'Roundhead' or 'Puritan'. During the reign (1625-49) of Charles I (1600-49), for instance, thousands of English Puritans fled persecution at home to the New England settlements; and during the years of the Commonwealth in England, many Cavaliers migrated to Virginia. Maryland was a special case, since it began as a haven for English Catholics. Its charter was granted by Charles I in 1632 to Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore (1605-75), who established the colony in 1634. In 1649, moreover, the Maryland General Assembly instituted the 'Act of Religious Toleration', which granted full freedom of worship to all Christian communions. In 1650, however, Puritans sheltering under that toleration overthrew the government and outlawed Catholicism and Anglicanism both. With their defeat in 1658, the Act of Toleration was re-instituted; but, after England's installation of the Protestant monarchs William III (1650-1702) and Mary II (1662-94), an Anglican establishment was imposed on Maryland and Catholicism was suppressed.</span></p><p class="p8" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">[There is a sketch of a mission by Father Florian Paucke, a Swiss Jesuit who lived and worked with the Mocobi people of the Chaw region of Argentina]</span></i></p><p class="p9" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.9px 0px 0px; min-height: 1px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p10" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 31px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Jesuit Missions in Ethiopia and India</span></b></p><p class="p11" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 31px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b><br /></span></p><p class="p12" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 31px; min-height: 11px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">From its beginning, the Society of Jesus was a missionary order, and the first mission for which Ignatius Loyola requested papal authorization was to Ethiopia, where Portugal had conducted various embassies since 1490. The mission was a failure, since most Ethiopians were already Christians, and so the purpose of any Catholic mission could be only to promote submission to Rome. The Jesuit Pedro Paez (1564-1622) - who came to Ethiopia in 1603 - did procure a profession of such submission from the emperor Malak Sagad III (1572-1632), who hoped thereby to attract Western military assistance; and the emperor did try to impose Roman Catholicism on his people. Paez's successor, Alfonso Mendez, arrived in 1624 and, with the emperor's help, immediately set about suppressing all native Christian practices; when this provoked revolt, however, Mendez did not hesitate to have indigenous 'heretics' burned. The emperor was forced to abdicate in 1632 in favour of his son Fasilidas (d.1662), who promptly expelled all Catholic missionaries.</span></p><p class="p8" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The missions to India were far more successful, though (again) the indigenous Christians were not well served by them. The Portuguese ruled in Goa, in the southwestern part of the subcontinent, and it was here that the Catholic missions arrived. The most famous of the Jesuit missionaries to preach in India was St Francis Xavier (1506—52), who won thousands of converts among the fishermen of the south. In 1560, however, an Inquisition was established, in large part to enforce conformity of the St Thomas Christians of India to Roman rule; over the next century, in the course of various insurrections, almost all of the ancient literature of the Indian Christians - and a few of the Christians themselves — were consigned to the flames. When the Dutch seized most of the Malabar region in the 1660s, the St Thomas community regained much of its liberty; but it was a divided community ever thereafter.</span></p><p class="p13" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p14" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.9px 0px 0px 1.7px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Far East</span></b></p><p class="p15" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.9px 0px 0px 1.7px; min-height: 11px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Jesuit missions to Japan began in 1549, in the vanguard of Portugal's mercantile embassies. Francis Xavier was the first to arrive, and found the island empire extraordinarily fertile ground for the propagation of Christian beliefs. And, indeed, converts were made in every class; even certain powerful feudal lords embraced the new faith, along with many of their samurai and commoner subjects. Later in the century, though, Dominicans and Franciscans, sponsored by Spain, also began to arrive in the country, which led to a number of unseemly disputes among the different missionary orders. In the end, however, there was nothing for which to fight. In 1587, the prime imperial minister Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-98) outlawed Christianity among the aristocracy and instituted the first persecutions of Japanese Christians and foreign missionaries; in 1597, 26 Christians (20 of them native Japanese) were crucified in Nagasaki. And in 1614 the first Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu (1543-1616), inaugurated the total ban on Catholicism that remained in place until 1873. During those centuries, though, a small number of Japanese 'Kirishitans' kept the faith in secret, without priests or catechists.</span></p><p class="p8" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">As a rule, Catholic missionaries to the East were better able consistently to exhibit Christ-like gentleness in lands where their missions could not become implicated in the politics of empire. The Tibetan missions of Jesuits such as Antonio de Andrade (1580-1634) and Ippolito Desideri (1684—1733), for instance, were necessarily marked by humility and a certain intellectual generosity. And the Jesuit missions in China that began in 1582 were originally models of peaceful intellectual and cultural exchange, in large part because the most remarkable of the missionaries to China - Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) and Michele Ruggieri (1543-1607) - wished to aid in the creation of a genuinely Chinese Christianity, in harmony with native forms of piety and philosophy, and as untainted by 'Europeanism' as possible. Ricci was especially drawn to Confucianism (the dominant tradition among the rich and educated) through which he believed divine truth had made itself known to the Chinese from ancient times. Ruggieri, by contrast, was drawn to Taoism (which flourished more among persons of lower estate) and believed that it was principally under the form of the Tao that a knowledge of God's eternal Logos had entered China. This difference occasionally caused tension between the two men's converts; but both Ricci and Ruggieri passionately believed in the presence of a 'primordial revelation' in Chinese tradition, and that the philosophical and spiritual riches of that tradition might one day - as had once happened with the traditions of Greece and Rome — be assumed into a new Christian cultural synthesis.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">THE CHINESE RITES</span></b></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="p17" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Matteo Ricci believed that, if Christianity was to be made credible in the eyes of the Chinese people, it should not offend against their natural pieties and ceremonial forms. Many of the indigenous rites of the Chinese - such as offerings made in honour of the emperor, their ancestors, Confucius, or Shang-ti (the Heavenly Emperor, or God) - he regarded as perfectly admirable expressions of civilized reverence and entirely compatible with Christianity.</span></p><p class="p8" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p17" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Early in the 17th century, however, the 'Chinese Rites Controversy' broke out between, on the one side, the Jesuits, who generally subscribed to Ricci's view, and, on the other, the Dominicans and Franciscans in China, who saw such rites as inherently heathen, idolatrous and even demonic in inspiration. The latter appealed to Rome, which forbade all such rites for Chinese Christians in 1645, only to reverse its decision in 1656 after a Jesuit appeal. Yet the controversy did not abate, and in 1704, 1715 and 1742, Rome issued decrees prohibiting the Chinese rites; the last of these, promulgated by Benedict XIV (1676-1758), even forbade any further discussion of the matter.</span></p><p class="p8" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p17" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The papal bull of 1715 proved a grave<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="s1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>misfortune for European missions in China.The Kangxi emperor (1654-1722) - the greatest of the Manchu Qing dynasty emperors, and perhaps the greatest ruler China ever possessed - had until then been quite well disposed to the Christians; he especially valued the scientific knowledge, scholarship and artistic skills of the Jesuits who served in the imperial court, and in 1692 issued a decree of toleration of Christian worship in China, particularly commending the<span class="s1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>peaceful nature of this 'venerable' faith.<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p18" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 2.2px 0px 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p17" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">When the Kangxi emperor read the papal bull in 1722, however - which not only banned all the <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>traditional Chinese rites, but forbade Christians even to refer to God by such traditional Chinese names as Shang-ti or Tien (Heaven), or to mark their churches with the traditional temple sign 'Reverence for Heaven' - he reacted with a decree in which he berated the 'occidentals' for their pettiness, their ignorance and their bigotry (reminiscent, he said, of the bigotry of certain Buddhist or Taoist sects), and prohibited all further Christian evangelization in China.</span></p><p class="p17" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">....................</span></p><p class="p19" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p17" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CONTINUED</span></p><p class="p19" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p17" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: times; font-size: large;">IT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WAS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BEGINNING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CHURCH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ROME <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SPREAD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AROUND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WORLD, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WITH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>VARIOUS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>UPS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DOWNS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SUCCESS. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BUT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OVER <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CENTURIES <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>COME <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SHE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WOULD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>INFLUENCE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MOST <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NATIONS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WORLD, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FOR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>EXAMPLE, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CELEBRATION <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>JANUARY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>1ST <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NEW <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>YEAR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DAY, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NOW <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OBSERVED <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>JUST <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ABOUT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ALL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NATIONS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ON <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>EARTH.....THIS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ROMAN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CATHOLIC <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ADOPTION <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FROM <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PAGAN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ROME.</span></p><p class="p19" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p17" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: times; font-size: large;">READING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>REVELATION <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>17 <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TELLS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>YOU <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ABOUT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THIS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BABYLON <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BEAST <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>POWER <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HER <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SPIRITUAL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FORNICATION <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MAKING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WHOLE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WORLD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DRUNK, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HER <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ALSO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FOUND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BLOOD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TRUE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SAINTS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>GOD.</span></p><p class="p19" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p17" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: times; font-size: large;">THERE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>VERY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DARK <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SIDE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ROMAN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CHURCH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MANY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ITS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>POPES. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BOOK <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HAS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BEEN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WRITTEN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ON <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THIS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DARK <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SIDE, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WHICH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HAVE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ONE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DAY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WILL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>UPLOAD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>UNDER <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THIS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SECTION <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WEBSITE.</span></p><p class="p17" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p17" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: times; font-size: large;">IT IS DONE. SO IS THE BOOK "THE DARK SIDE OF THE POPES."</span></p><p class="p19" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p17" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Keith Hunt</span></p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-29175353736441513952024-03-16T23:09:00.000-07:002024-03-16T23:09:49.213-07:00 SECRETS OF LOST RACES #7— MOMENTS IN STONE!!—END<p> </p><center><h1 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 24pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Monuments in STONE!!</span></h1><h2 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">Just How was it Done?</span></h2></center><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="60" cellspacing="3" style="color: black;"><tbody><tr align="left" valign="top"><td align="left" valign="top"><blockquote><b><pre style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;"><span style="color: #385243; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #385243;">Mystery MONUMENTS of the Builders
During the last twenty-five years, and particularly within
the last decade, serious questions have continually been raised
concerning the validity of the theory of evolution. They have
emerged not only from such areas of research as biology,
genetics, paleontology and geology, but also from the study of
archaeology, the science dealing with man's early products. All
over the world, on almost every continent, stand the remains of
colossal edifices of stone which, though admired for millennia,
have only recently been subjected to the scrutiny of men of
science in an attempt to probe the mysteries of their purpose and
construction.
What has been found by these men is one gigantic mass of
contradictions.
The popular view of history today is that we began in an
animal existence and stumbled along over an undetermined length
of time to eventually become a humanoid creature, only to pass
again through successive stages of crude tool making. This last
period is called the Stone Age. We are told that after all this
we finally achieved civilization in Egypt and Mesopotamia,
through another lengthy process of trial and error mixed with
cultural invention and assimilation.
Sounds far-fetched? Yes, it does; yet this is the orthodox
view of history. This view, however, is increasingly being
challenged. Rather than corroborating the concept of slow,
gradual development of the arts and knowledge, a concept in line
with evolutionary theory, the monuments left by our early
ancestors point decidedly to an advanced technology in the remote
past, which either matches or surpasses our own.
There have been, of course, many theories formulated in
recent years in attempts to explain the origin of the ancient
edifices, but a satisfactory explanation cannot be found until
these theories are linked to those accomplishments of
antediluvian technology that somehow survived into the
postdiluvian era. Early man was no ape. He certainly had a
well-developed knowledge of mathematics and architecture, and he
must have belonged to a social order that combined the efforts
for the construction of cities and for the organization of
civilizations. Considering the astonishing accomplishments
achieved by the first generations that survived the Flood (the
Tower of Babel, world surveys, atomic power, flight, etc.), we
may well wonder what advanced forms of structural and
technological feats the antediluvians were responsible for prior
to their being swallowed up by the waters of the Deluge.
STONEHENGE Mystery Solved
Antiquity does not easily surrender its secrets, and
constant probing is necessary to extract even those minute
fragments of surviving knowledge which enable us to get a glimpse
of our ancestors' accomplishments. But what has been discovered
already only increases our eagerness to dig even deeper.
The mystery is intensified when we try to remove the obscurity
from the hundreds of stone monuments that are strewn across the
world, for, located on the crossings of the ley lines, these
prehistoric monuments of man have been erected for a definite
purpose by a race of great intelligence. Most puzzling of them
all is Stonehenge, the enigmatic ring of stone standing in
solitude on Salisbury Plain in southern England.
Since the seventeenth century, writers and scientists have
pondered the purpose for which Stonehenge was erected, and many
theories have been advanced to explain its origins. Perhaps the
one man who has done more to unravel the mystery of the ring of
stones is Gerald S. Hawkins, an astronomer and historian who
believes that the structure is a gigantic celestial calculator.
After many years of careful observation and research, Hawkins has
demonstrated with the aid of a computer that the Stonehenge
standing stones, or the spaces between them, were observation
posts pointing to the specific points of the risings and settings
of the sun, moon and stars at various times of the year. His
calculations have shown that by use of the Stonehenge
observatory, celestial phenomena could be accurately predicted.
Stonehenge is indeed a scientific instrument of the highest
order.
Diligent examination has revealed that the center underwent
three distinct waves of construction, several hundred years
apart---to meet the needs of a developing society. Charcoal
fragments taken from one of the chalk-filled pits, known as
"Aubrey Holes," are assigned a carbon-14 dating of 2000 B.C.,
plus or minus 275 years. Materials removed from other holes have
been dated between 2200 and 2100 B.C., which suggests that
Stonehenge may have been constructed almost within the first
millennium after the Deluge. The second building phase, known as
Stonehenge 2, did not begin until several hundred years after
Stonehenge was completed. Whereas the first phase had set the
basic scientific philosophy for the center, the main feature of
the renewed building was the first assembly at Stonehenge of
megaliths, or "large stones." As many as 82 of the 5-ton
bluestones were erected around the center of the old ridge-ditch
system, with the stones placed 6 feet apart and approximately 35
feet from the center point. It appears that the stones formed a
double circle, with a pattern of radiating spokes of two stones
each. Since the rings were open at the northeast, facing the
midsummer sunrise, the paired stones probably served as a series
of observation points for the ancient astronomers.
However, it is not merely their use that constitutes the
real mystery, but rather how these giant stones got to Salisbury
Plain in the first place. Every archaeologist who has examined
Stonehenge leaves with a different theory, but no one has been
able to explain how the builders were able to transport 80 of the
5-ton stones over a distance of 240 miles, crossing land and
water, from Prescelly Mountain in Wales to the construction site.
Nothing like this has ever been done by any other prehistoric
people.
Stonehenge 3 heightens this enigma even more, for
approximately one century after Phase 2, between 1800 and 1700
B.C., 81 or more stones were added to the complex, some of them
weighing between 40 and 50 tons. This deepens the Stonehenge
riddle even more, for the source of these rocks is the
Marlborough Downs, lying about 20 miles north of the complex. It
has been theorized that these immense stones were moved by
dragging them on wooden sledges which were rolled across log
rollers. If this is what actually happened, it took from 800 to
1,000 men to pull each stone, with another 200 to clear the path,
guide the sledges and move the log rollers from the back of the
sledge to the front. Even with efficient use of this manpower, it
would have taken the builders of Stonehenge seven years to
transport all the stones.
Where Was the Law of Gravity?
Was there perhaps another way? Is it possible that the
surviving science of the antediluvians included a method of
overcoming the law of gravity?
While actual proof has not surfaced as yet, there is a
medieval source that may offer a clue to an alternative
explanation.
The twelfth-century English historian Geoffrey of Monmouth
tells, in his "Historia de Gestis Regum Britanniae," the legend
of how the great boulders of Stonehenge came to be. He reports
that under the leadership of Uther Pendragon, the father of King
Arthur, a force of 15,000 Britons occupied the area where the
stones for the monument were to be placed. Once they had secured
the land, they set themselves to the task of removing the
boulders - but were unsuccessful. Even when using "great hawsers
. . . ropes . . . scaling ladders," etc., the army of men could
move the gigantic stones "never a whit the forwarder."
Suddenly they heard a peal of hilarious laughter. Merlin the
Wizard, who had accompanied the expeditionary force, came forward
and, telling the men to stand aside, began "putting together his
own engines" with which he "laid the stones down so lightly as
none would believe" possible. By means of these "special
engines," the stones were transported and set up at Stonehenge,
which "proved yet once again how skill surpasseth strength."
Geoffrey's story, of course, is a legend, but it may contain
some element of truth. Simple brute force alone would have
required tremendous amounts of human energy to move the stones -
even if it were possible to do so at all. The stones were
undoubtedly moved and transported in a special way unknown to us,
and the "engines" of Merlin may indicate that some form of
prehistoric machinery provided the lift needed. The fact that
modern cranes and lifting apparatus are barely able to move, let
alone lift, the gigantic sarsen stones does support this.
Moving the boulders to Stonehenge was one problem; elevating
them into their assigned positions may have been even more
complex, for the entire observatory was built not on level ground
but on a sloped surface. Measurements show that even this tilt
was compensated for by the builders with an astonishing degree of
accuracy.
Gerald Hawkins comments, in his book "Beyond Stonehenge,"
"Such precision of placement is, or was, astounding. To erect a
boulder so that it was horizontally aligned . . . was a task
difficult enough; to sink that great block into the ground just
so far and no further, so that its tip was aligned vertically to
an accuracy of inches, was an achievement requiring another whole
dimension of skill.
"How, in fact, was it done? If, after erection, the stone had
settled too deeply it would have been out of alignment - and how
could it have been lifted? Of course, if it had not settled far
enough its top could have been bashed away to lower it to the
proper height - but the top was not bashed. . . . Somehow, by a
technology unknown, the Stonehengers figured out beforehand the
depth of hole required to match up exactly, as far as the survey
shows, with this collection of variables. "
If such a task were assigned to a modern builder, Hawkins
further explains, he would not be able to do so without the aid
of a yard tape, plumb line, spirit levels, elevation sights, and
blueprints showing the land contour and the particular design of
each stone and its corresponding hole.
It is certainly apparent that the sagacious builders of
Stonehenge had access to tools and instruments of precision and
exactitude similar to those in use today.
The Stones and the Heavens
Since men of science down through the centuries first began
to examine the boulders of Stonehenge, there have been numerous
theories advanced to explain the construction's purpose; when
Gerald Hawkins initiated his research he approached his story
from an architectural standpoint. Touring the monument, he noted
that many of the archways were very narrow, ranging from one to
two feet in width.
When an observer looked through two aligned archways, his
view was restricted to a very small angle. It appeared that the
builders had intended to limit the viewer's field of observation
so that only one specific phenomenon could be seen. It seemed
that the placement of the stones and archways had been made with
the intention of stressing the importance of what was to be
observed.
Suddenly the idea occurred to Hawkins that the viewing lines
might have celestial significance. In order to test this theory,
he made a meticulous record of all the possible viewing
alignments through the archways.
His initial task completed, he then turned to a computer to
reconstruct the way the night sky looked between the years 2000
and 1500 B.C., particularly noting where certain celestial
phenomena associated with the sun and moon took place. It was
then just a matter of programming the computer to find whether
the Stonehenge viewing alignments and the positions of the sky
phenomena coincided.
The results were amazing! Twelve of the most significant
Stonehenge alignments pointed, with a mean accuracy of better
than a degree and a half, to important sky positions of the moon;
twelve more alignments pointed to important sky positions of the
sun with a mean accuracy of less than one degree. Checking
further with the computer, Hawkins discovered that the
probability that these Stonehenge alignments had not been planned
was less than one in ten million.
There was no doubt of it: Stonehenge was built and used as a
Stone Age astronomical observatory! This bizarre rock pile is
actually the remains of a monumental sky computer, and with it
the Stonehengers were able to predict and record with an
unprecedented degree of exactness the recurring patterns of the
sky and the eclipses and were also able to calculate the times
and seasons for the planting and harvesting of crops.
After the erection of the 50-ton boulders, Stonehenge was in
use for roughly 500 years before it was abandoned; however, the
operation of other stone computers continued, although they were
smaller in size. Scattered throughout Britain are other stone
rings, admittedly not as impressive in size, but equally
important to the society of the builders. Stonehenge was never a
unique concept - only its size was extraordinary.
In recent years Professor Alexander Thorns of Oxford
University has conducted a detailed survey of over 600 British
megalithic stone circles, and the dating methods employed in this
study show that they were erected between 2100 and 1500 B.C.
Here, too, as with Stonehenge, the dates were corroborated by
astronomical information.
But there were other discoveries. The study also revealed
that many of the circles were laid out with a precision that
today can be measured only by a highly qualified team of
surveyors. For example, not far from Stonehenge, the stones of
Avebury are set out with a scientific exactitude approaching 1 in
1,000, while those of Penmaenmawr have an error of only 1 in
1,500. This accuracy is also found on a much smaller scale, for
many of the stones have cup-and-ring markings which, when
carefully examined, are found to have been carved with a diameter
accuracy within a few thousandths of an inch!
Primitive workmanship? Hardly! This was an extremely
accomplished people, for an investigation of the 600 rings
indicated that the megalithic builders laid out the various
geometric forms according to an exact unit of length, what is now
known as the "megalithic yard": 2,720 feet. The uniformity of
this ancient unit of measurement suggests that one central
authority had planned and directed the construction of all the
rings.
"This unit was in use from one end of Britain to the other,"
Professor Thorns concluded. "It is not possible to detect by
statistical examination any difference between the values
determined from the English and Scottish circles. There must have
been a headquarters from which the standard rods were sent out,
but whether this was in these islands or on the Continent the
present investigation cannot determine. The length of the rods in
Scotland cannot have differed from that in England by more than
0.03 [inch]. If each small community had obtained the length by
copying the rod of its neighbor to the south, the accumulated
error would have been much greater than this."
The resulting conclusion could not be avoided. Professor
Thorns says, "The design of the necessary sectors, whether
obtained by pure reason or by some complex empirical operation,
demands a highly trained intellect. The discipline necessary
could not have arisen out of nothing. There must have been behind
it a school or system of mathematical reasoning, evidenced by the
remarkable designs that we find in the complex rings."
He was simply baffled by his discovery, which was compounded
by the realization that many of the ovoids, ellipses and circles
were based on the use of the Pythagorean triangles, a concept
which was thought to have originated with the Greeks, yet here
they were, 1,500 years before Pythagoras entered history.
Knowledge of the Moon "Wobble" 4,000 Years Ago
Perhaps one of the most impressive of the megalithic
stone-circle sites is Callernish, situated on Lewis, the
northernmost island of the Outer Hebrides, which has, among other
prehistoric landmarks, an avenue marked off in stones. It is this
stone avenue that has currently become the focal point of a new
discovery. As seen from Callernish, the midsummer moonset occurs
over Mount Clisham, and the avenue points directly toward the
mountain. Because the Callernish complex lies only 1.3 degrees
south of the arctic latitude for the moon, the megalithic
observers would have seen a peculiar phenomenon: once every 18 or
19 years the moon would appear to stand still about one degree
above the horizon. This 18/19-year cycle is, of course, the same
as that recorded at Stonehenge. The avenue stones are aligned in
such a way that the prehistoric astronomers were able to observe
what is called the moon's wobble - the small amplitude ripple of
the moon's declination at extreme positions. Before Callernish
was investigated, it was believed that this phenomenon was not
discovered until the sixteenth century, by Tycho Brahe. The
period of the wobble is 173 days, and the wobble reaches its
maximum amplitude immediately before the season for lunar
eclipses! The Callernish builders, it appears now, possessed a
unique computer in stone for predicting lunar eclipses.
Another significant point to note is that many of the
alignments of Callernish are the same as those found at
Stonehenge, with the key observation stones laid out in a very
similar geometric pattern. Callernish is situated at a latitude
where the moon appears to skim the horizon; Stonehenge is also
located at a spot where the extreme positions of the moon appear
at right angles to those of the sun.
If Callernish and Stonehenge are related works - and the
fact that they used the same basic measuring unit in their
structures would tend to confirm this - then the builders were
aware of the differences in the celestial phenomena observed at
both structures - differences which could easily have led to a
knowledge of the curvature and size of the earth.
Other Megalithic Sites in Britain
Even though the builders were engaged in massive
construction projects enabling them to chart the course of
heavenly bodies, this was hardly their only endeavor. At the same
time that Stonehenge and Callernish were being built, other
remarkable projects were undertaken. One of the most common was
the long barrow, or burial mound. Even though the greatest
concentration (350) of these is found in the Salisbury area of
England, the most outstanding one is located at West Kennet,
about 16 miles north of Stonehenge. Constructed long before 2000
B.C., this mound is 350 feet long and varies in width from 75
feet on the east end to 50 feet on the west, where it terminates
in a sepulcher approximately 35 feet wide, 43 feet long and 8
feet high. The entrance was blocked by several enormous stones,
one of which weighed about 20 tons. What is most fascinating
about this West Kennet barrow is that when dating techniques were
applied to it, it was found to be one of the oldest, if not the
oldest barrow in Britain. Yet it demonstrates building skills of
the highest order.
Excavation of the barrows has provided many surprises. They
have shattered the belief that the earliest Britons were isolated
from the rest of the world, because in fact their communication
with the Continent and the Mediterranean area was much greater
than that of the Britons of several centuries later. Among the
remains in the tombs were bronze pins from Bohemia, faience beads
from Egypt, and amber from the Baltic.
The builders surpassed the stone circles or burial mounds,
for half a mile beyond West Kennet is the largest artificial
earth mound in Europe, Silbury Hill. The reason for its existence
is still a mystery, although scientists now claim to be inching
closer to the truth. Conical in shape, it rises to a height of
130 feet, with a circular base more than 200 yards in diameter.
It covers 5.5 acres and its total volume has been estimated at
405,000 cubic feet, and its construction may have required as
much as 2 million man-hours - thought to be even greater than
that needed for building Stonehenge.
Many explanations have been given for the erection of this
massive structure, the first being that it was a huge burial
mound; however, excavations into the top and sides have revealed
no funerary or skeletal remains. Today the most accepted theory
is that the great hill, like Stonehenge, was designed to measure
celestial phenomena, for there are indications that a large
maypole may have topped the hill and that the shadow the pole
cast was used to calculate the length of the year. Invariably the
monuments erected in that period point to definite connections
with celestial observations, yet there is at least one known
exception. This monument, noted not for its great height but for
its length, is one of the greatest engineering feats accomplished
by the British megalithic builders.
From Salisbury Plain, beginning at the southern end of the
Avebury stone circle and extending for two hundred miles
northeastward to Norfolk, is an extraordinary prehistoric highway
called the Icknield Way. The road runs dead straight on level
ground and follows perfectly the contour of the land in hilly
areas. It is level and widens out in some places to the
equivalent of a modern four-lane highway. It is superior to any
road constructed by the Romans, yet it predates the Romans by
2,000 years. Why did the megalithic builders need a highway, when
archaeologists believe that they did not even have the wheel?
Europe, Africa and the Middle East Not Excluded
Communications must have been good between England and the
Continent, and the roadways and sea lanes were undoubtedly well
traveled, for the remains of the megalithic monuments were not
limited just to the British Isles. They are found scattered
across the globe. Stonehenge may have been the focal point of
activity, but from there the builders, architects and astronomers
fanned out over the entire world, leaving monuments wherever they
went. Across the Channel from England, in the French province of
Brittany, there are several megalithic sites. They are also found
at Kerlescan and Kermario; in fact, within a distance of 3,250
yards, there are nearly 3,000 menhirs (single standing stones),
most of them in rows pointing toward long-forgotten grave sites
and facing the midsummer sunrise. The remains of the chieftains
have long since become part of the earth, but their tombs endure,
a testament to their greatness.
Elsewhere in Brittany there are other megalithic monuments,
some of which are constructed from the largest standing stones on
record in western Europe. The menhir of Ile-Melon, unfortunately
destroyed during World War II, originally weighed 90 tons. The
largest was the "Fairy Stone" of Locmariaquer. Broken up by
lightning in the eighteenth century, it once stood 67 feet high
and weighed over 380 tons!
But, again, Britain and France are not the only countries
where the builders left their marks. Far beyond Brittany, on the
coasts of Germany, Holland, Scandinavia, Portugal, Spain, the
Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Malta, at Tiryns
and other Mycenaean sites, there is ample evidence of the past
work of the ancients. The grave sites and the stone circles all
testify to the skill of the builders. Their tracks are found even
in North Africa and the Middle East, telling us of their
far-reaching wanderings and of the spread of their civilization.
In Morocco, dolmens (a circle of stones capped by a larger
stone) are found in the district of Kabylia; a stone circle is
found near Tangiers. Other dolmens have been discovered in
Algeria, while Libya, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon have literally
hundreds of circles and free-standing stones, all testifying to
the builders' presence at one time.
And then there's Egypt. Stretched along the Nile, the sandy
countryside of the land of Amen-Ra is speckled with the remains
of dolmens which mark the sites where the ancient people buried
their dead and which were subsequently joined by the tombs of the
pharaohs.
Three sites in the Middle East are of particular interest
because of advanced scientific and engineering skills involved in
their construction. At Baalbek, in modern Lebanon, the Romans
constructed their magnificent temple to the sun, a temple which
was dwarfed in size, however, by the immense prehistoric
dressed-stone platform on which it was built. Of unknown age and
origin, the platform is a feat of engineering that has never been
equaled in history. It is made of individual stones 82 feet long
and 15 feet thick which are estimated to weigh between 1,200 and
1,500 tons each. Of the stones cut for the platform, the largest
one was not transported to the site but instead was left at the
quarry half a mile away. Called Hadjar el Gouble, or "The Stone
of the South," it weighs more than 2,000 tons. There are no
cranes or other lifting apparatus in the world today that can
budge, let alone lift, the titanic blocks of Baalbek - yet there
they are, cut and fitted together with such precision that a
knife blade cannot be inserted between the blocks.
The second site, equally remarkable, is located on the
windswept moor of the Golan Heights in Israeli - occupied Syria.
There Israeli archaeologist A.Itzhaki recently uncovered the
remains of five giant stone rings believed to be a thousand years
older than Stonehenge. A line drawn through the area where the
rings overlap points to true north. Because of the unreliability
of compass readings in the vicinity of basaltic rocks, the
engineering skills required to find true north were of a degree
of skill generally considered beyond the reach of the ancients.
The third site is far to the north, at Medzamor in Soviet
Armenia, where the Russian scientist Dr.K.Megurtchian has
discovered what is thought to be the oldest large-scale
metallurgical factory in the world. In close proximity to this,
geometric patterns that were found cut into the volcanic rock
point to various celestial phenomena. One distinct line points to
the spot on the horizon where the star Sirius rose between 2600
and 2500 B.C.
What is especially intriguing about the Medzamor site is
that it is located only 15 miles from Mount Ararat, the
historical and legendary landing place of the only survivors of
the antediluvian civilization.
Did the Megalithic Builders Reach the Americas?
With the passing of time, the controversy over who really
was the first to discover America becomes more intense, as if it
actually mattered. For years there have been pitched verbal
battles among renowned historians, lengthy intellectual
discussions, and countless magazine articles, all hoping to solve
this riddle. Was it Columbus? Could it have been Leif Erikson?
Still other names have been proposed and just as rapidly
discarded again. Perhaps the answer lies somewhere else - on a
prehistoric site called Mystery Hill in North Salem, New
Hampshire, where 22 large stones stand majestically on top of a
200foot-high hill. The origin and significance of the site are
shrouded in darkness; its age,however, is not. Carbon-14 tests
conducted in 1969 date Mystery Hill between 1225 and 800 B.C.,
long before the arrival of the Indian tribes that once inhabited
the area, but in the same time slot as similar megalithic
constructions in southern Europe.
Mystery Hill suffered partial destruction during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when some of the stonework
was removed and used to build a nearby sewer system.
The stones of Mystery Hill are arranged in an elaborate
system of tunnels, menhirs and dolmens, and have just recently
been found to be celestially aligned. Each year on the first day
of winter, for example, the sun, when viewed from the center of
the hill, sets directly over what is called the Winter Monolith.
Were the builders the first to leave their prints on the sandy
shores of the eastern coast of America? History remains silent
when confronted with this question, but the hill was definitely
built by someone, and its similarity to the megalithic sites of
Europe is more than coincidental.
Mystery Hill is not unique, however, for other sites not
unlike this prehistoric perplexity exist in different parts of
the Americas. On the Central American island of Bonacca,
archaeologist F.A.Mitchel Hedges discovered an ancient
800-yard-long wall enclosure with two large standing stones
reminiscent of those found at Stonehenge. The stones measured
approximately 7 feet in height by 2 and 1/2 feet in diameter.
Also discovered were a number of oddly shaped carved stones that
appeared to be older than the Mayan, Toltec and Aztec
civilizations. An even more startling find was made at La Venta,
at Villahermosa, Mexico, where there are menhirs and troughs in
long alignments that strikingly resemble the rows of stones found
in Brittany. Near the prehistoric fortress of Sacsahuaman, Peru,
on a rocky spur called K'emko, menhirs and other roughly hewn
stones have been found, once again corresponding in appearance to
the European monuments!
Orthodox historians unfortunately have done very little to
take note of the important megalithic sites found in the New
World, as their acceptance would disturb long-cherished theories.
They simply cannot account for the fact that a prehistoric race
such as megalithic man could have crossed the Atlantic and left
its mark in America, when supposedly more civilized later people
were unable to do so.
It is with the same closed-mindedness that the historians
look at the discoveries made in Asia and the Pacific, where
remains of the builders' activities have surfaced in the most
unexpected regions. In India dolmens dot the land from the
Nerbuddha River to Cape Comorin. At latest count, the Neermul
jungle of Central India has yielded at least 2,000 of the
monuments it has hidden for centuries, and another 2,200 have
been located in Dacca.
Monuments of a similar nature have also been found in China,
Korea and even Japan. The mystery of the builders' activities
increases as the geographical boundaries expand. On the
southeastern shore of Ponape, in the Senyavin Islands of
Micronesia, the remains of a huge temple complex called Metalamin
face the midsummer sunrise. There is every indication that in the
days of the builders, the population of Ponape Island was many
times what it is today, for Metalamin is sufficiently large to
seat as many as two million people! The ruins, like those in
Europe and America, are composed of vast stone blocks weighing as
much as 15 tons each. These blocks were transported from a quarry
approximately twenty miles away - with not a hint of how this was
accomplished.
Were they navigators as well as builders? History stands
mute on this question, but the fact remains that three thousand
miles away, southeast of Ponape, on tiny Malden in the Line
Islands, is a second group of ruins architecturally similar to
Metalamin!
There is, however, one important difference. The ruins on
Malden are connected to the rugged coastline by a number of
prehistoric basalt-paved highways, a situation which baffles the
scientists.
"But they can't be highways," the archaeologists cry out in
despair. "These people didn't have the wheel. . . ."
Oh, didn't they? There are still many ruins the builders have
left on other Pacific islands, but most of these are still being
excavated. One can say without hesitation, however, that the most
famous and mystifying of all the Pacific monuments are those
strange statues that stand in peaceful silence on a lonely rock
called Easter Island.
Unresolved Mystery of the Stone Faces
There are few detective stories as confounding as the one
that came to the attention of the western world on Easter morning
1722, when the Dutch explorer Jan Roggeveen first set eyes on a
tiny speck of land in the broad expanse of the Pacific Ocean.
Unable to locate it on the navigational charts, he christened the
new-found territory Easter Island. With the anticipation of
finding treasure, he anchored his ship and rowed the few hundred
yards to the rocky shore. But he soon realized that the volcanic
isle had little to offer. There were no trees and no indigenous
animals, and Roggeveen found only a few hundred scantily clad
natives dwelling in huts along the jungle-fringed beaches. The
island was barren and inhospitable, yet it did give one thing to
the world: a mystery unrivaled anywhere in the vast Pacific.
Scattered over the rocky ground, strewn about the meadows of
sparse grass and sullenly peering from the slopes of the island's
volcanoes were hundreds of stone faces jutting out of the soil,
each with the same mute and meaningless expression, long straight
nose, narrow and tightly closed lips, sunken eye sockets, and low
forehead.
Who made them? Where did they come from? What was their
significance? Roggeveen and his crew undoubtedly gaped at them in
utter bewilderment, for nothing like this had ever been
encountered. The statues were certainly not the kind he would
carry back to Amsterdam as trophies of a discovery voyage. There
was something weird, something eerie about them, and the somber
expression on their stone faces became an ever-returning topic of
conversation on the long voyage home.
More than 250 years have passed since that day, and Jan
Roggeveen is now merely a name written on the pages of history
books, but the secret of the silent statues still continues to
evade us.
The enigmatic question surrounding the Easter Island statues
is not what they are supposed to represent, but rather how they
were moved from their quarry at the edge of the volcano
Rano-Raraku to their present sites, a distance of up to five
miles. In 1956 the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, known for
his Kon Tiki expedition, visited Easter Island to conduct the
first large-scale investigation of the statues and their history.
He soon realized that discovering their origin was not half as
challenging as solving the problem of how the monstrous heads had
been transported and erected. Convinced that the builders had
nothing but brute manpower at their disposal, he contracted a
dozen island natives to employ muscle to move a stone head. With
steadily increasing frustration, the team labored for 18 days,
using the "heave-ho" method, which at last enabled them to set up
one of the heads. This answered the question for Heyerdahl;
satisfied that he had found the solution, he abandoned the
project. His efforts are now being cited in many scientific
journals, but did he really duplicate the way it was done?
There are several objections to Heyerdahl's experiment which
cannot be ignored. What is generally not known is that the statue
chosen for the project by Heyerdahl's men was not the average
Easter Island statue, for the weight of the island heads is
roughly between 35 and 50 tons each, but the head which was
arduously moved by twelve sweating natives weighed somewhere
between 10 and 15 tons. Granted, it was still a momentous
achievement, but the result did not qualify it as a "typical"
example. Second, Heyerdahl's stone was transported only
a few hundred feet, across smooth sandy ground that exists only
at Anakena, the place from where the statue was moved. The
contrast between Anakena's terrain and that of the rest of the
island is too great, because the area over which the other stone
heads had to be transported consists of volcanic rock, which is
hard and uneven. If the heads had indeed been dragged across this
surface by Thor Heyerdahl's proposed method, then the stone
statues would have been grooved with long scars. None of the
statues reveal any such markings.
The type of equipment used in the moving process presents
another problem. Heyerdahl's natives utilized ropes and wooden
poles to aid them in erecting and maneuvering their statue - but
there originally was no wood on Easter Island. Currently sycamore
trees grow on the island, but only because some of the early
European settlers brought them there. The records of Jan
Roggeveen do not mention trees, and Captain Cook also noted an
absence of trees upon his arrival on the island. If wood was
indeed used by the builders, then they must have imported it by
ship from the nearest forest - 2,500 miles away. As for the
ropes, Heyerdahl's experimental team used sturdy,
well-manufactured ropes from Europe. It was fortunate for them
that they did, for ropes made from the indigenous reeds of Easter
Island were neither strong nor durable and were most certainly
not adequate to the job.
Heyerdahl's moving of one single stone head over a flat and
relatively even surface also had no bearing on how other heads
were moved up and down cliff walls, as there are many spots on
the island where this did occur in the days of the builders. At
the quarry of Rano-Raraku, 20-ton statues were carved near the
top of the crater, then lowered 300 feet, over the heads of other
statues. This was accomplished without leaving even a mark. The
stone heads sitting on ledges in the cliff of Ahu-Ririki are the
best illustration of this operation. Here the sheer rock face
plunges 1,000 feet, straight to the sea. The gusty winds at the
top are usually strong enough to blow a man off balance, while
the sea currents below are so treacherous that a boat cannot
approach the rock. Yet at an elevation of 600 feet on the cliff
wall stands a platform that bears the marks of a number of 25-ton
statues, the remains of which now lie on the ocean floor.
Heyerdahl may have moved one small head; he has yet to
present an answer that can withstand scientific test.
But he was not the first to fail. In the late nineteenth
century, the French ship La Flore visited Easter Island with the
intention of taking one of its statues back to Paris. It took a
500-man work force to carry the 7 and 1/2-foot-tall statue, one
of the smallest of the island heads. Today, much battered and
bruised by its ordeal, it can be viewed at the Musee de I'Homme.
Even though these two heads have been moved, the question
still lingers: How did the builders of Easter Island cut, move
and erect the gigantic heads, including those which approach the
size of a seven-story building?
There have been many theories about who actually created and
erected the solemn stone heads of Easter Island, but there are no
easy answers. Their origin has been attributed to nearly
everyone, from survivors of the so-called lost continents of Mu
and Lemuria, to tribes of wandering Polynesians who supposedly
sculptured the monolithic monstrosities to while away their idle
hours.
What, then, is the answer? Evidence of a more realistic
possibility is found in a group of stone buildings which few
modern explorers and researchers have diligently investigated.
Thirty-nine in number, they are located on Easter Island in
Orongo. Each structure is oval in shape, measures approximately
seven yards in length and two yards in width, and is topped by a
low circular ceiling. The foundation stones were laid beneath the
surface and were followed by rings of stone blocks, with each
ring narrowing toward the center until the sides converged in the
rounded roof. Francis Maziere, one of the few western experts who
have visited and described the ruins, was impressed with only one
point: that these stone buildings are nearly identical in shape
and construction with those erected by the builders in the
Mediterranean area! For those who still wonder about this
connection, there is one more feature linking these ruins with
those of the European structures. At the Orongo site lie the
remains of a small solar observatory, composed of one or possibly
more standing stones, by means of which the ancient observers
were able to calculate the movements of the sun. Was this perhaps
the beginning of a Stonehenge which was later abandoned?
There is no decisive evidence that the men of prehistory who
erected Stonehenge were also responsible for creating the stone
heads of Easter Island, but, judging from the ruins, it is
obvious that the two sites are parallel, not only because both
were constructed from stone blocks but also because their
building techniques were similarly advanced.
What Happened at Tiahuanaco?
Two thousand miles northeast of Easter Island, high in the
Andes mountains of Peru, on the picturesque shores of Lake
Titicaca, stand the remains of a city of startling dimensions -
and no one knows its origin. Not even the oldest living Indian
could tell of its history when questioned by the Spanish
conquistadors in their bloody assault on the area in 1549.
Whoever its engineers were, they certainly were not related to
the Indians in any way, as the foreign element is quite obvious
both from the style of the structures and from the fact that the
statues of Tiahuanaco depict strange-looking men with beards, not
the usual Indian faces which tend to be devoid of beard growth.
The society that developed the entire Tiahuanaco area had
technical abilities that astounded the conquistadors.
Archaeologists who have studied the site since its discovery
by the Spaniards have uncovered features thought to be unknown to
the ancients. The Akapana, or "Hill of Sacrifices," one of the
three important temple sites, was a huge truncated pyramid, 167
feet high, with a base 496 by 650 feet. The now-crumbling sides
of the impressive structure were perfectly squared with the
cardinal points of the compass, a feature common with other great
edifices found around the world, including the Great Pyramid of
Gizeh. The destructive plundering of the Spanish conquerors
erased clues which might have served as keys to unlock the
secrets of the ancient inhabitants, and the ravages of time have
done the rest. Today the side surfaces of the Akapana are rough
and torn; the stone slabs that provided a protective cover for
the mound have been hauled away and used in construction
projects. An enormous stone stairway that once flanked the hill
has also become a victim of gross vandalism. Today, only a few
steps remain. The reservoir system that once topped the Akapana
indicates the high degree of development of the builders. The
hill still reveals evidence of the precision-designed,
intricately cut stone conduits and overflow pipes, especially
graded to ensure the proper flow of water. Similar pipes are
found scattered throughout the Tiahuanaco complex, suggesting
that the city had a complete drainage, water supply, or sewage
system.
But other probes have extracted still more from the Andes. A
thousand feet north of Akapana is the Curicancha, or "The Temple
of the Sun." It rests on a stone platform 10 feet high and 440 by
390 feet on a side, composed of blocks weighing 100 to 200 tons
each! The walls of the temple complex itself are constructed of
blocks weighing 60 tons each, while the steps of the stone
stairway weigh an impressive 50 tons apiece. Other structural
units, composed of 200-ton blocks, lie haphazardly, just where
they fell. Tiahuanaco is a place where contradictions and
impossibilities reign supreme. Things that can't happen have
happened here. It's amazing that the city exists at all: the
entire metropolis was built 13,000 feet above sea level, and the
air pressure at that altitude is only 8 pounds per square inch,
as compared to 15 pounds at sea level. The thin, oxygen-poor air
sears the throat and nose, and even the slightest exertion may
cause nausea, headaches, and sometimes even heart attacks. In
addition, no seeds will sprout or grow at that elevation, which
means that there was no local food supply to support a large
working crew. Yet somehow, under extremely hostile conditions
that threatened life itself, the builders managed to maneuver
hundreds of stone slabs weighing up to 200 tons each into their
predetermined places. The quarry sites of the stones have been
discovered on an island in Lake Titicaca, but near the shore
opposite Curicancha. It was therefore necessary to transport the
stone over distances ranging from 30 to 90 miles. In rarefied air
the movement of massive objects over such great distances is not
possible by muscular strength, but the stones were moved
nevertheless and found resting places in Tiahuanaco.
If muscular energy was not sufficent, then what was used?
The Mystery Fortresses of the Andes
Tiahuanaco is by no means unique, for scattered throughout
the Andes are several fortresses of very similar design, all
predating the ancient Incas by an unknown period of time.
In Chile, high on the plateau of El Enladrillado, 233 stone
blocks are placed geometrically in an amphitheaterlike
arrangement. The blocks are roughly rectangular, some as large as
12 to 16 feet high, 20 to 30 feet long, and weighing several
hundred tons. As at Tiahuanaco, huge chairs of stone have also
been found in disarray among the ruins, each weighing a massive
10 tons. Perhaps the most important find at El Enladrillado was
the discovery of three standing stones at the very center of the
plateau. Each is 3 to 4 feet in diameter. Measurements reveal
that two of the stones are perfectly aligned with magnetic north,
while a line through one of these and the third stone points to
the midsummer sunrise. Were the builders here, too?
To the north, at Ollantaitambo, Peru, is another pre-Inca
fortress, with rock walls of tightly fitted blocks weighing
between 150 and 250 tons each. Most of the blocks consist of very
hard andesite, the quarries for which are situated on a
mountaintop seven miles away. Somehow, at an altitude of 10,000
feet, the unknown builders of Ollantaitambo carved and dressed
the stone (using tools, the nature of which we can only guess,
that could penetrate such hard rock), lowered the 200-ton blocks
down the mountainside, crossed a river canyon with 1,000-foot
sheer rock walls, then raised the blocks up another mountainside
and placed them in the fortress complex. As South American
antiquarian Hyatt Verrill notes, no number of men - Indian or
otherwise - could duplicate this feat with only stone implements
or crude metal tools, ropes, rollers and muscle power. "It is not
a question of skill, patience and time," Verrill explains. "It is
a human impossibility."
Is it possible instead that a higher form of prehistoric
technology was employed, of which we know absolutely nothing?
One of the most impressive "mystery fortresses" of the Andes is
Sacsahuaman, located on the outskirts of the ancient Inca capital
of Cuzco. It rests on an artificially leveled mountaintop at an
altitude of 12,000 feet, and consists of three outer lines of
gargantuan walls, 1,500 feet long and 54 feet wide, surrounding a
paved area containing a circular stone structure believed to be a
solar calendar. The ruins also include a 50,000-gallon water
reservoir, storage cisterns, ramps, citadels and underground
chambers.
What is truly remarkable about Sacsahuaman is the stonework.
Here extremely skilled stonemasons fit blocks weighing from 50 to
300 tons into intricate patterns. A block in one of the outer
walls, for example, has faces cut to fit perfectly with twelve
other blocks. Other blocks were cut with as many as 10, 12, and
even 36 sides. Yet all the blocks were fit together so precisely
that a mechanic's thickness gauge could not be inserted between
them.
And even more extraordinary is the fact that the entire
Sacsahuaman complex was built without cement.
As with the other mystery fortresses, the question of how
the stones of Sacsahuaman were transported remains unanswered.
The quarries from which the stones for Sacsahuaman were brought
are located 20 miles away, on the other side of a mountain range
and a deep river gorge. How the massive stones were moved across
such hopeless terrain is anyone's guess.
Sacsahuaman poses many mysteries, yet it possesses one more
which few orthodox historians are willing to recognize or study
because of its "impossibility." Within a few hundred yards of the
Sacsahuaman complex is a single stone block that was carved from
the mountainside and moved some distance before it was abandoned.
An earthquake apparently interrupted the progress of the movers,
for the stone was turned upside down and is damaged in several
places. It contains steps, platforms, holes and other
depressions - a masterpiece of precision cutting and dressing,
clearly intended to become a part of the fortification. What is
truly impossible about the block is that it is the size of a
five-story house and weighs an estimated 20,000 tons! We have no
combination of machinery today that could dislodge such a weight,
let alone move it any distance. The fact that the builders of
Sacsahuaman could and did move this block shows their mastery of
a technology which we as yet have not attained.
The Lines of Nazca Valley
The Andes conceal many ancient wonders of construction, not
all made of stones hauled across inconceivable distances. Not far
from the Pacific Ocean, in the Peruvian foothills of the Andes
250 miles south of Lima, is the historical city of Nazca. It is
of important archaeological value; however, the city's real
curiosity is not its relics but the valley in which it lies - a
strip of level desert ground 37 miles long and a mile wide.
Covering nearly every acre of the Nazca Valley are enormous
drawings scraped out on the desert floor-lines running in all
directions: elongated cleared areas, spirals, zigzags, birds,
spiders, monkeys, snakes, fish, etc. They were revealed by
removing the dark purple granite pebbles which lay on the Nazca
desert and exposing the light yellow sand just below the surface.
Since there is little rain or wind erosion at Nazca, the lines
and figures have remained intact for an undetermined number of
centuries. Yet during most of that time, travelers trekking
through the valley never noticed the drawings, because unless one
is standing directly on one of the lines, the areas where the
pebbles have been scraped away are not noticeable. Move a few
feet away, and the line blends into the rest of the rough desert
terrain.
Not until the 1930s, when the first commercial airlines
began operating over the Andes, did sightings from the air
confirm the existence of the Nazca drawings. Obscure on the
ground, they are clearly seen from above - clearly enough, in
fact, to have been viewed by the astronauts aboard Skylab,
orbiting 270 miles above the earth. Yet there is no high
mountain, plateau or other natural elevated point nearby from
which the Nazca artists themselves could have seen the drawings
in their true perspective. So why were they made? Did they serve
some purpose? Did the artists also perhaps master the art of
flight?
The first detailed study of the Nazca mystery was initiated
in 1946 by the German astronomer and archaeologist Dr.Marie
Reiche, who devoted the next twenty years to taking accurate
surveys of the ancient drawings and speculating on their
significance. Dr.Reiche focused her attention at first on the
numerous lines crisscrossing the valley. Many of these, she
discovered, ran straight and true for up to five miles. Some are
parallel to one another; others gradually converge, while still
others radiate from specific points - small mounds of boulders.
Dr.Reiche even discovered lines which appeared to run straight
into the bases of mountains and emerge on the other side in
complete alignment and at the same level. When the degree of
straightness of the Nazca lines was checked by modern measuring
equipment, a startling observation was made: the average error
was no more than 9 minutes of arc, a deviation of 4 and 1/2 yards
per mile. That figure is the limit of accuracy that can be
obtained by what is called photogrammetric survey. In other
words, the ancient lines were laid out straighter than can be
measured by the best of modern survey techniques. Dr.Reiche
stated, "The designers, who could only have recognized the
perfection of their own creations from the air, must have
previously planned and drawn them on a smaller scale. How they
were then able to put each line in its right place and alignment
accurately over large distances is a puzzle that will take us
many years to solve."
It is the opinion of Dr.Reiche and several other students of
the Nazca enigma that some of the lines may be aligned with the
risings and settings of the sun, moon, and possibly several
bright stars. In fact, recent investigations showed that 39 lines
do point to solar or lunar events and that 17 are associated with
the stars. But this is only a small number; the majority of the
lines have no celestial significance, and their purpose remains a
mystery.
The Nazca Artists---Their Knowledge of the World
As extraordinary as the lines are, the details of the many
animal figures etched out on the Nazca Valley floor are equally
as remarkable. One of the most puzzling is the picture of a
spider, 150 feet long, drawn with a single continuous line half a
mile in length. What is so peculiar about the spider is that one
of its legs is deliberately lengthened and extended, and at the
tip there is a small cleared area. There is only one spider known
that uses the tip of its third leg in precisely the manner
depicted in the desert drawing, and that is the Ricinulei, which
lives in caves deep in the Amazon jungle, a thousand miles from
Nazca. Known to scientists for its unique method of copulation,
for which the spider uses that extended leg in the described
manner, the Ricinulei is extremely rare. Its mode of reproduction
can be observed only with the aid of a microscope.
How the Nazca artists were able to find and then observe
their tiny model we cannot say, unless we ascribe to them a
knowledge of science equaling our own.
There are several indications, both from the valley etchings
and from remains of Nazca pottery found in the immediate desert
area, that the ancient artists had knowledge of the world far
beyond the horizons of Nazca. One desert drawing depicts a
thin-limbed monkey, recently identified as the spider monkey,
another inhabitant of the distant Amazon jungle. On one remnant
of a Nazca pot is a distinct picture of a white-breasted,
black-coated penguin. The difficulty here is that penguins are
indigenous to Antarctica - nearly 6,000 miles away, although they
are living in the Galapagos Islands. How could the Nazcans have
drawn the birds unless they had actually seen them?
The most startling picture of all, however, was found on
another piece of Nazca pottery, which showed faces of five girls
- one white, one red, one black, one brown and one yellow. These
colors could not have been chosen fortuitously, as all the races
of man have been clearly represented. The faces seem to indicate
that the Nazcans had knowledge, possibly even models to work
from, of each and every racial group around the world. Could this
be evidence of global communication in the distant past that
equaled that of modern times?
As the study of Nazca progresses, more questions have arisen
than can be answered. When were the Nazca drawings made? A wooden
post was discovered at the intersection of two of the Nazca
lines, and carbon-14 tests revealed a date of A.D. 500. From
this, orthodox historians have ascribed a relatively recent date
to the Nazca drawings: between A.D. 200 and 700. But it is not
known whether the post was placed while the lines were being made
or after they were finished. There is no way, in fact, to date
the lines themselves, and it is entirely possible that they could
be thousands of years older. How were they constructed? The
accuracy of the drawings over such a large area attests to a
remarkable engineering skill not previously believed possible for
any ancient people. There is a question not only of advanced
knowledge, but also of performance: the planning, engineering and
construction of the drawings would have required the energies of
a large number of workers. There is no water, food or shelter
anywhere in the desert valley of Nazca that could have provided
the necessities of life for so great an undertaking. So how was
it accomplished? And the most perplexing question of all, why?
Why were the drawings made in the first place? For that we have
as yet no satisfactory answer.
The Great Pyramid---The Great Enigma
It is not possible to discuss the profound knowledge of the
ancients without letting the mind drift in the direction of the
land of Amen-Ra. I recall endless lectures in Egyptology and
animated discussions on the role of the gods in Egyptian history.
I also remember long winter nights in the Egyptology room of the
university when I fought my way through Sir Alan Gardiner's
Egyptian grammar, deciphering funeral texts on ornate caskets
stolen from the graves of the pharaohs and their nobles. But
nothing really prepared me for the wonder and awe I felt when I
first viewed the pyramids from atop a swaying camel.
Coming face to face with the witness of history known as the
Pyramid of Cheops is an incomparable experience. Standing on a
rocky, artificially leveled plateau about ten miles west of
modern Cairo and not far from the rotting circus tent that houses
the Gizera nightclub, the Great Pyramid has silently beheld many
battles fought within its shadow during its 5,000-year history.
But perhaps the greatest battle of them all is the controversy
raging between orthodox historians on the one hand and
archaeologists, statisticians and more liberalminded historians
on the other, over the questions posed by the pharaoh's tomb, for
with each new year added to its history, the slumbering giant
becomes more puzzling.
The questions confronting science in connection with the
tomb of Cheops are multiple and are all related to the
construction of the 2,300,000 blocks weighing an average of 21
and 1/2 tons, with the largest of them - found in the roof the
King's Chamber, a dark musty-smelling room in the heart of the
structure - weighing over 70 tons each. Comparison of the blocks
with the quarries in Egypt has confirmed the theory that the
stones were brought to the site from a few miles away at Mokattan
as well as from Aswan to 500 miles south at Aswan.
Here, too, we face a problem when following in the tracks of
the builders. How were the blocks transported to the building
site and, almost equally important, how many workmen were
required to move them and how long did it take?
Guesswork will not suffice in ascertaining the truth about
these crucial points, for these problems are real.
I recall from my early studies that orthodox historians
spouted forth the same set of answers: Quarry inscriptions on a
number of the blocks ascribe the building of the pyramid to the
Pharaoh Cheops in the Third Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. Since his
reign lasted only 22 years, this would suggest a maximum time
period during which the structure was erected. The blocks were
either transported on wooden sledges or floated down the Nile on
wooden rafts. It is further believed that 100,000 men, working
for twenty years, completed the task of building the pyramid.
Fantastic? Not to the historians, for this is what is believed
and what is currently taught. After all, how can one expect great
efficiency from a nation whose citizenry was only one step beyond
the cave-man stage? As credible as it may seem to the historians,
this simple solution will certainly not resolve any of the
outstanding questions. The historians are concerned only with
history, not with logistics; yet that is where the answer lies.
Let's look at a few basic statistics. If 2,300,000 blocks
were placed in the pyramid in 20 years' time, that is, in 7,300
days, then we must assume that an incredible 315 blocks were
positioned each day, or 26 blocks per hour per 12-hour day. With
100,000 men, utilizing the most modern construction equipment
available today, our engineers would not be able to match this
"primitive" accomplishment. In addition, since nine months of the
year were customarily set aside for planting, cultivating and
harvesting, the work force could have spent only three months out
of every year on the construction site. Thus, even at the
exceptional rate of 315 stones per day, the amount of
time spent in building the pyramid would have been eighty years,
not twenty.
The famed Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie has estimated
that eight men might have been able to handle 10 of the 2 and
1/2-ton blocks in the required three months. Using only ropes and
wooden levers, it would have taken them six weeks to pull the
stones out of the quarry, another week to float them down the
Nile, and still another six weeks to drag them to the base of the
pyramid.
Eight men moving ten blocks means that 100,000 men could
have transported 125,000 blocks a year, completing the massive
construction project in the proposed twenty years. But this
increases the number of blocks to 1,500 per day-an impossibility
even by modern standards!
Manpower is another area that presents a problem. The
100,000 man labor force mentioned above is only the estimated
size of the transportation crew. Add to this another 100,000
stonemasons at the quarries; 100,000 builders at the pyramid
itself; still another 100,000 architects, planners, and
supervisors coordinating the project; 250,000 women and children
preparing meals and keeping shelters in good repair; and a
standing guard force of 300,000 policing the workers and keeping
order among them, and we are speaking of a project that required
almost one million people - in the total construction - one third
to one-half the estimated population of all of Egypt around 2700
B.C.
Does this sound even remotely reasonable? Not really; yet
this is what we are being taught at the universities of the
world. But to continually call upon the energies of a million
people, year after year for twenty years, is stretching
credibility to the limit.
Some maintain that the workers were mere slaves and did not
really detract from the native Egyptian labor force, but here too
we run into a snag. Herodotus, who visited Egypt in ancient times
and recorded its history, tells us that the Egyptians were paid
for their services in building the pyramids in wheat, beer and
other foodstuffs. What ruler could have paid one million workers
for three months labor every year for twenty years without going
bankrupt? And where would he have obtained the immeasurable
quantity of food with which to pay them?
The source from which we gather much of our knowledge about
Egyptian history has been the hieroglyphic inscriptions and tomb
paintings. Many orthodox historians use these tomb paintings to
support their improbable claim that the building blocks for the
pyramids were either hauled or floated, or both. To substantiate
their claims, they direct us to two tomb paintings, one in the
Twelfth-Dynasty tomb of the nobleman Djehutihotep, the other in
the funerary sanctuary of Queen Hatshepsut. The first shows a
statue being drawn on a wooden sledge pulled by 172 men, over
ground which has been purposely dampened. The second picture
depicts a number of Queen Hatshepsut's royal barges, which were
used to float stone obelisks down the Nile. Each barge, it
appears, had a displacement of about 1,500 tons.
On the surface this seems to provide adequate material to
defend the historians' position, but a closer examination of the
facts completely repudiates this. The objection is that the two
tomb paintings were made a thousand years after the pyramid was
built.
Sledges and barges may have been used to transport heavy
objects in the Twelfth Dynasty and later, but we are concerned
with methods employed in the Third Dynasty, not in the Twelfth.
There is no concrete evidence that these methods were used in the
construction of the Great Pyramid. In addition, we are referring
not merely to the transportation of a few heavy statues, but to
the logistical problem of moving 2,300,000 blocks. If for
argument's sake we want to believe in wooden sledges and barges,
from where would the voluminous supply of wood come? The trees of
the Nile Valley are date palms, a vital source of food that could
not have been spared. The wood therefore must have been imported.
We know from the Egyptians' records that as early as 2800 B.C.
they were importing large quantities of lumber from the Lebanon,
the ancient world's major source of cedar wood. Considering the
need and the size of the average Lebanese cedar, mathematicians
tell us 26 million trees would have been required to fashion the
necessary number of sledges and rafts. Neither the Lebanon nor
all the forests in the ancient world could have supplied that
much wood in twenty years, whether or not there was a fleet that
could carry it all!
The truth is that it did not take twenty years to build the
Great Pyramid of Cheops. Evidence from other pyramids built in
the same period indicates that such structures were erected at
incredible speeds. At Dahshur, for example, is the Pyramid of
Sneferu, approximately two-thirds the volume of the Great
Pyramid. An inscription in the northeast cornerstone of the
structure reveals that it was laid in the 21st year of Sneferu's
reign, while halfway up is a block with another inscription,
dated in the 22nd year. In other words, it took only
two years to raise the entire Pyramid of Sneferu.
A similar situation may also have occurred with the Cheops
structure, because it was completed in as little as four years
time. The fact that recent excavations not far from the Great
Pyramid have uncovered the remains of only 4,000 workmen's huts
increases rather than decreases the problem. There is no way
100,000 laborers could have been housed in 4,000 small huts, not
to mention the additional hundreds of thousands who were
involved. This undoubtedly places the historians in a difficult
position, for how can one explain the building of the Great
Pyramid in only four years time by just 4,000 workers, if only
wooden sledges and barges were utilized during a three months'
period every year?
Yet it was done, and probably in just that length of time,
but the builders used construction and engineering skills and
techniques known only to them. It was a technological feat beyond
comparison in either the ancient or the modern world. The
generations following the one that built Cheops soon found
themselves, however, in a steep decline. They were suffering from
atrophy of knowledge, a recession in technical ability and
cultural sophistication that permeated each succeeding dynasty
until the Egyptian civilization became a vague shadow of its
historical greatness. The hieroglyphics from the various
dynasties reveal decided changes in the Egyptians' life-style and
technology, and the combination of funerary texts known as the
Book of the Dead (mentioned in Chapter 1) strongly supports this.
The Egypt we know from the history books was indeed a mere
remnant of a highly progressive people who inherited technical
ability beyond our understanding. The knowledge that sparked
their civilization was transmitted to them by the eight survivors
of the Flood, and using this knowledge, Menes, the founder of
Egypt, rose to the challenge and began to transform chaos into
order.
EPILOGUE
What really transpired on this planet in the relatively
early years of human development will undoubtedly remain the
subject of heated controversy for years to come. Even a detailed
account of the nearunbelievable feats of prehistoric
technological inventiveness still leaves it difficult for us to
comprehend fully the outstanding accomplishments of our
"primitive" ancestors. Yet a thoughtful look at what the earth's
crust has quietly preserved for us can enable our minds to slip
back into the realm of unrecorded history and retrieve from it
those minute details which increase not only our understanding
but also our bewilderment, and which stimulate our desire to
learn more and more and more.
There is another way to interpret history - the ooparts have
proven that. The major assumption of orthodox historians - that
our civilization is the result of gradual development from
primitive beginnings - can now seriously be challenged. Ooparts,
Biblical history, archaeology, geology, paleontology, and
ordinary level-headed thinking have guided us in that direction.
The weight of evidence is growing daily - evidence that our early
ancestors created a society that surpassed ours in all aspects of
development. Let's not sell humanity short by attempting to link
the remains of the ancient technology to supposed visits of
creatures from outer space, by ascribing to beings from other
planets what in reality is the logical effect of the synergistic
growth of a human supercivilization.
Our beliefs about the prehistoric ages are constantly being
altered by new archaeological and paleoanthropological findings,
and thus in time significant portions of previously accepted and
even of now developing historical frameworks may become outdated
and may need to be changed. The surface of historical
interpretation has scarcely been scratched. Even the accumulated
facts gathered in these pages should be viewed as a vehicle to
stimulate deeper and more detailed studies.
An overview of history as it now appears to us may have
grave implications for our future, for the world has undergone a
number of important transitions, with still more to come.
Although we cannot accurately assign dates to memorable events
that transpired in history, it is believed that the years between
1950 and 220 B.C. marked a period of transition for almost every
civilization of the Old and New worlds. During this time, Egypt's
first kingdom slipped into paralyzing deterioration; Sumeria and
India were overwhelmed by barbaric invaders; China and the rest
of the Far East suffered a disastrous flood; and in the Americas,
the so-called primitive cultures were suddenly followed by more
advanced ones. In many instances, the societies that collapsed
and disappeared had had historical ties of one kind or another
with scattered remnants of the lost super-civilization, which in
turn was related to the world order of the antediluvians
through the Babel world center. The disintegration of the primary
stages of the known civilizations within a relatively short time
of each other at the end of the third millennium B.C. is
historically unexplainable. No single all-embracing cause can be
given for their sudden decline. The first global order was swept
away by a devastating Flood; the revival of world order broke
down at Babel. Both of these catastrophes destroyed order, but
not the memory of the technology the ancients had once enjoyed.
The terrifying means by which an oppressive authority might
once again consolidate its power for world domination remained
intact. Some of those who were entrusted with the preservation of
this awesome knowledge eventually used it to destroy one another
in a succession of nuclear holocausts. The survivors who
safeguarded the secret of the great knowledge ultimately fused it
with the cultures of subsequent civilizations. These
civilizations lasted to the end of the third millennium B.C. and
might have possessed sufficient potential to enable yet another
global authority to threaten nuclear warfare, but too much time
had elapsed and the desire for a world order had passed.
After 2000 B.C., as each of the Middle Eastern civilizations
experienced a brief period of revival, remnants of earlier
advanced technology once again surfaced, now greatly diminished,
however. Both Egypt and Babylonia seem to have preserved a number
of sophisticated records and artifacts from former civilizations.
The years between 250 B.C. and the dawn of the Christian era
witnessed a technological rekindling in these lands, which
produced, among other things, the electric battery used in Iraq
during the Parthian period, a small computer calendar constructed
in Greece in approximately 80 B.C., and a model glider plane
tested on the banks of the Nile during the reign of the
Ptolemies.
The brutal Roman invasion of the Middle East in the first
century B.C. extinguished this spark of revival. The Romans'
ruthlessness was an integral part of a wave of wanton destruction
that struck the Library of Carthage in 146 B.C., reducing its
irreplaceable 500,000 volumes to ashes. Later, at Pergamus in
Asia Minor, another 200,000 manuscripts, known to have contained
occult knowledge and perhaps the pre-Flood and pre-Babel wisdom
of the occult energies, were consigned to flames by rampaging
Christians. The most devastating blow, however, was dealt by
Julius Caesar when he burned the athenaeum of Alexandria,
destroying 700,000 of the most valued scientific works of the
classical world.
The few records that survived were jealously guarded by the
secret societies. Gradually these too passed into oblivion as a
result of relentless persecution and mounting ignorance; as each
society died, its secrets perished with it or were hidden in
depositories, never to be found again.
Today we are witnessing a rebirth in science and technology,
which to a large degree is a phenomenon totally independent of
historical developments. The first signs of a new scientific
thrust appeared in the West, primarily in Europe, and finally
achieved full maturity in the Industrial Revolution. As our
modern development becomes more complex and more daring, we are
beginning to reevaluate the remains and the artifacts of the past
and to recognize in them plateaus of knowledge we ourselves are
only now attaining.
We can wonder at this startling discovery of past
accomplishments, but it must also serve as a warning. Once again,
science is beginning to reach beyond the boundary separating
natural science from supernatural manipulation and again we are
stepping into the perilous region of the occult that was so boldy
penetrated by the antediluvians and the builders. Are we once
again approaching a danger point?
It has been said that history possesses the strange and
unexplainable ability to repeat itself.
Will we give it the impetus to make it happen - again?
.......................
NOTE:
</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">NOW THAT IS SOME BOOK!!!
TODAY THE SOCIETIES OF THE MODERN SECULAR EVOLUTIONARY WORLD AND
ALL ITS SCHOOLS, DO NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW WHAT HAS BEEN
DISCOVERED, THEY CERTAINLY DO NOT WANT IT DISCUSSED IN THEIR
SCHOOLS.
SO YOU PARENTS, YOU THE CHILDREN OF GOD, IT'S TIME TO TEACH YOUR
CHILDREN ABOUT THE SECRETS OF LOST RACES. ARM YOURSLEF AND YOUR
CHILDREN WITH KNOWLEDGE THAT WILL GET YOU INTO TROUBLE WITH THE
SECULAR SCHOOL WORLD, BUT WHAT FUN THAT COULD BE, I COULD WISH
MYSELF BACK IN MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL AGAIN. :-) :-) :-)
</span><span style="color: #385243;">
Keith Hunt
</span></span></pre><div><br /></div></b></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-50362821578276197732024-03-16T22:58:00.000-07:002024-03-16T23:00:47.954-07:00STATS— TOWARDS END OF SABBATH - MARCH 16 - 2024 - ALBERTA, CANADA — HONG KONG AT THE TOP!<p> </p><div class="nFYbCe" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding: 16px 16px 0px;"><h2 class="DXG76d yO22Ne" style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px;">Top Locations——TOWARDS END OF SABBATH - MARCH 16 - 2024—HONG KONG AT TOP!</h2></div><div class="BVR8xc" jsname="f2d3ae" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588); font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding: 16px;"><div class="LxF6ze" style="display: flex; justify-content: flex-end; margin-top: 12px;"><div aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Display unit" class="jgvuAb vdnuVb" data-aligntop="true" jsaction="click:cOuCgd(LgbsSe); keydown:I481le; keypress:Kr2w4b; mousedown:UX7yZ(LgbsSe),npT2md(preventDefault=true); mouseup:lbsD7e(LgbsSe); mouseleave:JywGue; touchstart:p6p2H(LgbsSe); touchmove:FwuNnf; touchend:yfqBxc(LgbsSe|preventDefault=true); touchcancel:JMtRjd(LgbsSe); focus:AHmuwe; blur:O22p3e;b5SvAb:TvD9Pc;" jscontroller="YwHGTd" jslog="28426; track:Z2AmMb" jsname="t0g9e" jsshadow="" role="listbox" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border: 0px; color: #444444; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-size: 14px; outline: none; position: relative; text-align: center;"><div jsname="LgbsSe" role="presentation"><div class="ry3kXd" jsname="d9BH4c" role="presentation"><div aria-selected="false" class="MocG8c iRqe nj0FMe F8KQq LMgvRb" data-value="percentage" jsaction="" jsname="wQNmvb" role="option" style="border-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 16px; height: 0px; line-height: 32px; list-style: none; outline: none; overflow: hidden; padding-left: 16px; padding-right: 24px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;" tabindex="-1"><div class="kRoyt MbhUzd" jsname="ksKsZd" style="background-image: radial-gradient(circle farthest-side, rgba(153, 153, 153, 0.4), rgba(153, 153, 153, 0.4) 80%, rgba(153, 153, 153, 0) 100%); background-size: cover; left: 0px; opacity: 0; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: translate(-50%, -50%) scale(0); transition-duration: 0ms, 0.2s, 0ms; transition-property: transform, opacity, transform; transition-timing-function: linear, ease, linear; transition: transform 0ms linear 0.2s, opacity 0.2s ease, transform 0ms linear 0.2s; visibility: hidden;"></div><span class="vRMGwf oJeWuf" jsslot="" style="position: relative;"></span></div><div aria-selected="true" class="MocG8c iRqe nj0FMe F8KQq LMgvRb KKjvXb" data-value="value" jsaction="" jsname="wQNmvb" role="option" style="border-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-size: 16px; height: auto; line-height: 32px; list-style: none; outline: none; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 24px 8px 16px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;" tabindex="0"><div class="kRoyt MbhUzd" jsname="ksKsZd" style="background-image: radial-gradient(circle farthest-side, rgba(153, 153, 153, 0.4), rgba(153, 153, 153, 0.4) 80%, rgba(153, 153, 153, 0) 100%); background-size: cover; left: 0px; opacity: 0; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: translate(-50%, -50%) scale(0); transition-duration: 0ms, 0.2s, 0ms; transition-property: transform, opacity, transform; transition-timing-function: linear, ease, linear; transition: transform 0ms linear 0.2s, opacity 0.2s ease, transform 0ms linear 0.2s; visibility: hidden;"></div><span class="vRMGwf oJeWuf" jsslot="" style="position: relative;">Absolute numbers</span></div></div><div class="e2CuFe fWxnwc eU809d" role="presentation" style="border-color: rgba(68, 68, 68, 0.4) transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 6px 6px 0px; height: 0px; position: absolute; right: 5px; top: 21px; width: 0px;"></div></div></div></div><div data-chart-unit="value" jsaction="JIbuQc:zE1l4b(reKfxb),ovblqf(WUPT1e);rcuQ6b:rcuQ6b;agoMJf:rcuQ6b;uiFjtc:rcuQ6b" jscontroller="gp1I7c" jsdata="tFoqXb;blogcountrynameviewstatsdataid;$36" jsmodel="kdvKbb"><div class="qdEBOd FUfEbf BRlzu" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; min-height: 268px; width: 958px;"><div aria-hidden="true" class="pkbNHf" jsname="QLEXN" style="align-self: flex-start; flex: 0 0 256px; margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px; min-height: 256px; overflow: hidden;"><div style="position: relative;"><div dir="ltr" style="height: 256px; position: relative; width: 256px;"><div aria-label="A chart." style="height: 256px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 256px;"><svg aria-label="A chart." height="256" width="256"><defs id="_ABSTRACT_RENDERER_ID_16"></defs><rect fill="#ffffff" height="256" stroke-width="0" stroke="none" width="256" x="0" y="0"></rect><g><path d="M117.12665122415267,68.03993791884702L109.87775204025445,21.3998965314117A118,118,0,0,1,128,20L127.99999999999999,67.2A70.8,70.8,0,0,0,117.12665122415267,68.03993791884702" fill="#bdc7cc" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g><path d="M117.03676819320629,68.05396688624504L109.72794698867715,21.42327814374171A118,118,0,0,1,109.87775204025435,21.3998965314117L117.12665122415261,68.03993791884703A70.8,70.8,0,0,0,117.03230830227226,68.05466606825303" fill="#694f5d" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g><path d="M116.94690326234252,68.06811133318374L109.5781721039042,21.446852221972875A118,118,0,0,1,109.72794698867715,21.42327814374171L117.03676819320629,68.05396688624504A70.8,70.8,0,0,0,116.9424442734722,68.06881624514904" fill="#a4554b" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g><path d="M116.85705657992649,68.08237123631093L109.42842763321082,21.470618727184885A118,118,0,0,1,109.5781721039042,21.446852221972875L116.94690326234252,68.06811133318374A70.8,70.8,0,0,0,116.85259850048173,68.08308187706972" fill="#0d8de1" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g><path d="M116.677418553748,68.11123731676895L109.12903092291333,21.518728861281573A118,118,0,0,1,109.42842763321082,21.470618727184885L116.85705657992649,68.08237123631093A70.8,70.8,0,0,0,116.677418553748,68.11123731676895" fill="#d1cb65" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g><path d="M116.49785530098585,68.14056493698979L108.82975883497642,21.567608228316317A118,118,0,0,1,109.12903092291333,21.518728861281573L116.677418553748,68.11123731676895A70.8,70.8,0,0,0,116.49785530098585,68.14056493698979" fill="#708b75" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g><path d="M116.31836800746159,68.17035390329619L108.53061334576931,21.61725650549363A118,118,0,0,1,108.82975883497653,21.567608228316303L116.49785530098592,68.14056493698978A70.8,70.8,0,0,0,116.31836800746159,68.17035390329619" fill="#9ccc65" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g><path d="M116.04928208349328,68.2159019454999L108.08213680582213,21.693169909166485A118,118,0,0,1,108.53061334576931,21.61725650549363L116.31836800746159,68.17035390329619A70.8,70.8,0,0,0,116.04928208349328,68.2159019454999" fill="#ee5691" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g><path d="M115.69077776755705,68.27824551811442L107.48462961259509,21.79707586352403A118,118,0,0,1,108.08213680582203,21.693169909166514L116.04928208349321,68.21590194549991A70.8,70.8,0,0,0,115.69077776755705,68.27824551811442" fill="#744593" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g><path d="M115.15363391806224,68.37521361979745L106.58938986343705,21.958689366329082A118,118,0,0,1,107.48462961259509,21.79707586352403L115.69077776755705,68.27824551811442A70.8,70.8,0,0,0,115.15363391806224,68.37521361979745" fill="#ef4c60" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g><path d="M114.26010663380607,68.54602005438696L105.10017772301012,22.243366757311577A118,118,0,0,1,106.58938986343705,21.958689366329082L115.15363391806224,68.37521361979745A70.8,70.8,0,0,0,114.26010663380607,68.54602005438696" fill="#444b6e" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g><path d="M112.56877585427205,68.90211782287172L102.2812930904534,22.836863038119517A118,118,0,0,1,105.10017772301012,22.243366757311577L114.26010663380607,68.54602005438696A70.8,70.8,0,0,0,112.56877585427205,68.90211782287172" fill="#5c6bc0" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g><path d="M109.56579591302176,69.6419710664531L97.27632652170294,24.069951777421835A118,118,0,0,1,102.2812930904534,22.836863038119517L112.56877585427205,68.90211782287172A70.8,70.8,0,0,0,109.56579591302176,69.6419710664531" fill="#17aee8" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g><path d="M105.81900318525604,70.76427006193569L91.03167197542672,25.94045010322614A118,118,0,0,1,97.27632652170294,24.069951777421835L109.56579591302176,69.6419710664531A70.8,70.8,0,0,0,105.81900318525604,70.76427006193569" fill="#6ad4cf" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g><path d="M100.87449869889615,72.60239164033739L82.79083116482691,29.00398606722898A118,118,0,0,1,91.03167197542672,25.94045010322614L105.81900318525604,70.76427006193569A70.8,70.8,0,0,0,100.87449869889615,72.60239164033739" fill="#78909c" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g><path d="M96.08057680404058,74.80355688144112L74.80096134006763,32.672594802401875A118,118,0,0,1,82.79083116482691,29.00398606722898L100.87449869889615,72.60239164033739A70.8,70.8,0,0,0,96.08057680404058,74.80355688144112" fill="#255c61" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g><path d="M90.2249009534716,197.88056355801078L65.04150158911932,237.8009392633513A118,118,0,0,1,74.80096134006763,32.672594802401875L96.08057680404058,74.80355688144112A70.8,70.8,0,0,0,90.2249009534716,197.88056355801078" fill="#f0c419" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g><path d="M128,67.2L128,20A118,118,0,1,1,65.04150158911932,237.8009392633513L90.2249009534716,197.88056355801078A70.8,70.8,0,1,0,128,67.2" fill="#f47961" stroke-width="1" stroke="#ffffff"></path></g><g></g></svg><div aria-label="A tabular representation of the data in the chart." style="height: 1px; left: -10000px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: auto; width: 1px;"><table><thead><tr><th></th><th></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Hong Kong</td><td>2,883</td></tr><tr><td>United States</td><td>1,643</td></tr><tr><td>Canada</td><td>58</td></tr><tr><td>France</td><td>58</td></tr><tr><td>Germany</td><td>43</td></tr><tr><td>Israel</td><td>34</td></tr><tr><td>Australia</td><td>19</td></tr><tr><td>United Kingdom</td><td>10</td></tr><tr><td>India</td><td>6</td></tr><tr><td>Austria</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>Finland</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>Belgium</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>Ireland</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>South Africa</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>Morocco</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Russia</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Singapore</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Other</td><td>120</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div><div></div></div></div><div aria-label="Chart legend" class="AjZvvd" jsname="mU4ghb" style="align-self: center; flex: 1 1 auto; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #f47961; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">Hong Kong</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">2.88K</div></div></div><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.117647); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #f0c419; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">United States</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">1.64K</div></div></div><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.117647); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #255c61; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">Canada</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">58</div></div></div><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.117647); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #78909c; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">France</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">58</div></div></div><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.117647); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #6ad4cf; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">Germany</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">43</div></div></div><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.117647); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #17aee8; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">Israel</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">34</div></div></div><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.117647); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #5c6bc0; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">Australia</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">19</div></div></div><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.117647); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #444b6e; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">United Kingdom</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">10</div></div></div><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.117647); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #ef4c60; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">India</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">6</div></div></div><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.117647); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #744593; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">Austria</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">4</div></div></div><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.117647); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #ee5691; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">Finland</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">3</div></div></div><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.117647); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #9ccc65; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">Belgium</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">2</div></div></div><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.117647); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #708b75; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">Ireland</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">2</div></div></div><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.117647); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #d1cb65; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">South Africa</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">2</div></div></div><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.117647); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #0d8de1; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">Morocco</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">1</div></div></div><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.117647); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #a4554b; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">Russia</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">1</div></div></div><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.117647); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #694f5d; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">Singapore</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">1</div></div></div><div class="thCsjf SntFy" style="align-items: center; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.117647); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-left: 24px; margin-right: 24px;"><span class="O0B3t" style="background-color: #bdc7cc; border-bottom-left-radius: 12px; border-bottom-right-radius: 12px; border-top-left-radius: 12px; border-top-right-radius: 12px; height: 24px; margin-right: 24px; min-width: 24px;"></span><div class="zB2Qxb" style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 auto; justify-content: space-between; line-height: 48px; min-width: 0px;"><div class="F8KQq tiuJod" jsname="cHZFSd" style="max-width: 70%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">Other</div><div class="PBgGb" jsname="Plp4fb" style="min-width: 60px; text-align: right;">120</div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-22625951383468932982024-03-16T11:16:00.000-07:002024-03-16T11:17:25.911-07:00BREIF HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY #34—SCHISM AND WAR—EARLY EUROPE<p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: medium;"><b>BREIF HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY #34 </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 32px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 32px;"><span style="color: red;">SCHISM AND WAR: EARLY MODERN EUROPE</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 4.3px; min-height: 11px;"><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The history of the Reformation is unintelligible if its political causes are not taken into account. The desire for ecclesial reform was quite sincere among many Catholics and Protestants, but it would have remained unrealized had the cause of reform not served the interests of princes. Protestant churches were, by their nature, national establishments, subordinate to local rulers, and beyond the influence of pope and emperor alike. In the case of England, in fact, reformation was the result - and not the cause - of schism from the Roman Church.</span></p><p class="p4" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">[A statue at Trinity College, Cambridge of King Henry VIII, who founded the institution in 1546. Henry's rift with the Catholic Church was not occasioned by doctrinal differences, but by his paramount urge to secure the Tudor succession]</span></i></p><p class="p5" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 17.5px 0px 0px 1.9px; min-height: 11px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Moreover, Europe's early modern period was an age of extraordinary violence, during which the modern sovereign nation state was forged in the crucibles of war, civil strife and not a few massacres. It was inevitable that the new religious movements of the continent would be conscripted into those struggles, and the new religious divisions exploited by the powerful.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p7" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.9px 0px 0px 53px;"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The Catholic Church in England</span></b></p><p class="p8" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.9px 0px 0px 53px; min-height: 11px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The Anglican Church was not born out of any great popular movement for reform in England; nor did it begin as a Protestant establishment. When King Henry VIII (1491-1547) had himself declared head of the Church in his dominions, he understood this to mean head of the Catholic Church in England. In breaking with the pope, he did not intend to adopt an Evangelical theology or Church discipline. He detested Martin Luther and took pride in his title 'Defender of the Faith', which the pope had granted him for writing an anti-Lutheran defence of Catholic sacramental theology entitled <i>Assertio Septem</i> <i>Sacramentorum</i> ('The Defence of the Seven Sacraments') in 1521.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Indeed, the hesitancy with which reform was embraced in England left its mark on the communion ever after: not only in its historical emphasis upon the need to preserve the 'Apostolic Succession' (the direct continuity of its bishops in a line of consecration going back to the Apostles), or in the existence today of Anglican monastic orders, but in the regularity with which 'High Church' movements have arisen that have been theologically, liturgically, and devotionally committed to the position that the Anglican Church is a Catholic communion.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Henry would not have broken with Rome at all had he been able to procure an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536) - supposedly on biblical grounds - so that he might marry the younger Anne Boleyn (c. 1507—36) and so perhaps produce a male heir. The pope dared not grant such a request, however, since Catherine was the aunt of the Holy Roman emperor CharlesV (1500—58). In 1531, after seven years of waiting, Henry separated from Catherine; a year and a half later, he married Anne; and five months after that, he had the</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><i>[Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, won Henry</i><span class="s1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i> </i></span><i>VIII's favour by suggesting that the king circumvent papal</i><span class="s1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i> </i></span><i>authority in the matter of his annulment]</i></span></p><p class="p6" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">new archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) - Henry's own appointment in 1533 - officially declare the first marriage annulled.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 9.1px 0px 0px 57.6px;"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The Monarch's Supremacy</span></b></p><p class="p10" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 9.1px 0px 0px 57.6px; min-height: 11px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Cranmer (who had Lutheran leanings) counselled Henry to note that, in scripture, it is kings - and not popes — who are God's anointed rulers over all spheres, spiritual no less than temporal. This suited both Henry's taste for the new, 'French' monarchical absolutism, and the political designs of Thomas Cromwell (c. 1485-1540), the powerful head of the king's Privy Council, who in 1534 convinced Parliament to pass the 'Act of Supremacy', which declared the English monarch the sole head of the Church in England. Cromwell had few discernible convictions, but he favoured Reformation for reasons of state, and he was largely responsible<span class="s2" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>for the dissolution of the English monasteries and seizure of their property by the crown. Henry, however, remained Catholic by conviction; he insisted upon a celibate priesthood, retained the sacramental theology of the Roman Church and steadfastly resisted 'Lutheran' reforms to the end.</span></p><p class="p11" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Only after Henry's death did Cranmer begin to introduce Protestant forms<span class="s1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>of worship into the English Church, principally through his exquisitely beautiful Book of Common Prayer, the first version of which appeared in 1549. He paid the price for this, though, under the Roman Catholic Queen Mary I (1516-58), who had him burned at the stake. When, however, Elizabeth I (1533— 1603) — Henry's daughter by Anne Boleyn - became queen, she made the English Church a Protestant establishment. Elizabeth was not much more enthusiastic for reform than her father had been, but she recognized the political utility of the Act of Supremacy; in religion, she was a moderate traditionalist, who believed in Christ's real presence in the Eucharist, but who felt equal distaste for the overly elaborate ritualism of high churchmen and for the undisciplined Congregationalism of the<span class="s1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>English 'Puritan' party. And it was she who determined the shape the Church of<span class="s1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>England would assume: Catholic in hierarchical structure, Protestant in practice,<span class="s1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>and simultaneously Catholic and Protestant in constituency.</span></p><p class="p12" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: times; font-size: large;">(HOW <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SO-CALLED <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"CHRISTIAN" RELIGION <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CAN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TWIST <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MINDS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF ....WELL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ANYONE .... BUT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HERE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CATHOLIC <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>QUEEN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MARY, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WHO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NOT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>LIKING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BOOK <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>COMMON <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PRAYER" <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CRANMER, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CAST <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HIM <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HERETIC, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HAD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HIM <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BURNED <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>STAKE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Keith Hunt)</span></p><p class="p11" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p13" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.9px 0px 0px 2.2px; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The 'Wars of Religion'</span></b></p><p class="p14" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 8.9px 0px 0px 2.2px; min-height: 11px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The term 'wars of religion' has traditionally been used as a general designation for the monstrously brutal conflicts fought between and within the nations of western Europe from the early 16th to the middle of the 17th centuries - which suggests that these were wars fought along confessional lines, prompted by religious passions, and waged for religious ends. Both the term and the impression it conveys are wildly inaccurate. These wars were, in fact, the birth-pangs of the modern European nation-state, and were fought for political power and national sovereignty, and though religious allegiances and hatreds were exploited by regional princes, they were at most incidental, and determined neither the alliances nor the aggressions of the time.</span></p><p class="p11" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The earliest of these conflicts were those waged by the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor CharlesV (1500-58)—who was at war, from 1521 to 1522, with Catholic France and, in 1527, with the pope (that year his armies even sacked Rome). It is true that Charles objected to the spread of Lutheranism in his vassal states, but this was because he correctly recognized it as part of a movement of national independence. And though the German wars that began in 1547 ended in 1555 with the 'Peace of Augsburg' - which granted each prince the right to determine the religion of his own state — this was a charter of national, not religious, autonomy. The Catholic princes of Germany did not fight alongside Charles, for they too desired the settlement of Augsburg.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">As for the 'religious' wars fought in France during the latter half of the century, these were struggles for the crown of France among three noble houses during the last years of the <i>Valois</i> monarchy.Various factions may have associated their causes with Reformed or Catholic interests, when it served their purposes, but rarely with inflexible zeal. The <i>Valois </i>regent Catherine de Medicis was equally capable of issuing an edict of toleration of French Protestants in 1562 and of instigating the massacre of thousands of Huguenot Protestants in and around Paris in 1572, as the situation dictated. And those Catholic parties that favoured absolute monarchy and a subordinate 'Gallican' Catholic Church were often supporters of the Huguenot cause and enemies of the champions of a free Catholic Church and</span></p><p class="p17" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.2px 0px 0px; min-height: 11px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><i>[There is a print showing the slaughter that ensued following the long siege of Magdeburg in 1630-1. The Thirty Years' War visited terrible depredations upon the civilian population of central Europe.</i><span class="s1" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i> </i></span><i>Just ten years after the Edict of Toleration that granted France's Huguenot community freedom from persecution, bitter rivalry at the French court between political factions sparked the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in August 1572]</i></span></p><p class="p18" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">a limited monarchy. When Philip II of Spain (1527—98), moreover, became involved in the struggle for succession, in league with the Catholic house of Guise, a brief alliance was forged between the Catholic French king Henri III (1551-89) and his Protestant heir, Henri de Bourbon (1553-1610), king of Navarre. And though, in 1593, this same Henri de Bourbon - King Henri IV of France since 1589 — became Catholic, this did not deter Philip.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The most protracted and devastating of these conflicts was the Thirty Years' War, which began in 1618, when King Ferdinand of Bohemia (1578-1637) - later Holy Roman emperor Ferdinand II — provoked a Protestant uprising in Bohemia by attempting to enforce religious uniformity in his dominions. But Ferdinand certainly had no objection to the aid provided by the Protestant Elector of Saxony in quelling the rebellion. And though, during the first half of the wars that ensued in the German states, foreign Protestant powers entered the fray on the side of the seditious princes, this was hardly a result of religious principle. Nor could religious motives plausibly account for the way in which these wars were absorbed into the struggle between the Catholic Habsburgs and the Catholic Bourbons during the last dozen years of the war (by far, the bloodiest phase of the fighting), or for the subventions supplied in 1630 by Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642) to the Lutheran king of Sweden Gustavus II Adolphus (1594—1632) — with the blessing of the pope — so that the latter could send troops into Germany, or for France's direct entry into the war in 1635 on the side of the Protestant powers.</span></p><p class="p11" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">This is not to deny that Catholics and Protestants often hated one another quite sincerely in the early modern period, but that hatred was impotent to move armies. Simply stated, the European wars of the early modern period were not in any meaningful sense 'wars of religion'.</span></p><p class="p12" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p3" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: times; font-size: large;">(BUT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OBVIOUS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>EACH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SIDE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HAD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"RELIGION" <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ROMANISM <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PROTESTANTISM <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WITH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THEM. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MATTER <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HOW <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>YOU <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WANT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WORD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IT, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ALL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>LITERAL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FIGHTING, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WAS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FRAMED <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SO-CALLED <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"CHRISTIAN" <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FRAMEWORK. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THIS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WHOLE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SCENE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WAS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NOT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PART <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>REAL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TRUE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CHURCH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>GOD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ON <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>EARTH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Keith Hunt)</span></p><p class="p11" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p11" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p19" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 4.6px 0px 13.9px 153.9px; text-indent: -89.1px;"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">THE ST BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY MASSACRE</span></b></p><p class="p20" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 11px;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p21" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The most notorious atrocity committed during the French wars of succession in the late 16th century was the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572 - which actually lasted for two days (23-24 August) - in the course of which thousands of Huguenot Protestants were slaughtered in Paris and the surrounding countryside. Often cited as a prime instance of extreme religious intolerance, the massacre is better understood as one of European history's more horrifying examples of heartless political machination.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p21" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The occasion of the violence was the marriage of Henri de Bourbon (1553-1610), king of Navarre, to Princess Marguerite de Valois (1553-1615), sister of the French king Charles IX (1550-74). A great many Huguenots, both noble and common, had come from Navarre to celebrate the nuptials and were still in the city on 22 August, four days after the wedding, when an attempt was made to assassinate Gaspard II de Coligny, admiral of France, a Huguenot but also a close confidant of the king.The attempt failed, and the king promised an investigation.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p21" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">The conspiracy against Coligny, however, was almost certainly concocted by the House of Guise and Charles' mother Catherine de Medicis. Both resented Coligny's influence on the king and both opposed his plan to send a combined Huguenot and French Catholic army against Spain in the Netherlands. Fearing discovery, Catherine apparently convinced her son that Coligny and the other Huguenot leaders were plotting against him; at least, the order to kill Coligny and the other Huguenot leaders probably came from Charles. But it was to Catherine's benefit that all the Huguenots in the city be killed, to make Coligny's death seem like one among many, and to hide her complicity in an ocean of blood.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p21" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Even so, religious hatred fed upon the tale. The royal court in Spain and the papal court in Rome reportedly rejoiced at the news of the slaughter — though, one should note, for political as much as for religious reasons.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p21" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">'I was awakened about three hours after midnight by the sound of all the bells and the confused cries of the populace. Upon entering the street I was seized with horror at the sight of the furies, who rushed from all parts, bawling out, "Slaughter, slaughter, massacre the Hugeuenots".'</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p21" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Maximilien de Bethune, <i>Memoires</i>, August 1572 </span></p><p class="p21" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">....................</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p21" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: times; font-size: large;">AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SEE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ONCE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MORE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DEMONIC <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MADNESS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ONE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SIDE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OTHER, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AGAINST <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OTHER, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ALL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WITHIN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FRAMEWORK <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"CHRISTIANITY" <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BUT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WAS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FALSE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CHRISTIANITY <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THAT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WAS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WILLING <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>KILL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OTHERS, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FOR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>POLITICAL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>RELIGIOUS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>REASONS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MAKES <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DIFFERENCE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WHICH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>YOU <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WANT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PICK <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[POLITICAL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>RELIGIOUS] <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WAS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>STILL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MADNESS, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>EVIL <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SINFUL, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>JUST <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>LIKE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>KILLINGS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BETWEEN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"CATHOLICS" <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"PROTESTANTS" <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>DECADES <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>LONG <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FUED <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THAT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HAPPENED <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IRELAND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>IN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>LATTER <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HALF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>20TH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CENTURY. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SUCH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PARTICIPANTS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WERE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AND <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ARE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>NEVER <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PART <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TRUE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CHURCH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>GOD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ON <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>EARTH.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p21" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Keith Hunt</span></p><p class="p12" style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-72330887692417602812024-03-16T11:07:00.000-07:002024-03-16T11:07:35.151-07:00ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BIBLE #3—UNDERSTANDING ARCHEOLOGY<p> <b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 24px;">The following is taken from the book: THE POPULAR HANDBOOK of ARCHAEOLOGY and the BIBLE by Holden and Geisler -- Keys to Understanding Archaeology in Biblical Lands</b></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27px;"><b></b><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 27px;"><b></b><br /></p><p class="p3" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">For the novice, archaeology can be a mysterious and confusing discipline. </span></p><p class="p4" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">However, in reality the entire process of locating and excavating a particular site is very structured and organized down to the very tools that are used and the personnel who are involved.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Understanding the Process of Archaeological Excavation</span></b></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In order to begin excavating a site one must identify a director, who is in charge of leading the investigation and securing any necessary permits. This person ought to be a qualified (academically and experientially) individual trained in understanding the ancient Near East and possess some familiarity with ancient languages (Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and so on). In addition, the director will appoint an administrator, who is in charge of volunteer registrations,, scheduling, logistics, travel, food, and lodging. Normally a site will have many supervisors at various areas throughout the excavated area to oversee the volunteer labor. It is not unusual for an investigation to include an official photographer and an architectural specialist to sketch and document areas, features, and artifacts of interest.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bringing together all the various personnel, logistics, and tools necessary to dig can be an expensive endeavor. Since there is little funding available for archaeological excavation, it is primarily supported through private donations or financed by academic institutions. This means there is a heavy reliance on volunteers (many with no previous archaeological experience) to perform the actual excavation itself. It is common that volunteers undergo a day or two of archaeological training and orientation prior to starting.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Part of this training is familiarization with the tools that are used in unearthing the Bible s most precious treasures. The more basic tools include handheld brushes, trowels, wheelbarrows, picks, rubber baskets, twine, buckets, stakes, hoes, tape measures, and manually operated sifting trays. There are also technical tools utilized, such as cameras, computers, databases, survey transits, ground penetrating radar, and aerial photography, among other things. Usually mechanized equipment such as backhoes, tractors, bulldozers, and the like are forbidden since precious artifacts and building structures that lie just beneath the surface may be damaged or completely destroyed. However, in some rare cases when manual labor is not feasible due to the amount of effort involved, or when the risk to artifacts is greatly reduced, exceptions may be made and heavy equipment used.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">In addition to the physical labor involved, time is also allotted for experienced individuals to "read" (interpret) and reassemble pottery and other artifacts to discover their type and date. The corporate review and interpretive process can be lengthy, taking months or years to complete, but is a necessary step to insure the integrity and documentation of the material data. Then various specialists such as epigraphers, architects, anthropologists, scientists, forensic experts, geologists, theologians, and historians should carefully review and examine all (or portions of) the material data to ensure nothing was grossly misinterpreted or omitted.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Once archaeologists are confident they have completed their due diligence in examining the data, their findings are usually published in a scholarly journal and presented at various conferences, where the information can be peer-reviewed and evaluated by the archaeological community at large. Once these important steps have been taken, a body of information is created that usually trickles down for public consumption and evaluation in the form of nontechnical books, much like this one.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Dating Scenarios for Ancient Israel</span></b></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">As the excavation progresses at a given site, it is common to discover several layers (that is, strata; singular, stratum) of past occupation from various time periods. Usually, the deeper you dig the older the occupation stratum becomes, since more recent sediments are built over older sediments. By collecting and assessing the cumulative data unearthed at various locations around the Near East, archaeologists have developed chronological dating scenarios. These ancient time periods are identified with various civilizations that interacted with ancient Israel (sometimes known as "Palestine") through the centuries. Though not all archaeologists have adopted the same chronological development, there is a general consensus among conservative scholars, with slight variations, about the ages of antiquity and the corresponding civilizations.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Archaeological Ages and Israel - 1</span></b></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Neolithic Age</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">8500-4600 BC</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Domestication of plants, animals, and introduction of metals. First evidence of religion (fertility worship) discovered in Israel.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: large;">(YES <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MAN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>HAS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BEEN <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ON <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>EARTH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MUCH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>LONGER <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THAT <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>6,000 <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>YEARS. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TIME <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>AGE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FOR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BOOK <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CALLED <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"SECRETS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>OF <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>LOST <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>RACES" <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ON <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>THIS <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WEBSITE, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MAKES <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>INDEED <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MUCH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MORE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>REALISTIC <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>TIME <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FRAME <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FOR <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>SUCH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>WORLD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BEFORE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>PRE-NOAH <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>FLOOD <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Keith Hunt)</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Chalcolithic Age</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">4600-3600 BC</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Chalcolithic" literally means copper and stone due to the advances in creating objects made of stone and metal. Denser population with unfortified settlements in Israel-Near the end of the Chalcolithic Age, earliest writing discovered in southern Iraq (Sumer), known as <i>die protolit-erate</i> age of logographic writing (in which pictures stand for words).</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Early Bronze Age</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">3600-2350 BC</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Increased settlement and urbanization in Israel, which included fortification of outer walls (up to 25 feet across). Cuneiform (cuneus = wedge) language emerges in the Near East as the written script produced by wedge impressions in soft clay. However, Egyptian writing used consonantal (no vowels) hieroglyphics in which pictures stood for words and syllables. Written-language illiteracy is high.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">EB I</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">3600-2900 BC</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Early Dynastic Period of ancient Egypt. </span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">EB II</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">2900-2700 BC</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Earliest Canaanite high place (Hebrew: <i>bamah</i>) discovered at Megiddo. Time of Early Dynastic Period in ancient Mesopotamia.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">EB III</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">2700-2500 BC</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Beginning of the Old Kingdom in ancient Egypt. </span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">EB IV</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">2500-2350 BC</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Population decreased, towns destroyed and uninhabited in Israel. End of the Old Kingdom in Egypt.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Intermediate Bronze Age</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">2350-2000</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Urban centers had declined and nomadic lifestyle begins. Natural factors (rain, weather, farming, and so on) lead to highly transient culture.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Middle Bronze Age</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">2000-1550 BC</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Patriarchal period of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and his 12 sons. Joseph and the Israelites in Egypt.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">MB I</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">2000-1800 BC</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Time of tribal transition and chaos with a declining population living as nomads. Beginning of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">MB II</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">1800-1550 BC</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Period of Abraham, Lot, and the destruction of Sodom. (See new evidence emerging from Tall el-Hammam in Jordan.) End of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Late Bronze Age</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">1550-1200 BC</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Period of the Israelite Exodus from Egypt and conquest of Canaan by Joshua. Beginning of New Kingdom in Egypt.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">LB I <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>1550-1400 BC</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Time of Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Israelites, and the Exodus.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">LB II <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>1400-1200 BC</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Time of the conquest, Judges, and beginning of Hebrew settlement in the Promised Land. (See Bryant Woods analysis of Jericho and the Merneptah Stele.)</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Iron Age <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>1200-586 BC</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Reign of the Judean and Israelite kings from Saul to Zedekiah. This period is ended with the destruction of Solomon's temple by the Babylonian (Nebuchadnezzar II) conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BC.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Iron 1 <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>1200-1000 BC</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Period of the Judges, King Saul, and beginning of the Davidic dynasty. End of New Kingdom in Egypt.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Iron 11 <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>1000-586 BC</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Period of the Davidic dynasty and the split of Israel into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. The Assyrian and Babylonian sieges of Israel and Judah.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">PersianPeriod <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>586-332 BC</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Decline and fall of the Babylonian Empire and the reign of the Persians. Jews freed from Babylonian captivity and Jerusalem rebuilt. Alexander the Great conquers the world, and Hellenistic culture introduced.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Hellenistic Period <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>332-63 BC</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Greek philosophy under Plato and Aristotle (who was the tutor of Alexander the Great) influenced the worlds academic and popular thinking on reality, religion, politics, morals, cosmogony (origin of the universe), cosmology (operation of the universe), and the soul. The Septuagint (LXX) was translated for Greek-speaking Jews in Egypt (c. 250 BC). The Jewish revolt (c. 164 BC) under the Maccabees seizes the Jewish temple from the Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes. By AD 63 Rome ruled Israel as part of the Syria-Israel province.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Roman Period <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>63 BC-AD 324</span></b></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Though Roman rule in Israel began in 63 BC when Pompey entered Jerusalem, the Roman Period was inaugurated by Rome's first emperor, Julius Caesar. This period offers biblical archaeologists a glimpse into the rise and spread of early Christianity in addition to the dispersion of the Jews in AD 70.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p7" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Basic Archaeological Vocabulary</span></b></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">When archaeologists conduct their excavations and unearth various kinds of material remains, they use special words to communicate about the process and the artifacts themselves. An understanding of this vocabulary (or what we call "archaeologese") is helpful to understanding the archaeological process. The following chart includes a summary of the basic vocabulary (see also the glossary at the end of this book):</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Understanding Archaeological Terms</span></b></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">See also "Glossaty of Key Teams" following chapter26.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Tell (or tel, tall)</b>—A <i>tell</i> is a mound of earthen debris that consists of layers of buried cities built one on top of the other over time. When a city was destroyed or abandoned, the new inhabitants would construct their own city on top of the previous ruins. Each layer of occupation is called a stratum. The study of these layers (strata) is known as stratigraphy. The analysis of the strata offers a timeline/history of successive cities as well as uncovering precious archaeological artifacts such as buildings, inscriptions, roads, tools, weapons, bones, altars, idols, bricks, and destruction remnants like ash. Archaeologists dig at a tell to slowly expose each successive layer in order to reconstruct the architecture and social aspects of a community. It is also important to note that not all biblical sites are located on or in tells.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Locus</b>—A <i>locus</i> refers to a specific area of investigation. Usually archaeologists will mark out their locus as a square to be excavated. Often string or rocks can be arranged to mark the dimension of the locus (for example, 5m x 5m square). By marking a boundary the excavators can precisely contain and document all artifacts and information gained from this location, as well as prevent foreign material from being introduced into the area.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Balk</b>—<i>Balks</i> refer to unexcavated vertical wall areas within a square. These are necessary in order to observe the soil layers of the area being excavated. These walls (typically 3 feet across) at Megiddo contain an exposed face (pictured left), which is known as a section. These sections give the archaeologist a short history of the area being excavated. That is to say, it is a chronological side-view of the area being unearthed. If there are no balks with sections, there can be no history of the square as the archaeologist removes soil and descends deeper and deeper into the square.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Artifacts</b>—-When excavators unearth portable items that were made by humans, they call them <i>artifacts</i>. These include but are not limited to pottery, jewelry, tools, weapons, knives, artwork, jars, coins, grinding stones, mortar and pestle, and clothing. After these artifacts are washed and examined, some of them are placed on display at museums. Artifacts are important since they tell us about the community, habits, and ambient life.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>In situ</b>—As archaeologists unearth artifacts at their dig site that are in their natural setting undisturbed by handling, movement, or transportation, they identify those artifacts as in <i>situ</i>. This is unlike some artifacts that surface on the antiquities market or in museums, which have no documented history of discovery in their natural setting or prior location. Although these kinds of objects may be authentic, they are nevertheless without official documentation, which raises concerns about their history and origin. In some cases these sorts of objects turn out to be forgeries.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Features</b>—Unlike artifacts, <i>features</i> are nonportable man-made architectural structures such as fireplaces, kilns, walls, hearths, gates, foundations, bricks, amphitheaters, and other permanent items. Features convey information about the habits, values, boundaries, and customs of community inhabitants. This large amphitheater (pictured left) was discovered at the biblical city of Beth Shan in northern Israel, the city where bodies of King Saul and his son Jonathan were hung by the Philistines (2 Samuel 21:12).</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Mud Brick</b>—In addition to wood and stone, ancient structures were built with clay. <i>Mud bricks</i> have been discovered throughout the ancient Near East, like these discovered at Tell el-Hammam (Sodom) in western Jordan. If a community chose to use mud brick, they would begin manufacturing them with local soil, which was poured into a mold (usually 18 inches long by 7 inches wide and 5 inches thick) and left to dry in the sun.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Ecofacts</b>—Those things that are used by the community but not made by humans, including bone, seeds, wood, leather, clay, stone, and other sorts of naturally occurring materials. Ecofacts may indicate the availability of materials and the value placed on particular resources. This porous grinding stone (left) found at Sodom was used to grind grain into flour to make bread.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Ossuary</b>—Throughout Israel archaeologists have discovered small (about 18 inch x 12 inch) stone bone boxes, known as <i>ossuaries.</i> After the deceased had been in the tomb for some time, family members would collect now uncovered bones and place them into an ossuary with the deceased's name written on it. This was primarily done to make room for more bodies in the tomb. The Israelites were the only culture to use such a burial practice.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Bullae</b>—Ancient <i>bullae</i> (singular, <i>bulla</i>) are small<span class="s1" style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>(nickel-size) clay seal impressions that contain the name,<span class="s1" style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>title, or both of the one sealing a particular document<span class="s1" style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>or package. Usually kings and persons in authority wore<span class="s1" style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>metal rings they could press into a small lump of moist<span class="s1" style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>clay, leaving their signature as an authenticating mark.<span class="s1" style="font-family: "Lucida Grande"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Hundreds of these clay impressions have been discovered, some of which belong to 'biblical' figures.<span class="s2" style="font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Potsherd</b>—a <i>potsherd</i> is a piece of broken pottery (top). Potsherds are very abundant in Israel as you glance down when walking through a tell. These pieces of pottery are useful to archaeologists because they can provide information on chronology and dating of a community. In other words, designs, shapes, styles, colors, and thickness all change over time and thus can assist the examiner in discovering what particular time this kind of pottery flourished. People groups can also be deciphered based on design. Philistine pottery can be distinguished from Hebrew pottery by discovering the design, shape, and location in which it was found. Certain pieces of pottery (known as diagnostic sherds) are set aside for examination, such as handles, rims, and bases, because they offer clearer glimpses into the vessel's style and date (bottom). Pottery reading is the most common and reliable approach to discover chronology.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Ostracon</b>—<i>Ostracon</i> (plural, <i>ostrich</i>) is a Greek word meaning "potsherd." For the archaeologist, it is a piece of pottery or other hard surface material that contains writing on its surface. Though ostraca are rare, they offer insight into the written language and values of the community, and in some cases may provide a crucial link for understanding history. Ostraca typically contain portions of written receipts, directions, letters, names, descriptions of deities, or anything the that can be communicated in writing.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Glacis</b>—A <i>glacis</i> (plural, <i>glacis</i>) is a man-made sloping fortification mound of debris that runs from ground level below the tell to the base of a defensive fortification wall on top of the tell. The glacis was used to support the perimeter of the tell and became a crucial aid in defending the community from invasion. The steep slopes, often covered with loose gravel or smooth river rock, would make it difficult for advancing armies to climb up and penetrate the city walls.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Topography, geography</b>—Considering the natural surroundings of a community can aid the archaeologist in locating various cities and events mentioned in the Bible. These natural surroundings include mountains, valleys, caves, rivers, lakes, oceans, and streams. For example, the biblical town of Aroer (bottom), originally built by the Moabites and later captured by Moses, was located on the bank above the River Arnon (above, Deuteronomy 2:36) as shown in this photograph. Aroer is located near other biblical cities in modern Jordan such as Madaba and Dibon (modern Dhibon). The ancient trade route known by its biblical description as the "King's Highway" (Numbers 20:17-21) can also be seen from the town of Aroer.</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Stela or stele / Stelae or steles</b> (plural)—Governments and rulers in the ancient Near East would commemorate important events by erecting stone monuments known as steles. Sometimes they are called monumental inscriptions and can include dedications, victory, or funerary inscriptions. Notable steles are the Mesha Stele (aka Moabite Stone), the Tel Dan Stele, and the Egyptian Merneptah Stele (pictured left).</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Manuscript / codex</b>—A biblical manuscript (literally, "manual script") is a handwritten copy of a text written on papyrus (plant material), vellum (animal skin), or some other paperlike material. A codex (plural, codices) is a collection of manuscripts bound as a book. The Aleppo Codex (pictured left) is one of the Masoretic texts from the tenth century AD.</span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">………………..</span></p><p class="p6" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="p5" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">TO <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>BE <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>CONTINUED</span></p>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-23416647295571273422024-03-16T10:54:00.000-07:002024-03-16T23:32:19.499-07:00DETAILED HISTORY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH #3— INTRO TO APOSTOLIC AGE<p> </p><center><h1 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 24pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Detailed History of the Church </span><span style="color: #5a876c;">#3</span></h1><h2 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="color: #990000;">Intro to the Apostolic age</span></h2></center><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="60" cellspacing="3" style="color: black;"><tbody><tr align="left" valign="top"><td align="left" valign="top"><blockquote><pre style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;"><span style="color: #385243; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: #783f04; font-size: 12pt;"><b> CHURCH HISTORY</b></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #385243; font-size: small;">
</span><span style="color: #385243; font-size: medium;">From the multi-volume work on Church History by Philip Schaff.
</span><span style="color: #385243; font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #385243;">EXTENT AND ENVIRONMENT OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE
The apostolic period extends from the Day of Pentecost to the
death of St. John, and covers about seventy years, from A.D. 30
to 100. The field of action is Palestine, and gradually extends
over Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. The most prominent
centres are Jerusalem, Antioch, and Rome, which represent
respectively the mother churches of Jewish, Gentile, and United
Catholic Christianity. Next to them are Ephesus and Corinth.
Ephesus acquired a special importance by the residence and labors
of John, which made themselves felt during the second century
through Polycarp and Irenaeus. Samaria, Damascus, Joppa,
Caesarea, Tyre, Cyprus, the provinces of Asia Minor, Troas,
Philippi, Thessalonica, Beroea, Athens, Crete, Patmos, Malta,
Puteoli, come also into view as points where the Christian faith
was planted. Through the eunuch converted by Philip, it reached
Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians. As early as A.D. 58 Paul
could say: "From Jerusalem and round about even unto Illyricum, I
have fully preached the gospel of Christ." He afterwards carried
it to Rome, where it had already been known before, and possibly
as far as Spain, the western boundary of the empire.
</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(Even to the British Isles as other historic stuides under this
section will prove to you - Keith Hunt)</span><span style="color: #385243;">
The nationalities reached by the gospel in the first century were
the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans, and the languages used were
the Hebrew or Aramaic, and especially the Greek, which was at
that time the organ of civilization and of international
intercourse within the Roman empire.
The contemporary secular history includes the reigns of the Roman
Emperors from Tiberius to Nero and Domitian, who either ignored
or persecuted Christianity. We are brought directly into contact
with King Herod Agrippa 1 - (grandson of Herod the Great), the
murderer of the apostle, James the Elder; with his son King
Agrippa II - (the last of the Herodian house), who with his
sister Bernice (a most corrupt woman) listened to Paul's defense;
with two Roman governors, Felix and Festus; with Pharisees and
Sadducees; with Stoics and Epicureans; with the temple and
theatre at Ephesus, with the court of the Areopagus at Athens,
and with Caesar's palace in Rome.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
The author of Acts records the heroic march of Christianity from
the capital of Judaism to the capital of heathenism with the same
artless simplicity and serene faith as the Evangelists tell the
story of Jesus; well knowing that it needs no embellishment, no
apology, no subjective reflections, and that it will surely
triumph by its inherent spiritual power.
The Acts and the Pauline Epistles accompany us with reliable
information down to the year 63. Peter and Paul are lost out of
sight in the lurid fires of the Neronian persecution which seemed
to consume Christianity itself. We know nothing certain of that
satanic spectacle from authentic sources beyond the passage,
information of heathen historians. A few years afterwards
followed the destruction of Jerusalem, which must have made an
overpowering impression and broken the last ties which bound
Jewish Christianity to the old theocracy. The event is indeed
brought before us in the prophecy of Christ as recorded in the
Gospels, but for the terrible fulfilment we are dependent on the
account of an unbelieving Jew, which, as the testimony of an
enemy, is all the more impressive.
The remaining thirty years of the first century are involved in
mysterious darkness, illuminated only by the writings of John.
This is a period of church history about which we know least and
would like to know most. This period is the favorite field for
ecclesiastical fables and critical conjectures. How thankfully
would the historian hail the discovery of any new authentic
documents between the martyrdom of Peter and Paul and the death
of John, and again between the death of John and the age of
Justin Martyr and Irenaeus.
</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(It was the time when true Christianity was assailed by false
teachings coming from within the Church of God itself. James,
Peter, Jude, and John, attest to this in their epistles, many
ant-christs were on the march, bringing in heresies, "doing away"
with the commandments of God, turning grace into a license to
sin. It was the foundational start to what took place in the 2nd
century A.D. - the introduction of Easter to replace the
Passover, and the beginning of moving away from the 7th day of
the week observance to the 1st day of the week, changing the 4th
commandment of the great Ten Commandments - Keith Hunt)</span><span style="color: #385243;">
CAUSES of SUCCESS
As to the numerical strength of Christianity at the close of the
first century, we have no information whatever. Statistical
reports were unknown in those days. The estimate of half a
million among the one hundred millions or more inhabitants of the
Roman empire is probably exaggerated. The pentecostal conversion
of three thousand in one day at Jerusalem, and the "immense
multitude" of martyrs under Nero, favor a high estimate. The
churches in Antioch also, Ephesus, and Corinth were strong enough
to bear the strain of controversy and division into parties. But
the majority of congregations were no doubt small, often a mere
handful of poor people. In the country districts paganism (as the
name indicates) lingered longest, even beyond the age of
Constantine (3rd century A.D. - Keith Hunt) The Christian
converts belonged mostly to the middle and lower classes of
society, such as fishermen, peasants, mechanics, traders,
freedmen, slaves. St. Paul says "Not many wise after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble were called, but God chose the
foolish things of the world, that he might put to shame them that
are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world that he
might put to shame the things that are strong; and the base
things of the world, and the things that are despised, did God
choose, yea, and the things that are not, that he might bring to
naught the things that are that no flesh should glory before
God." And yet these poor, illiterate churches were the recipients
of the noblest gifts, and alive to the deepest problems and
highest thoughts which can challenge the attention of an immortal
mind. Christianity built from the foundation upward. From the
lower ranks come the rising men of the future, who constantly
reinforce the higher ranks and prevent their decay.
</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(By the time of Constantine - 300s A.D. the church of Rome had
gained favor with the secular Roman Empire, and customs were
brought in so the pagans could convert easily to Christianity,
such pagan customs as Easter and Sunday worship were already in
place, then came Christ-mass - December pagan festival of the sun
returning to power and longer days, adopted by the church of
Rome, made it easy for pagans to adopt Christianity as it moved
further and further way from what they called "Jewishness" -
Keith Hunt)</span><span style="color: #385243;">
At the time of the conversion of Constantine, in the beginning of
the fourth century, the number of Christians may have reached ten
or twelve millions, that is about one-tenth of the total
population of the Roman empire. Some estimate it higher.
The rapid success of Christianity under the most unfavorable
circumstances is surprising and its own best vindication. It was
achieved in the face of an indifferent or hostile world, and by
purely spiritual and moral means, without shedding a drop of
blood except that of its own innocent martyrs. Gibbon, in the
famous fifteenth chapter of his "History," attributes the rapid
spread to five causes, namely: (1) the intolerant but enlarged
religious zeal of the Christians inherited from the Jews; (2) the
doctrine of the immortality of the soul, concerning which the
ancient philosophers had but vague and dreamy ideas; (3) the
miraculous powers attributed to the primitive church; (4) the
purer but austere morality of the first Christians; (5) the unity
and discipline of the church, which gradually formed a growing
commonwealth in the heart of the empire. But every one of these
causes, properly understood, points to the superior excellency
and to the divine origin of the Christian religion, and this is
the chief cause, which the Deistic historian omits.
</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(In Gibbon stating number the 5th cause, he was in unclear
language saying what I've said above - the popular Roman
Christianity gaining favor with the secular Roman empire by
adopting pagan customs, calaiming they were now baptaized as
"Christian" customs - Keith Hunt)</span><span style="color: #385243;">
The life of Christ is the divine-human fountain-head of the
Christian religion; the apostolic age is the fountain-head of the
Christian church, as an organized society separate and distinct
from the Jewish synagogue. It is the age of the Holy Spirit, the
age of inspiration and legislation for all subsequent ages.
Here springs, in its original freshness and purity, the living
water of the new creation. Christianity comes down from heaven as
a supernatural fact, yet long predicted and prepared for, and
adapted to the deepest wants of human nature. Signs and wonders
and extraordinary demonstrations of the Spirit, for the
conversion of unbelieving Jews and heathens, attend its entrance
into the world of sin. It takes up its permanent abode with our
fallen race, to transform it gradually, without war or bloodshed,
by a quiet, leaven-like process, into a kingdom of truth and
righteousness. Modest and humble, lowly and unseemly in outward
appearance, but steadily conscious of its divine origin and its
eternal destiny; without silver or gold, but rich in supernatural
gifts and powers, strong in faith, fervent in love, and joyful in
hope; bearing in earthen vessels the imperishable treasures of
heaven, it presents itself upon the stage of history as the only
true, the perfect religion, for all the nations of the earth.
At first an insignificant and even contemptible sect in the eyes
of the carnal mind, hated and persecuted by Jews and heathens, it
confounds the wisdom of Greece and the power of Rome, soon plants
the standard of the cross in the great cities of Asia, Africa,
and Europe, and proves itself the hope of the world.
THE INSPIRATION OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE
In virtue of this original purity, vigor, and beauty, and the
permanent success of primitive Christianity, the canonical
authority of the single but inexhaustible volume of its
literature, and the character of the apostles, those inspired
organs of the Holy Spirit, those untaught teachers of mankind,
the apostolic age has an incomparable interest and importance in
the history of the church. It is the immovable groundwork of the
whole. It has the same regulative force for all the subsequent
developments of the church as the inspired writings of the
apostles have for the works of all later Christian authors.
Furthermore, the apostolic Christianity is preformative, and
contains the living germs of all the following periods,
personages, and tendencies. It holds up the highest standard of
doctrine and discipline; it is the inspiring genius of all true
progress; it suggests to every age its peculiar problem with the
power to solve it. Christianity can never outgrow Christ, but it
grows in Christ; theology cannot go beyond the word of God, but
it must ever progress in the understanding and application of the
word of God. The three leading apostles represent not only the
three stages of the apostolic church, but also as many ages and
types of Christianity, and yet they are all present in every age
and every type.
THE REPRESENTATIVE APOSTLES
PETER, PAUL, and JOHN stand out most prominently as the chosen
Three who accomplished the great work of the apostolic age, and
exerted, by their writings and example, a controlling influence
on all subsequent ages. To them correspond three centres of
influence, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Rome.
Our Lord himself had chosen Three out of the Twelve for his, most
intimate companions, who alone witnessed the Transfiguration and
the agony in Gethsemane. They fulfilled all the expectations,
Peter and John by their long and successful labors, James the
Elder by drinking early the bitter cup of his Master, as the
proto-martyr of the Twelve. Since his death, A.D. 44. James,
"the brother of the Lord," seems to have succeeded him, as one of
the three "pillars" of the church of the circumcision, although
he did not belong to the apostles in the strict sense of the
term, and his influence, as the head of the church at Jerusalem,
was more local than ecumenical.
</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(James was never the "head" of any church, he was one of the
leading men at Jerusalem, but Scripture never designates him as
"head" - Keith Hunt)</span><span style="color: #385243;">
Paul was called last and out of the regular order, by the
personal appearance of the exalted Lord from heaven, and in
authority and importance he was equal to any of the three
pillars, but filled a place of his own, as the independent
apostle of the Gentiles. He had around him a small band of
co-laborers and pupils, such as Barnabas, Silas, Titus, Timothy,
Luke.
Nine of the original Twelve, including Matthias, who was chosen
in the place of Judas, labored no doubt faithfully and
effectively, in preaching the gospel throughout the Roman empire
and to the borders of the barbarians, but in subordinate
positions, and their labors are known to us only from vague and
uncertain traditions.
</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(No the history of these workers for the Lord are not vage or un-
certain traditions, but few "historians" want to believe the
histories for it flies in the face of some of their Romanized
Christain histories - Keith Hunt)</span><span style="color: #385243;">
The labors of James and Peter we can follow in the Acts to the
Council of Jerusalem, A.D. 50, and a little beyond; those of Paul
to his first imprisonment in Rome, A.D. 61-63; John lived to the
close of the first century. As to their last labors we have no
authentic information in the New Testament, but the unanimous
testimony of antiquity that Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom in
Rome during or after the Neronian persecution, and that John died
a natural death at Ephesus. The Acts breaks off abruptly with
Paul still living and working, a prisoner in Rome, "preaching the
kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ, with all boldness, none forbidding him." A significant
conclusion.
It would be difficult to find three men equally great and good,
equally endowed with genius sanctified by grace, bound together
by deep and strong love to the common Master, and laboring for
the same cause, yet so different in temper and constitution, as
Peter, Paul, and John.
</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Peter stands out in history as the main pillar of the primitive
church, as the Rock-apostle, as the chief of the twelve
foundation-stones of the new Jerusalem; (not "chief" per se but
the leading man in "function" is made by the book of Acts - Keith
Hunt)
</span><span style="color: #385243;">
John as the bosom-friend of the Saviour, as the son of thunder,
as the soaring eagle, as the apostle of love; Paul as the cham-
pion of Christian freedom and progress, as the greatest
missionary, with "the care of all the churches" upon his heart,
as the expounder of the Christian system of doctrine, as the
father of Christian theology. Peter was a man of action, always
in haste and ready to take the lead, the first to confess Christ,
and the first to preach Christ on the day of Pentecost; Paul a
man equally potent in word and deed; John a man of mystic
contemplation. Peter was unlearned and altogether practical;
Paul a scholar and thinker as well as a worker; John a
theosophist and seer. Peter was sanguine, ardent, impulsive,
hopeful, kind-hearted, given to sudden changes, "consistently
inconsistent" (to use an Aristotelian phrase); Paul was choleric,
energetic, bold, noble, independent, uncompromising; John some
what melancholic, introverted, reserved, burning within of love
to Christ and hatred of Antichrist.
Peter's Epistles are full of sweet grace and comfort, the result
of deep humiliation and rich experience; those of Paul abound in
severe thought and logical argument, but rising at times to the
heights of celestial eloquence, as in the seraphic description of
love and the triumphant paean of the eighth chapter of the
Romans; John's writings are simple, serene, profound, intuitive,
sublime, inexhaustible.
We would like to know more about the personal relations of
these pillar-apostles, but must be satisfied with a few hints.
They labored in different fields and seldom met face to face in
their busy life. Time was too precious, their work too serious,
for sentimental enjoyments of friendship. Paul went to Jerusalem
A.D. 40, three years after his conversion, for the express
purpose of making the personal acquaintance of Peter, and spent
two weeks with him; he saw none of the other apostles, but only
James, the Lord's brother. He met the pillar-apostles at the
Conference in Jerusalem, A.D. 50, and concluded with them the
peaceful concordat concerning the division of labor, and the
question of circumcision; the older apostles gave him and
Barnabas "the right hands of fellowship" in token of brotherhood
and fidelity. Not long afterwards Paul met Peter a third time, at
Antioch, but came into open collision with him on the great
question of Christian freedom and the union of Jewish and Gentile
converts. The collision was merely temporary, but significantly
reveals the profound commotion and fermentation of the apostolic
age, and foreshadowed future antagonisms and reconciliations in
the church. Several years later (A.D. 57) Paul refers the last
time to Cephas, and the brethren of the Lord, for the right to
marry and to take a wife with him on his missionary journeys.
Peter, in his first Epistle to Pauline churches, confirms them in
their Pauline faith, and in his second Epistle, his last will and
testament, he affectionately commends the letters of his "beloved
brother Paul," adding, however, the characteristic remark, which
all commentators must admit to be true, that (even beside the
account of the scene in Antioch) there are in them "some things
hard to be understood." According to tradition (which varies
considerably as to details), the great leaders of Jewish and
Gentile Christianity met at Rome, were tried and condemned
together, Paul, the Roman citizen, to the death by the sword on
the Ostian road at Tre Fontane; Peter, the Galilean apostle, to
the more degrading death of the cross on the hill of Janiculum.
John mentions Peter frequently in his Gospel, especially in the
appendix, but never names Paul; he met him, as it seems, only
once, at Jerusalem, gave him the right hand of fellowship, became
his successor in the fruitful field of Asia Minor, and built on
his foundation.
Peter was the chief actor in the first stage of apostolic
Christianity and fulfilled the prophecy of his name in laying the
foundation of the church among the Jews and the Gentiles. In the
second stage he is overshadowed by the mighty labors of Paul ....
Paul was the chief actor in the second stage of the apostolic
church, the apostle of the Gentiles, the founder of Christianity
in Asia Minor and Greece, the emancipator of the new religion
from the yoke of Judaism, the herald of evangelical freedom, the
standard-bearer of reform and progress. His controlling influence
was felt also in Rome, and is clearly seen in the genuine Epistle
of Clement, who makes more account of him than of Peter.....
St. John, the most intimate companion of Jesus, the apostle of
love, the seer who looked back to the ante-mundane beginning and
forward to the post-mundane end of all things, and who is to
tarry till the coming of the Lord, kept aloof from active part in
the controversies between Jewish and Gentile Christianity. He
appears prominent in the Acts and the Epistle to the Galatians,
as one of the pillar-apostles, but not a word of his is reported.
He was waiting in mysterious silence, with a reserved force, for
his proper time, which did not come till Peter and Paul had
finished their mission. Then, after their departure, he revealed
the hidden depths of his genius in his marvellous writings, which
represent the last and crowning work of the apostolic church....
Paul is the heroic captain of the church militant, John the
mystic prophet of the church triumphant.
Far above them all, throughout the apostolic age and all
subsequent ages, stands the one great Master from whom Peter,
Paul, and John drew their inspiration, to whom they bowed in holy
adoration, whom alone they served and glorified in life and in
death, and to whom they still point in their writings as the
perfect image of God, as the Saviour from sin and death, as the
Giver of eternal life, as the divine harmony of conflicting
creeds and schools, as the Alpha and Omega of the Christian
faith.
</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">(Schaff is of course refering here to Jesus the Christ - Keith
Hunt)</span><span style="color: #385243;">
...................
To be continued
</span></span></span></pre><div style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></div></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2093736338762018205.post-91288878125187389542024-03-16T10:38:00.000-07:002024-03-16T10:38:46.652-07:00SECRETS OF LOST RACES #6— ENIGMA OF THE CAVE MAN<p> </p><center><h1 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 24pt;"><span style="color: red;">Secrets of the Lost Races</span><span style="color: #5a876c;"> #6</span></h1><h1 style="font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 24pt;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 18pt; text-align: left;">Solving the Enigma of the Cave Man</span></h1></center><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="60" cellspacing="3" style="color: black;"><tbody><tr align="left" valign="top"><td align="left" valign="top"><blockquote><b><pre style="color: #385243; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: large;">Unraveling the Enigma of the Cave Man
</span><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: large;">As the eight world civilization centers destroyed one
another, the suffering planet throbbed with pain and terror.
Everywhere death rained from the skies. Dense arrows of flame and
mushrooming clouds of fire unleashed by the Agneya weapon spewed
radiating waves of death over the battlefields, vaporizing both
men and machines. The knowledge that had been so carefully
preserved and carried through the Flood now became the tool of
destruction. Death ruled, and its horrifying stench of decay hung
heavy where once proud cities had stood. Gone was the global
unity-confusion was rampant.
With knowledge fractured, communications nonexistent, and
distrust and hatred the common denominator among the warring
nations, ideas and concepts could no longer be exchanged, and the
flow of inventiveness and technical advancement abruptly ceased.
It was as if a giant hand had suddenly demolished the nations,
grabbed the strings of knowledge and pulled them back.
The world was to be changed for a second time. Abandoning
the nightmare of the molten cities, leaving them in the clutches
of atomic radiation, small groups of panic-stricken survivors set
out to begin life once again in the mountains and jungles which
were untouched by the holocaust. Finding refuge in caves and
crevices marked the beginning of a new existence, far different
from the dubious blessings society had brought them. And while
the crumbled civilizations sought ways to reestablish themselves,
the people trying to recall from memory what had once been
entrusted to scrolls and metal plates, the "cave men" isolated
themselves from the mainstream. Their remains are still found
today, contributing to the conflict called evolution.
The new framework of history, based on discovery and
manuscript translation covering the activities of the human race
since the Flood, indicates that there really was no progressive
succession. Instead the developments of the Stone Age and the
cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia were merely discontinuous
offshoots of the world fragmentation after the building of the
Babel World Center. Limited (primitive) and advanced
civilizations existed at the same time, with each one aware of
the others' existence.
Death of the "Ape-Man"
To prove their theory, scientists up until a few years ago
were classifying various prehistoric human skeletal remains into
various positions on a hypothetical line of ascent, beginning
with the so-called ape-man and ending with modern man. More
recent finds, however, have revealed the disconcerting fact that
the basic human has always existed, not as the offspring of apes
or primitive beings, but as a man, since time began. Those known
to us as ape-men were simply humans who had degenerated from the
main human stock. Bjorn Kurten, author of Not from the Apes,
says: "It has been possible in the last decade to demonstrate
that the human lineage can be followed back into far more distant
times where it still retains its unique character. Indeed, we may
doubt that our ancestor was ever what could properly be called an
ape. This makes excellent sense zoologically. The contrasts
between apes and men in anatomy . . . are too great to be
reconciled with a relatively recent common origin, and the same
is true of behavior."
This is truly the age of discovery, even though not everyone
agrees with the conclusions reached. The "evolution" of man, as
seen through his technological regression, indicates that man did
not evolve; rather, he regressed. For nearly a century,
Neanderthal man, whose partial skeletal remains have been
discovered throughout Europe, was thought by the evolutionists to
have been a direct ancestor of modern man. But more recent
Neanderthal finds in the Middle East are more advanced, almost
like Homo sapiens in appearance, yet they are older than those
found in western Europe, forcing the paleontologists to concede
that the West European Neanderthalers constituted a step
backward. The most satisfactory explanation for the degeneracy of
the European Neanderthalers is as follows.
By their own volition the people severed their contacts with
the civilization centers, and they presently found themselves cut
off from the rest of mankind by the Ice Age glaciers that
blanketed northern and central Europe. Because of this isolation
and their limited numbers, considerable inbreeding occurred. With
such a limited gene pool, the appearance of bad genetic traits
was significantly increased, leading to birth defects and
physical mutations which produced the structures characteristic
of West European Neanderthal remains.
There are some paleontologists who are already beginning to
believe that this explanation may apply not only to Neanderthal
man but to the rest of the primitive "ape-men" as well. Harold G.
Coffin, Research Professor of the Geoscience Research Institute
in Berrien Springs, Michigan, comments: "Neanderthal man and
Cro-Magnon man are not a very useful support for evolution, for
they are so much like modern human beings. This is especially
true since the recent discovery that the classic descriptions of
Neanderthal man were based in large part on the remains of a
Neanderthal skeleton of a man suffering from severe
osteoarthritis."
An article entitled "Pathology and the Posture of the
Neanderthal Man," by researchers William L. Straus, Jr., and A.
J. A. Cove, lends considerable weight to this evaluation: "There
is thus no valid reason for the assumption that the posture of
Neanderthal man of the fourth glacial period differed
significantly from that of present-day man," they point out.
"This is not to deny that his limbs, as well as his skull,
exhibit distinctive features - features which collectively
distinguish him from all groups of modern men. . . . It may be
that the arthritic 'old man' of La Chapelle-aux-Saints, the
postural prototype of Neanderthal man, did actually stand and
walk with something of a pathological kyphosis; but, if so, he
has his counterparts in modern men similarly afflicted with
spinal osteoarthritis. He cannot, in view of his manifest
pathology, be used to provide us with a reliable picture of a
healthy, normal Neanderthalian. Notwithstanding, if he could be
reincarnated and placed in a New York subway - provided that he
were bathed, shaved, and dressed in modern clothing - it is
doubtful whether he would attract any more attention than some of
its other denizens."
There are already some paleontologists who are beginning to
believe that this explanation, as well as that of recessive
genetic traits, may apply not only to Neanderthal man but to the
rest of the primitive "ape-men" as well. Two defects associated
with recessive genetic traits are endocrine and thyroid disorders
affecting the development of bones and other tissue, and
resulting in acromegaly and cretinism. The medical descriptions
of these two disorders are similar to the modern paleontological
descriptions of "ape-men" remains.
Such conditions occur rarely among populations with wide
ranges of breeding choice, but, as mentioned above, they can
become predominant in a people closely inbred because of
isolation. With this in mind, it is interesting to note in what
locations the remains of major prehistoric "ape-men" types have
been found:
Pithecanthropus was located in Indonesia
Sinanthropus in east China
Australopithecus in South Africa
Most primitive Neanderthalers in the western part of Europe
When we look at these localities in terms of the population
dispersal from Ararat following the Flood, we see that Ararat
constituted a central starting point, and the primitive men's
remains are found on the outer fringes.
While the designation "Stone Age" clearly does not apply to
these remnants of a chaotic culture who carved out a meager
existence far from the mainstream of civilization, it will have
to suffice for want of a more appropriate description. The
remains of these survivors are usually found in close proximity
to the materials that were most durable, stone or bone, hence
this name. Yet this does not preclude their having worked with
these materials exclusively; in fact, there is evidence that
they, like their more civilized neighbors, not only knew about,
but worked with metals. It is true that no actual metal tools
have ever been discovered among Stone Age relics, but this is
understandable, as metal tools will not last much longer than a
few thousand years when exposed to the weathering processes of
time. That the survivors indeed knew of the value of metal
becomes evident when we consider the many prehistoric mines that
have been located throughout the world. On the Mediterranean
island of Elba, there are iron-ore mines whose origins are lost
in antiquity. The Greeks considered the mines already ancient in
their own day and ascribed their origin to the Pelasgians, a
prehistoric people who inhabited the eastern Mediterranean
region.
Beyond Europe, a number of recently excavated sites have
greatly increased our knowledge of prehistoric mining operations.
Investigations conducted in 1967 and 1969 at Lion Cavern, near
Ngwenya in Swaziland, southern Africa, have shown that long
before the present Negroid population of Bantus, Bushmen and
Hottentots inhabited the area, at a time when local Neanderthal
types such as Rhodesian, Boskop and Florisbad man were extinct,
someone had already mined deposits of hematite and specularite,
forms of iron ore. This hematite has been found in conjunction
with Neanderthal remains at La Chapelle-aux-Saints in France and
dates back to the same period as the Ngwenya mines. It is now
believed that the "bloodstone" (hematite) was used as a cosmetic
and also for ritual purposes as a substitute for human blood in
burial ceremonies. The use of hematite in this specific manner
has been discovered as far away as Tasmania, off southern
Australia, and Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of South
America - always in coastal areas. It is possible that the use of
bloodstone, and perhaps the material itself, may have been
exported over a considerable area in prehistoric times. This
extensive trade, of course, was totally out of keeping with modem
theories of the primitiveness of early man.
Not far from Ngwenya, at Border Cave in South Africa,
diggings in 1972 conducted by Adrian Boshier and Peter Beaumont
uncovered ten filled-in prehistoric mining pits, some up to 45
feet in depth. Again, hematite had been extracted. Associated
with the Border Cave remains were remains of both Neanderthal and
modern types of primitive man. Also found were agate knives still
sharp enough to cut paper, as well as evidence that the miners
used mathematics and kept records by making etchings on bone. It
would appear that the ore had sufficient economic value to prompt
the primitive diggers to keep track of what they produced.
Interestingly, some of the most fascinating evidence of
prehistoric mining is found in North America. In the Keweenaw
Peninsula and on Isle Royale in Michigan, in the copper-rich Lake
Superior region, there are ancient mines whose origins are
completely unknown even to the Indians. There are signs that
several thousand tons of copper were removed at a very early
date, yet not a single cultural artifact remains that could tell
us who the miners were. The American Antiquarian (vol. 25, p.
258) remarks, "There is no indication of any permanent settlement
near these mines. Not a vestige of a dwelling, nor a skeleton,
nor a bone has ever been found." What is known is that the
prehistoric miners had the means not only of extracting the ore,
but also of transporting it to a distant location, for not one
ounce of the ore was ever uncovered for use within a thousand
miles of the mine sites.
The first discovery of the prehistoric mining shafts was
made in 1848 by S.O.Knapp, an agent of the Minnesota Mining
Company. In passing over a portion of the company's grounds, he
observed a continuous depression in the soil, which he surmised
was formed by the disintegration of a vein. The depressions led
him to a cavern, where he noticed evidence of artificial
excavation. After clearing away the debris, he discovered
numerous stone hammers, and at the bottom of the hole was a vein
of ore which the ancient miners evidently had not finished
unearthing.
Two and a half miles east of the Ontonagon River, today the
center of the copper region of Michigan, Knapp discovered a
second mine. This shaft was situated in a rock wall: The
excavation, which reached a depth of 26 feet, had later been
filled in with clay and a tangled mass of vegetation - indicative
of an extremely old mine. At a depth of 18 feet, Knapp uncovered
a detached mass of copper weighing six tons. This mass had been
raised on timbers and wedges to about five feet above its
break-off point. The timbers were from six to eight inches in
diameter, and the ends showed the marks of a cutting tool. The
copper mass itself had been pounded smooth, and what had been
protruding pieces were broken off to facilitate transportation.
The shaft contained other copper masses, charcoal and other
evidence of fire, and a stone hammer weighing 36 pounds.
On Isle Royale, near the northern shore of Lake Superior,
prehistoric excavations are extensive, with some pits reaching 60
feet in depth. Upon opening one of the island pits, searchers
discovered that the mine had been worked to a depth of nine feet
through solid rock before a vein of copper 18 inches thick was
uncovered at the bottom. Obviously the miners were highly
intelligent and experienced both in the observation of locating
the veins and then in following them underground when their
course on the surface was interrupted. Many of the excavations
were connected underground, and drains were cut into the rock to
remove excess water. At one point, the Isle Royale excavations
extend for two miles in an almost straight line.
Still more curious than the Michigan copper mines is this
find reported in the February 1954 issue of Coal Age. During the
preceding year, miners at the Lion Coal Mine in Wattis, Utah,
broke into a preexisting tunnel system, of which there was no
modern record. The tunnels were so old, in fact, that the coal
residue in them had already oxidized to a great extent and could
no longer be of commercial value. On August 13, 1953, John E.
Wilson of the Department of Engineering and Jesse D. Jennings of
the Department of Anthropology of the University of Utah began an
exploration of the prehistoric coal mines. They found not only
tunnels, but also centralized coal rooms where the material had
been brought before being transported to the surface. The tunnels
averaged five to six feet in height and extended for several
hundred feet, following seams of coal in patterns similar to
modern mine layouts. The scientists were unable to find the
surface entrance of the old mine system, but they did trace an
eight-foot-high tunnel to a depth of 8,500 feet. Subsequent
investigation revealed that no local Indian tribe had ever used
coal or had a recollection of anyone who did. As with the
Michigan mines, some enterprising prehistoric people not only had
possessed the technology for mining the ore, but also had the
means of transporting the material to some unknown location.
Construction Techniques of the Stone-Age Man
A lack of metal artifacts certainly does not prove that the
people of the Stone Age did not use metals, nor does the fact
that most Paleolithic remains have been found in caves mean that
they were the single mode of habitation among Stone Age men.
Le-Grand-Pressigny in France has the most extensive deposits of
stone tools in the world - millions of cores and scrapers from
the Paleolithic Age are scattered over 10,000 acres, at depths
averaging three to six feet - yet there is not a single cave in
the area. At Charroux is another tool center of considerable
size, where even today one can pick up prehistoric stone axes
over twenty-five acres. Within three miles of the Charroux site,
in the hillsides along the Charente River, there are 49 caves,
but excavations have revealed no sign that any of these caverns
was ever inhabited by men.
Evidence that Stone Age men lived in well-constructed houses
is slowly surfacing and has upset preconceived views of how they
lived and flourished. In the Lascaux Caverns, world-renowned for
their Magdalenian paintings, one can still see the holes in the
rock that supported wooden crossbeams. Probably looking similar
to what Michelangelo utilized many millennia later, these
crossbeams held scaffolding that enabled the Cro-Magnon artists
to execute their works on the cave ceilings, ten to twelve feet
above the cavern floor. The evidence for this scaffolding is
significant, for in the opinion of Professor Doru Todericiu of
the University of Bucharest, the history of architecture shows
that scaffolding did not precede knowledge of masonry. If the
Lascaux artists constructed scaffolds, it is probable that they
also knew how to construct walls. "To deny this," Professor
Todericiu states, "would be like saying that the candle was
invented before anyone knew how to kindle fire."
Several examples of simple prehistoric stone construction
have been found which show a remarkable degree of sophistication.
The Abbe Breuil and Professor Lantier, in their book "Les hommes
de Page de la pierre ancienne," discuss the finding of a
prehistoric oven at Noailles: "[It was] made of squared stones
held in place by a packing of chalky clay and sand." In other
words, the Stone Age oven had been constructed using stones
shaped like bricks and mortared with cement.
Even in eastern Europe, where the early inhabitants did not
share the higher culture of the Magdalenian people of France, we
also find indications of a sophisticated knowledge of
construction.
The remnants of three huts of that period were recently
excavated at Vestonice on the lower slopes of the Pavlov hills in
Czechoslovakia. The largest of the three was 30 by 40 feet in
size, and its floor had been covered with limestone grit, a crude
form of cement. The smaller huts had been built in similar
fashion, using circular walls covered with limestone and clay.
These are considered to be among the oldest true walls surviving
in the world. What is also significant about the Vestonice site
is that a well-constructed beehive-shaped kiln containing
remnants of fired clay was found in one of the huts. Fragments of
sculptured clay heads of a fox and two bears were also unearthed.
Thus the use of fired clay was not beyond the scope of
Paleolithic culture, as had previously been thought.
What are perhaps the most disturbing prehistoric
construction and civilization finds were uncovered in 1965 by
archaeologist Dragoslav Srejovic at a site now called Starveco,
on the Danube River, on the Yugoslavian and Rumanian border.
Digging into the Yugoslavian bank, Srejovic first
encountered traces of a Roman road; beneath this were fragments
of proto-Greek pottery, and below these were Neolithic remnants
and traces of Mesolithic cultural artifacts.
Deeper still, Srejovic came upon something totally out of
place: the remains of a cement floor. More specifically, the
material was an amalgam of local limestone, sand and water,
considered a feat of chemistry and construction several millennia
ahead of its time. The cement surfaces were not placed
haphazardly, but were carefully laid out in large slabs to form
the foundations of houses. Several foundations were built one on
top of another, indicating that buildings had been constructed
and reconstructed over an indeterminate period. Yet there was
also remarkable uniformity. The layout of the houses in the later
periods was the same as that in the earlier periods - there was
no evidence of a gradual development from a simple to a complex
pattern. Rather, the Starveco village suddenly appeared, fully
mature, flourished, then decayed and was abandoned in the same
advanced state.
In addition to the foundations, the individual Starveco
buildings also showed a high order of architectural
sophistication. They all had one side larger in size than the
other three, with proportions of either 3:1 or 4:1. The larger
side was shaped like a 60-degree segment of a circle. This larger
side always faced toward the river, providing the occupants with
the maximum view of the Danube and the surrounding hilly country.
Inside each house, the shape of the dwelling was repeated in the
hearth or oven, which was bounded by carefully shaped stone slabs
and always located in the eastern or sunny end of the house.
Srejovic noted that the position of the hearth was significant,
as it was situated in the exact center of an equilateral triangle
if the lines of the house were extended. What the architectural
purpose of this was is not clear, but the implications of the
mathematical and geometrical knowledge indicated cannot be
ignored.
The same precision and order evident in the architecture is
also found in the arrangement of the dwellings at the Starveco
site.
The structures are laid out in what appears to have been a
planned fan shape, opening toward the riverbank. The larger
buildings, presumably those belonging to members of a higher
class or governing body, were located toward the center,
surrounding a paved plaza believed by Srejovic to have been a
marketplace or assembly square.
The Starveco site has yielded a number of other cultural
characteristics previously thought to have been developed
thousands of years later, in the Middle East. Behind the hearth
in each house, laborers unearthed the remains of altars,
indicating religious beliefs and practices. Each altar was
composed of a flat stone, with a cup impression for burning a
sacrifice, which faced two or more upright stones of reddish
sandstone. This sandstone had been excavated from an outcrop,
located in a ravine several miles away, and many of the stones
had carved wavy lines or chevrons in low relief, considered the
oldest examples of architectural decoration. Even more
significant was the discovery of twenty sculpted life-sized human
faces of stone. The faces were goggle-eyed, open-mouthed and
small-nosed, with some of the statues showing a suggestion of
shoulders, arms and a bust. The Starveco sculptures are believed
to be the oldest such life-sized, handfashioned stone works known
today.
An interesting aspect of the site was the evidence of very
good health among the Starveco population. There was a striking
absence of deformed or diseased bones, and the women were so
robustly built that it was difficult to tell their skeletal
remains from those of the men. Both sexes lived unusually long
lives - some into their eighties. This was indeed an increase
over the lifespans of those who inhabited the region during the
later Neolithic, Greek and Roman periods, when fifty years of age
was considered old.
Community Life and Trade
Among both the cavern and constructed habitations that
existed during the Stone Age, we find ample evidence that the
inhabitants brought with them concepts of community cooperation
and communication. At Les Eyzies, in the Dordogne region of
France, numerous caves and rock shelters are clustered together;
all were inhabited at the same time. Evidence of cooperation
among the cave dwellers begins early, with the Aurignacian
period, when the region was occupied by just a few individuals.
Larger hearths indicated not only an increased population, but
also more complex social units. Similar kinds of tools were found
together, indicative of a specialization in both labor and the
sites of labor. A number of the sites were used only
occasionally, and the tools and bones uncovered were associated
with hunting spring and summer game. Ideas were also shared from
site to site. Several caves possessed drainage ditches, running
through the floor to the outside; all were of similar design and
construction. Ideas and concepts must also have been shared over
an extensive area, for among many of the Les Eyzies caverns are
fragments of seashells, indicating contact with a coastal region
- 100 miles away.
Other indications show that the cave men had an intimate
knowledge of the seas and must have been familiar with sea
travel. As previously noted, the cave-man civilization first
appeared along the western coasts of France and Spain, from the
direction of the sea. A bone baton found at Montgaudier is
engraved with figures of a spouting sperm whale and two seals so
detailed that they can be recognized as male and female.
Montgaudier is over 100 miles from the coast, indicating that
someone knowledgeable about marine life had recorded his
observations, which record had found its way far inland from its
source. Similarly, in the cave of Nerja, in the Malaga region of
southern Spain near the Mediterranean coast, at a deep and nearly
inaccessible place on the cavern wall are painted three dolphins,
two males and one female, in a face-to-face encounter. Their
creator - like the person who carved the image of the sperm
whale - would have had to journey far out on the open sea in
order to witness and record his story. If they did voyage by sea,
how far did they travel? Evidence of their journeys has been
found in coastal areas throughout the western Mediterranean-in
Tunisia, Sicily, Italy, Morocco and southern Spain. Even farther
away, Aurignacian tools and skeletal remains have been uncovered
in the New World. Professor J. L. Myers, in the Cambridge Ancient
History (vol.1, p.48) noted conspicuous similarities between
Aurignacian skulls found in Europe and prehistoric skulls
uncovered in Lagoa Santa in Brazil and other localities along the
coast of eastern South America.
Van der Veer reports that obsidian tools from El Ingor, in
the Andes mountains near Quito, Ecuador, are definitely related
in design to tools belonging to the late Upper Paleolithic in
France and Spain. Stone Age man must have had a considerable
knowledge of geography and navigation in order to reach and trade
with these distant locations.
Sophistication in Clothing
When the average person imagines a man of the Stone Age, he
usually pictures a crude-looking individual, dressed only in an
animal skin around his waist and over one shoulder. For decades
this was how anthropologists viewed prehistoric man. However, in
a cave near Lussac-les-Chateaux, in 1937, Leon Pericard and
Stephane Lwoff uncovered a number of engraved stones dating from
the Magdalenian period which drastically altered the accepted
picture. The flat stones showed men and women in casual poses,
wearing robes, boots, belts, coats and hats. One engraving is a
profile of a young lady who appears to be sitting and watching
something. She is dressed in a pant suit with a short-sleeved
jacket, a pair of small boots, and a decorated hat that flops
down over her right ear and touches her shoulder. Resting on her
lap is a square, flat object with a flap that folds down the
front, very much like a modern purse. Other examples show men
wearing welltailored pants and coats, broad belts with clasps,
and clipped beards and moustaches.
The Lussac etchings contradict everything that classical
prehistory had believed until that time, and anthropologists were
quick to label the drawings a fraud. But despite their hasty
judgments, the out-of-place pictures were authenticated in 1938,
with Abbe Breuil among those who demonstrated that the
well-dressed individuals had indeed lived during the Magdalenian
period of the Upper Paleolithic. Today, most of the stone
engravings are in the prehistory library of Lussacles-Chateaux,
with a few on exhibit in the Musee de I'Homme in Paris. But the
drawings that are shown are those which are not too revealing and
do not clash too strongly with conventional theories. The rest
are stored away and cannot be seen, except by special permission,
and then only by those individuals with "proper credentials." It
is felt that the pictures would be too "disturbing" for public
viewing.
The Lussac models are by no means the only evidence of
sophisticated dress from the Stone Age. Prehistoric cave
paintings from the Kalahari Desert of Southwest Africa, dated
within the Stone Age period, show light-skinned men with blond
beards and well-styled hair, wearing boots, tight-fitting pants,
multicolored shirts, and coats and gloves. Farther to the north,
the remains of a Paleolithic man were uncovered near Vladimir,
not far from Moscow, by Professor Otto Bader of the
Ethnographical Institute of the Academy of Soviet Sciences.
Christened "Vladimir man," the prehistoric individual was a
hunter of reindeer and mammoth, and the remnants of his clothing
indicated he was well attired. He wore a large pair of trousers
made of fur, an embroidered shirt, and a very practical jacket.
Scarcely anything remains of the actual clothing, but the pieces
could be reconstructed from the ivory badges and clasps that were
still intact.
Primitive Art Far Ahead of Its Time
Without question, the most universally recognized aspect of
Stone Age civilization is its art work, which has come to us in a
variety of forms, the most awe-inspiring being the polychrome
paintings found in the caverns of Lascaux, Altamira and other
caves in southern France and northern Spain. Paleolithic art
first appeared with the advent of Cro-Magnon in the Aurignacian
period and became more pronounced and widespread in the
Gravettian. Sculptured female statuettes, currently called the
Venus figurines, are found associated with most Gravettian
remains from France, across Europe and Asia, as far east as
Siberia. But it was not until the Magdalenian period, which must
truly be called a Renaissance, that art burst forth in a wide
range of styles and media of art.
The Magdalenian cave art and the way it was created tell us
much about the sophistication of their culture. The first step in
the execution of a cave painting was to sketch the animal or
other subject matter in outline. This was done either in charcoal
or by engraving with a flint. Following this came the application
of color, which was accomplished in a variety of ways: with the
fingers; with brushes of fur, feathers or mottled twigs; with
pads of moss; by blowing dry colors through a hollow reed or bone
tube; or by rubbing on the colors after mixing them with animal
fat and rolling them into crayons. A number of these crayons were
found at Altamira.
The colors the cave man had available were somewhat limited.
He did not use blues or greens, but utilized a violet-black
pigment made with manganese oxides. Chemical analysis shows that
the most commonly used colors were yellow (from ochre, i.e., iron
oxides), red and orange (from iron oxides and bison's blood), and
brown and black (from heated animal fat and charcoal). The
artists achieved a remarkable three-dimensional effect by
utilizing the natural contours of rock on the cavern walls and
ceilings. Small holes became the glaring eyes of a bison, cracks
became the wounds of a stricken deer, and odd-shaped bulges were
incorporated into the painting as the head or back hump of a
woolly rhinoceros or mammoth. Even today, as one gazes upon the
cavern figures, the contrasts between light and shadow created by
the natural rock contours give the impression that the painted
animals are alive and breathing, a technique and effect unique in
the history of art.
The cave paintings, when closely analyzed, reveal that the
sketching and application of color were done in bold, sure
strokes, with few apparent mistakes or corrections. This may
suggest that those who executed the art were true masters whose
confidence and exactness could only have been acquired after
years of training and experimentation. At Limeuil, in southwest
France, 137 stone slabs were found, with poorly drawn sketches on
them, dating from the Paleolithic age. In the midst of each
sketch, however, are details redrawn and corrected by someone who
was obviously artistically more mature. These drawings show all
the signs of a teacher's hand applied to a student's work - a
master training the eye of the novice in artistic perception.
Limeuil, it now appears, was a school for artists; not only for
sketchers, but for painters as well. In an adjacent grotto, a
bone tube still filled with paint ready to be blown against the
cavern wall was unearthed, as was a stone palette thick with
ochre waiting to be applied with a brush.
Not only was art taught, but artistic ideas were conveyed
from one place to another, sometimes over great distances. In
1903 a wall picture of a stately old bison, drawn with distinct
individuality, was found in a cavern at Font-de-Gaume in the
Dordogne, France. Twenty-three years later a stone slate was
uncovered in another cave 188 miles away, showing the sketch from
which the old bison had been drawn. Someone had undoubtedly
admired the Font-de-Gaume painting, acquired its original sketch
from the artist, and taken it home to keep as a memento or
perhaps to use as a model himself.
In describing the sophistication of Paleolithic art,
prehistorian Robert Silverberg says, "The cave paintings are
upsetting to those who prefer to think of Quaternary man as
little more than an ape. Not only do they indicate great
craftsmanship, but they point to a whole constellation of
conclusions: That primitive man had an organized society with
continuity and shape, religion and art. It was also dismaying to
learn that the earliest inhabitants of Western Europe . . . had
scaled heights of artistic achievement that would not be reached
again until late in the Christian era. That exploded the theory
[that] man's rise from barbarism had been steady and always
upward."
William F. Albright, in his "From the Stone Age to
Christianity," summed up modern research into Paleolithic art in
this way: "....though the number of motifs, techniques and media
available to him now is, of course, immeasurably greater, it is
very doubtful whether man's artistic capabilities are actually
any higher today than they were in late prehistoric times."
Examples of Prehistoric Mathematics and Astronomy
Among both cave paintings and various stone and bone
engravings we find not only realistic representations of nature
and everyday life, but also a great many abstract symbols called
tectiforms, claviforms and blazons. Sometimes the forms are
recognizable; other times they are not. These symbols no doubt
were meant to convey ideas and thus may be considered a Stone Age
form of pictograph writing. In many instances, these abstract
signs are simply composed of a series of lines, scratches or
dots, in carefully planned patterns. At first many prehistorians
regarded the series only as crude forms of decoration, but
now they are identified as notation - some strictly mathematical,
others of a chronological nature, recording such astronomical
phenomena as the phases of the moon.
One of the most intriguing specimens of prehistoric notation
was found on a mammoth tusk from Gontzi, a late Paleolithic site
west of Kiev in the Ukraine. The notation appears around the
edges of a flattened surface, marked off in graduations like the
divisions on a modern ruler or slide rule. The markings are
grouped along a horizontal line divided into series by longer
strokes at specific intervals. There are also a number of symbols
or figures appearing along the sequence, pointing to some event
at those intervals. Alexander Marshack, an American researcher,
analyzed the Gontzi notation and found unmistakable evidence that
it was indeed a detailed record of lunar phases. What's more, the
notation pointed to its use as a calculator; that is, the phases
of the moon could have been predicted in advance. The Gontzi bone
was thus a scientific instrument of a high order, demonstrating
that Paleolithic man was more than a mathematician and
astronomical observer; he was also a scientist who had applied
what he had observed, to create a workable formula that reflected
the repetition he had seen and measured in the night sky.
Evidence of Contact with Higher Civilizations - The Universal
Lunar Calendar
The existence of a lunar calendar used in the Stone Age
civilization is significant not only from a scientific viewpoint,
but also as evidence of contact between Stone Age peoples and the
peoples of the known ancient civilizations. New archaeological
research has discovered that almost every one of the ancient
cultures of the Middle East and the New World possessed, at the
earliest stages of their development, a primarily lunar
calendrical system. Professor Richard A. Parker, in a paper
concerning the origins of the calendar used by the Egyptian
court, notes that in the early dynastic period the system
employed was solar and stellar, based on the simultaneous rising
of the sun and the star Sirius once a year. Parker also explains
that, according to early dynastic symbolism and ritual, there
appears to have been an older calendrical tradition which was
lunar in character, dating back into predynastic times and to the
very beginnings of Egyptian history.
In Mesopotamia, the first calendars of the Sumerian
city-states were also lunar. The Sumerian month began with the
moon's first crescent, and the lengths of the months varied with
the period of the moon, 29 or 30 days - the same breakdown found
among the Stone Age recordings. A lunar calendar was also the
first calendrical system of the early Hindu and Chinese
civilizations. In the Americas, the first Amerind settlers on
both the northern and southern continents are known to have had
lunar calendars. The Incas, for example, had an official solar
calendar, but their division of the year into twelve months hints
at an earlier lunar-count tradition.
Historians have argued that the existence of a lunar
calendar in the Stone Age and also among the first civilizations
demonstrates their succession; that is, the time count of the
moon was developed first in the Stone Age, and then supposedly it
was gradually transmitted over tens of thousands of years to the
first civilized cultures. But the sacred historical manuscripts
furnish evidence that instead the Stone Age peoples and the
peoples of the ancient civilizations directly inherited a lunar
calendar system from a civilization older than them both.
In Genesis 7 and 8 we find the record of Noah's diary of the
Flood. The days of the months and the lengths of time Noah gives
for the duration of the events signify very little by themselves,
but when these are placed in the framework of the present Jewish
calendar, we can isolate some rather interesting data. First, ten
of the dates Noah records fall in the calendar on the Jewish
Sabbath, Saturday. This could not be coincidental, as it confirms
that the data were indeed based on a calendrical system similar
to the Jewish calendar - a system which has, in fact, remained
relatively unchanged in its basic structure for millennia. Noah
must have familiarized himself with the intricate apparent
movement of the sun, for he also marked off in his diary the
passing of a solar year of 365 days. But the most significant
fact is that the Jewish calendar, like the calendar which Noah
uses, is based on a lunar count of 354 days. This suggests that
the lunar calendar had its true origins during the antediluvian
period. By Noah's record, we know that the system was in use
immediately after the Flood, and no doubt it was transmitted to
his descendants. Following the fiasco at Babel, some of these
descendants, we know, remained civilized, while others lost their
knowledge. But the lunar calendar appears to have been preserved
among both the prehistoric primitive men and the post-Babel
civilizations.
Out-of-Place Alphabets and Ancient Memories
Perhaps the most significant evidence of contemporary
contacts
between the Stone Age culture and the Mediterranean civilizations
is the discovery of out-of-place writing among Paleolithic
remains. A piece of reindeer bone found in a cave near
Rochebertier, France, has markings on it that are more than just
decoration. They have every appearance of being the letters of
some form of writing. At first glance, one might think that this
is conclusive evidence of the existence of a written language
during the Paleolithic age, but the implications of the reindeer
bone go one step further. The letters resemble or in some cases
are identical to the enigmatic script of Tartessos, a city
civilization that existed in southern Spain and is believed by
some to be the Biblical Tarshish. What makes the similarities of
the writings truly remarkable is that orthodox prehistorians
place the reindeer bone in the Magdalenian period - by their
chronology, about 12,000 years old and the Tartessian
civilization recently has been assigned to the period between
2500 and 2000 B.C. There is an obvious discrepancy with this
dating, for it is highly unlikely that a script, once developed,
would have remained relatively unchanged for ten millennia. What
the two scripts do demonstrate is that the cultures in which they
were found must have been contemporaneous, rather than separated
by a vast span of time. The date of the peak of civilization in
Tartessos is becoming better established, and if there was a
contact between the Paleolithic people and the city of Tartessos,
then they must have existed in the same time period. Other finds
confirm this. Paleolithic antler bones found at Le Mas d'Azil and
La Madelaine are inscribed with signs identical to Phoenician
script from approximately 2000 B.C. Le Mas d'Azil is also the
site where many painted pebbles from the Azilian period of the
Mesolithic age have been discovered. A number of these pebbles
are marked with signs and symbols that were once predominant
throughout the Mediterranean-again, between 3000 and 2000 B.C.
Among the records and literature of the ancient civilizations are
many accounts of the existence of primitive men living and
communicating with civilized men in their day. One of the
earliest traditions known to historians is the Gilgamesh epic
from Mesopotamia, which tells the tale of the hero Gilgamesh and
his many adventures in the world immediately after Babel.
Gilgamesh's companion in his experiences was a strange individual
named Enkidu whose origins are most interesting. As a youth,
Enkidu was described as having lived as an animal among the
animals. His hair was long, his nails and teeth were developed
for gathering and eating herbs, and he was without intelligent
speech, precisely as were the more primitive of the degenerate
prehistoric types. He was found one day by his civilized
contemporaries, who took him captive and taught him the arts of
urban living. It is significant to note that Enkidu's background
was not unusual. His primitive life seems to have been regarded
as an everyday occurrence, implying that other men at that time
were known to live under similar conditions. Enkidu's unique role
in the story is that he is described as one of those very few
"wild men" who completely adjusted to Sumerian civilization.
In India, another epic story, the Ramayana, depicts a race
described as "ape-men" who aided the noble Rama in a war against
the Ravana kingdom of Ceylon. The most celebrated of them was
their general, Hanuman. His appearance, described in both the
Ramayana and the Mahabharata, is that of an ape, but he was also
capable of humor, intelligent speech and great bravery. He was
known for his knowledge of the hills and forests (geography) and
for his cures from rare plants (herbal medicine). He is
represented in India today as a poet who wrote verse on stone.
Underlying the legend is a memory of degenerate men who worked in
stone. Equally significant is the fact that Hanuman is presently
worshipped as a god by millions of devout Hindus living in
southeastern India, in precisely the areas that are richest in
Paleolithic remains. As a curious note, many Hindus also believe
that the yeti - the mysterious "abominable snowmen" who are
thought to inhabit the inaccessible heights of the Himalayas -
may be the descendants of Hanuman and his apelike but intelligent
people.
The ancient Chinese likewise described a race of primitive
men coexisting with their own civilization, only they were not
pictured as a friendly host. The degenerates were called Mao-tse
in the Chinese treatise Shu King (part 4, ch. 27, p.291) and are
described as "an ancient and perverted race who in olden days
retired to live in rocky caves, and the descendants of whom are
still to be found in the vicinity of Canton." It is interesting
to recall that it was in Hong Kong, only a few miles from Canton,
that the giant teeth of Giganthropus were discovered. The Shu
King relates that the Mao-tse once "troubled the earth, which
became full of their robberies." The Lord Huang-ti, an emperor of
the Chinese Divine Dynasty, then saw how these people were
without virtue and ordered his generals Tchang and Lhy to
exterminate them. Perhaps it was this genocide that accounts for
the sudden disappearance of Sinanthropus and Giganthropus from
the Chinese paleontological record.
A remarkably similar description of a race of primitive men
is found in the Bible in the Book of Job. The post-Flood
patriarch depicted a wild people with whom he did not wish to
associate. He described them as living in solitude in the
wilderness. They ate grasses and leaves, often resorted to
stealing food, and - like the Mao-tse-were called thieves and
robbers. These wild people also inhabited the rocks and cliffs
and brayed like animals, as they were without intelligent speech.
Job condemned them all as "a scourge to the land" and the
"children of fools." Many commentators believe that Job was
identical to Jobab, the thirteenth son of Joktan, mentioned in
the genealogy of Genesis 10. If this identification is valid, it
means that Job, a sixth-generation descendant of Noah, lived
about 2698 to 2348 B.C., which places him and the "wild people"
he described in the immediate post-Babel period.
Elements of Sophisticated Technology in Stone Age Cultures
Not only are there indications of contact between Stone Age
cultures and the known ancient civilizations, but we also find
instances demonstrating that on occasion prehistoric primitive
peoples also communicated with and benefited from the knowledge
of other unknown civilizations of a very advanced order. A number
of discoveries suggest the performance of sophisticated surgery
in prehistoric times.
Professor Andronik Jagharian, anthropologist and director of
operative surgery at the Erivan Medical Institute in Soviet
Armenia, examined a number of skulls from the ancient site of
Ishtikunuy, located near Lake Sevan. The site was inhabited by a
prehistoric people called the Khurits who settled the area prior
to 2000 B.C.
Two of the skulls examined by Professor Jagharian revealed
extraordinary skill in head surgery. The first is the skull of a
woman who died at approximately thirty-five years of age. In her
youth she had suffered a head injury which made a hole
one-quarter inch in size in her skull. This accident certainly
must have left brain tissue exposed, and a considerable amount of
blood must have been lost. The prehistoric surgeons skillfully
inserted a plug of animal bone, and the woman survived the
delicate operation. This could be seen from the woman's skull, as
her own cranial bone grew around the plug before she eventually
died years later.
The second Khurits skull shows evidence of even more
complicated surgery. The skull is of another woman, who was
approximately forty years old when she died. A blow to the head
had caused a blunt object about an inch in diameter to puncture
the skull, splintering the inner layers of cranial bone. The
surgeons of 4,000 years ago carefully cut a larger hole around
the puncture in order to remove the splinters that had penetrated
into the brain. Even by modern standards, such an operation would
be considered extremely difficult; yet the prehistoric operation
was successful. Evidence shows that the woman survived the
surgery for fifteen years.
Concerning his examination of both the skulls and the
surgical tools found at the Armenian site, Professor Jagharian
commented, "We have found 4,000-year-old obsidian razors at Lake
Sevan that are so sharp they can still be used today. Considering
the ancient tools the doctors had to work with, I would say they
were technically superior to modern-day surgeons."
Evidence of sophisticated prehistoric surgery believed to be
even older than the Khurits finds of Armenia was uncovered in
1969, when a Russian expedition of researchers from the
universities of Leningrad and Ashkhabad, led by Professor Leonid
Marmajarjan, discovered 30 skeletons in a cave in central Asia.
Dating techniques placed the age of the remains within the early
Paleolithic period. The skeletons were moved to the University of
Ashkhabad, where an extensive scientific examination was
undertaken.
In a report given to the Soviet Academy of Sciences in
November 1969, it was noted that a number of the central Asian
skeletons showed signs of surgery having been performed on them.
As with the Lake Sevan discoveries, there were several examples
of successful operations on the skull. But after examining the
skeletons, the Soviet scientists were astonished to find traces
of surgery having been performed in the area of the heart. The
ribs had been expertly cut, and there was also evidence that once
an opening had been made, the uncut ribs were further spread
apart by retraction. Every feature corresponded to what today is
called the "cardiac window," which enables surgeons to perform
open-heart surgery. The periosteum, or bony deposits on the cut
ribs, indicated that the patients survived three to five years
following this extremely delicate operation.
The success of these prehistoric examples of head and heart
surgery testifies to scientific developments which are not only
beyond the scope of the Paleolithic and Neolithic cultures as we
are beginning to understand them, but also far beyond the
developments of most of the ancient and even more recent
civilizations. The prehistoric operations presuppose an intimate
knowledge of anatomy, especially an understanding of blood flow
and its control, as well as advanced notions of hygiene and
anesthesia. These points are vital, for without them even the
most elementary operation is impossible. Until the last century,
the techniques employed in these fields were still so crude that
even the amputation of a limb usually resulted in shock or
sepsis. What is most significant is that we have as yet found no
evidence whatsoever of the development of these advanced medical
practices in the Stone Age cultures where the operated skeletons
were located. The surgical knowledge must have been borrowed or
performed in person by peoples of a highly technical civilization
that coexisted with the Stone Age cultures. This is not as
incredible as it may seem, when we consider how our present
computer civilization is living side by side with primitive Stone
Age cultures such as those of New Guineans and the Australian
aborigines. And just as modern medical missionaries from our
western civilization have saved the lives of thousands of natives
in Africa, South America and the Pacific, thousands of years ago
unrecognized civilizations utilizing medical knowledge that was
just as advanced as ours saved the lives of Stone Age primitives
in the same way.
What were the diseases they encountered among their own
people and the "primitives"?
I am sure we will never know exactly the variety of maladies
that afflicted early man, but a rare collection of statues in the
private collection of Professor Abner Weisman, a New York
gynecologist, has lifted at least part of the ignorance
concerning this period.
"When I started my collection in 1944," Dr.Weisman told us, when
we first interviewed him for a magazine article a number of years
ago, "most scientists were of the opinion that pre-Colombian art
and science were not all that old. Discoveries that have been
made in the late 1950s and early '60s have greatly altered that
idea. Now we know that several thousand years before the Aztecs,
Incas and Mayas, other highly civilized nations occupied that
part of America. Their legacy to us did not reach us via a
written language, but infiltrated our twentieth century in the
form of numerous statues that tell us about the variety of
diseases these people suffered. What they tell us is simply
mind-shattering."
We gazed at his collection of statues, and suddenly I began
to feel sorry for the nation represented by the so-recently
unearthed statues. The symptoms of ailments such as cancer,
smallpox and osteoarthritis are clearly visible on the often
realistically molded clay statues. Malnutrition, deformities -
some of them hideous - pregnancy in various stages, amputations
and even birth by Caesarean section are depicted in fine detail.
"Many experts believe that these statues were not really used for
instructional purposes, but that they were buried with the
deceased to indicate the cause of death. If that is true, then
things haven't really changed all that much," Weisman concluded.
"But it suddenly brings their medical history a lot closer to
us."
One of the most interesting aspects of this collection is
that it not only shows the diseases of the ancients, but also
supplies hints about the hospitalization of their patients. It is
obvious that many of the sick were treated in outdoor facilities,
for many of the statues are tied down on rather primitive
hospital beds, some equipped with sunshields, while others are on beds
where entire sections of the mattresses have been removed,
eliminating pressure on bedsores.
In Lima, Peru, Dr.Jose Cabrena, professor of anthropology
and history at the University of Peru, has collected hundreds of
pre-Inca stone carvings discovered in remote areas of the Andes,
and these carvings tell of medical knowledge and operating
techniques so sophisticated and so refined that our medical
scientists of today stand aghast at their implications. The
scenes scraped in ageless rock, made by supposedly ignorant
Indians, depict among other things heart transplants, using
techniques that seem modern by today's standards. They show
Caesarean births, brain transplants, and still other forms of
surgery we have developed only within the last generation. Still
other stone carvings depict closeups of heart surgery, showing
blood vessels; surgeons at work with their instruments; and
patients connected via intricate tubing to lifesupport systems.
The scientists who have examined the carvings, or
photographs of them, are clearly baffled by this discovery.
Dr.E.Stanton Maxey, fellow of the American College of Surgeons,
says, ". . . in the photographs of stone carvings depicting heart
surgery, the detail is clear - the seven blood vessels coming
from the heart are faithfully copied. The whole thing looks like
a cardiac operation, and the surgeons seem to be using techniques
that fit with our modern knowledge. Another carving shows the
surgeons operating on a woman whose full abdomen, enlarged
breasts, and what seems to be a fetus strongly suggest a
Caesarean-section delivery.
How such ancient stones can carry a record of modern surgical
techniques is completely baffling. It would seem that somehow
those ancient people came into contact with a civilization far
more advanced than any we have dreamed existed then."
Who Shot Rhodesian Man?
At times the contact between prehistoric primitive man and
representatives of highly developed civilization appears to have
resulted in a less than peaceful coexistence. While some
prehistoric men were rescued from the portals of death by
medicine, others not so fortunate were killed by advanced
weapons.
The Museum of Natural History in London exhibits a
Neanderthal skull discovered near Broken Hill, in Rhodesia, in
1921. On the left side of the skull is a hole, perfectly round.
There are none of the radial cracks that would have resulted had
the hole been caused by a weapon such as an arrow or a spear.
Only a high-speed projectile such as a bullet could have made
such a hole. The skull directly opposite the hole is shattered,
having been blown out from the inside. This same feature is seen
in modern victims of head wounds received from shots from a
high-powered rifle. No slower projectile could have produced
either the neat hole or the shattering effect. A German forensic
authority from Berlin has positively stated that the cranial
damage to Rhodesian man's skull could not have been caused by
anything but a bullet. If a bullet was indeed fired at Rhodesian
man, then we may have to evaluate this in the light of two
possible conclusions: Either the Rhodesian remains are not as old
as claimed, at most two or three centuries, and he was shot by a
European colonizer or explorer; or the bones are as old as they
are claimed to be, and he was shot by a hunter or warrior
belonging to a very ancient yet highly advanced culture.
The second conclusion is the more plausible of the two,
especially since the Rhodesian skull was found 60 feet below the
surface. Only a period of several thousand years can account for
a deposit of that depth. To assume that nature could have
accumulated that much debris and soil over only two or three
hundred years would be ridiculous. Rhodesian man was shot by a
high-velocity projectile, but the bullet that killed him must
have been fired at an early period in human history.
The examination results of the Rhodesian skull are not the
only evidence that someone (or even some nations) possessed
rifles or similar pieces of armament in the distant past. The
Paleontological Museum of the USSR in Moscow contains an artifact
that strongly supports this conclusion. It is the skull of an
aurochs, a type of bison now extinct. The skull was discovered
west of the Lena River, and its age has been judged to be several
thousand years.
What arrested the attention of Professor Constantin Flerov,
curator of the Moscow Museum, and his colleagues was that the
forehead of the aurochs's skull was pierced by a small round
hole. The hole has an almost polished appearance, without radial
cracks, indicating that here too the projectile that penetrated
the animal's skull entered at a very high velocity in a nearly
level trajectory. There is no doubt that the aurochs was alive
when he was shot: the calcification around the aperture is
evidence of that. The distance between gunner and animal,
however, was too great to inflict a mortal wound. The animal
survived the wound, and died years later from other causes. But
his bones lasted through the ages, and with them evidence of the
destructive ability of a developed people.
....................
To be continued
</span></pre><div><br /></div></b></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table>Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05392380237034504601noreply@blogger.com0