A search has been made in the Old Testament and in Josephus for descriptions, direct or indirect, of a flyby in mid-March, 917 B.C. Our model holds that one did occur. Only one hint of such has been found. A further search of Ginzberg's Talmudic commentaries was made, and this search produced no additional results.

A line of logic is established as to why the Mars flyby scheduled for March of 917 B.C. is not spoken of in Hebrew literature. The reasons seem to be twofold. First and most important, like the majority of mid-March catastrophes, it was probably occurring around the midnight hour, Palestine time, or perhaps an hour or two later. This means that the Eastern hemisphere would have been spared all of the electrical spray of celestial discharges, and the Western Hemisphere would have suffered. Secondly, very possibly this flyby of Mars was among the more distant ones. More distant in our view is 50,000 to 60,000 miles in its post-midnight perigee. If so, the earthquaking would have been more severe in the Western Hemisphere. Hence perhaps it was a relatively mild flyby occasion.

Even as most (if not indeed all) of the mid-March flybys occurred around midnight (Jerusalem time), so most of the late October flybys occurred during the daytime, and toward noon. This observation tends to lend support to the idea that while Jupiter and Saturn could alter the schedule of Mars, that alteration was usually one of 30 minutes to 3 hours. A sophisticated computer analysis of orbits, integrated for the Sun and at least four planets (Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) will either confirm or deny this perspective of timing. We encounter no October flyby descriptions that support a nighttime flyby out of the eight we have identified. Most were in the mid-morning so far as we can determine.

EXAMPLE # 10 October 24, 864 B.c. THE MT. CARMEL BARBECUE.

THE ASTRONOMICAL SCENE IN 864 B.C. With the help of an ephemeris, we have traced the position of Jupiter back to 701 B.C. on a 365.2564 day measurement for the year. In that year, Jupiter was in Capricorn, which was normal for a mid-March catastrophe. In 701 B.C., we perceive that the new era of a 365/4 day year began, and with it, the precession of the Earth's orbit. Before that time, we perceive the Earth had a 360-day year and a slightly smaller orbit. If so, 6½ years earlier in 708 B.C., Jupiter was in the feared Cancer. Jupiter then had a 12-year orbit. Thirteen 12-year orbits (and 156 years) earlier, in 864 B.C., Jupiter was in Cancer, and this was normal or traditional for all October catastrophes.

Concerning the planet Saturn, an ephemeris indicates when in our era Saturn last entered or left Cancer. With help from an ephemeris and by using a 365.2564-day year, we discover that in the year 701 B.C., Saturn was in Cancer, and it was 180° opposite to Jupiter. The year 701 B.C. thus was a mega-catastrophic year of the March case.

Saturn was in Cancer for 2½ years, from 701 B.C. to 699 B.C. Fifteen years earlier in 714 B.C., Saturn was 180° removed, in Capricorn. Furthermore, Saturn at that time was in a 30-year orbit when the Earth had a 360-day year. Thus, five Saturn orbits earlier (and 150 years), Saturn was once again in the dreaded Capricorn, 180° opposite to Jupiter. This means that the year 864 B.C. was a mega-catastrophic year of the October variety. To a prophet or to a star-gazer of that era, Jupiter once again in Cancer was ominous. With Saturn in Capricorn, such was doubly ominous.

In Chapter IV, there was an extensive analysis of The Long Day of Joshua. That analysis included the astronomical situation, the geomagnetic situation, the subcrustal tidal scene and the gyroscopic scene. It was estimated that Mars passed within 28,000 miles of the Earth in 1404 B.C. This event, 540 years later, was nearly a carbon copy, with the exception that the flyby happened 2 to 3 hours later in the daytime. We think that the closeness of the flyby was in the range of 30,000 miles in 864 B.C. much like the range in 1404 B.C., and 1944 B.C. We also think that the geomagnetic tail of Mars swept the Earth in the early afternoon during the "L.D.J. " whereas it swept the Eastern Hemisphere (and Palestine) in the late afternoon in the 864 B.C. flyby. However, as was demonstrated in Figures 9 and 10 the electrical sweeping of the magneto-tail of Mars was two or three hours later than the perigee, the point of closest approach.

SETTING THE STAGE FOR CONFRONTATION. Often, on previous flyby days, there had been military confrontations. In Chapter IV, such confrontations were cited in 1404 B.C., in 1296 B.c. and in 1080 B.C. Sometimes, the Hebrews fought with the Canaanites and at other times, it was with the Philistines, a Greek colony from which Palestine takes its name. On this occasion of 864 B.C., there was military peace between the Northern Kingdom and Phoenicia. Ahab (the king) had married a Phoenician princess, Jezebel, and a strong political alliance was formed.

In addition, the worship of Baal (Mars) and Ashtarte (Venus) had become the state religion of the Northern Kingdom, to the chagrin of Elijah among others. King Ahab was indifferent to both the Lord of Hosts and the code of Moses, but he wanted trade and peace. Jezebel, on the other hand, was not indifferent; she was completely hostile to the worship of Yahweh, so much so that she ordered an inquisition. The elusive Elijah was chief among those worshippers of Yahweh whom she wanted to destroy. In 867 B.., early in the year, Elijah had appeared dramatically at the court and announced a coming famine and drought of three years, which Elijah blamed on the apostasy of Israel led by Ahab and Jezebel. She had her secret police out looking (unsuccessfully) for Elijah. Thus, the year 864 B.C. finds the Northern Kingdom in a state of political peace but in a state of religious contention, to say nothing of drought and famine.

THE LOCAL SCENE OF THE BARBECUE. For some reason, Ahab and Jezebel were absent from this picnic. Perhaps it was due to the severe famine. Hay for the horses was scarce. The distance from the picnic scene to their palace at the capital (Samaria) was 30 or 35 miles. Perhaps that was too far to go for a picnic, and also, Jezebel didn't know Elijah would be there. The picnic was planned for the beach below Mt. Carmel, near the modern city of Haifa. Some 400 priests, prognosticators and star-gazers of the Baal faith agreed to meet and contend with Elijah and his unnamed aide. They agreed to meet on a date we consider to have been the anniversary day of the Long Day of Joshua and of the Celestial Centennial of Sisera. It was also the 108th anniversary of the Davidic Flyby of 972 B.C. It was somewhat like the military leaders of the past who agreed to give battle on a flyby date. The "fight " was staged between Baal and Yahweh, not between the Hebrew army and another army. Although it was not a military scene, it was a contention nevertheless. Both sides agreed that the God who answered with fire falling from heaven, He was God.

Prior to this, some 32 years earlier, Elijah had announced a coming drought and famine which did come (and it is also recorded in Phoenician historical annals.) The announcement (or prediction) was made in the court of Jezebel, and Elijah proclaimed its cause was the apostasy of Jezebel and Ahab. Jezebel's regal fury was unrestrained. As the drought persisted, her fury increased. Many people had migrated by boat across the Mediterranean, and the remaining populace was lean and undernourished. They didn't know whom to blame for the drought, Ahab, Baal, Elijah, Jezebel or Yahweh. Many heard of Elijah's daring message and wondered if indeed the drought was punishment for the apostasy led by Jezebel.

THE TEST. The leaders of the Baal religion and Elijah agreed on one thing prior to the flyby day. They agreed that the deity who answered with fire, He was God. This is another indication that the historians and astronomers, the astrologers and clergy of that day were quite well aware of the cyclicism of catastrophes and the timing of the cyclicism, October 24 in this case.

THE GEOGRAPHICAL SCENE. Fresh water was very scarce. It had hardly rained for three winters and four summers. What fresh water could be found needed to be conserved for people for their thirst. There was virtually none for other uses. As we shall see, Elijah "baptized " the sacrifice in water liberally. It must have been sea water, readily available on the beaches at the foot of Mt. Carmel, where driftwood and unrationed sea water were abundant.

THE ACTION. The priests of Baal were given center stage first. Perhaps they had first choice. Around noontime or 1:00 p.m. was the traditional time when fire had fallen during previous October flybys. The priests of Baal began a weird orgy. These sooth-sayers and seers then went into their celestial war-dance. Perhaps it resembled an Indian war-dance. It was a pagan ritual imploring Baal-Mars to do its thing, to drop a thunderbolt on Mt. Carmel. The pagan seers and sooth-sayers danced and lanced themselves, and they bled their favorite color, red, a color which was fairly close to the color of the appearance of Mars, a reddish-orange planet. If there were volcanic ash smoke or forest fire smoke in the general atmosphere, that smoky atmosphere would result in Mars appearing all the more crimson.

Elijah, the monotheist, and his aide were lean from malnutrition. He was also gutty, as was demonstrated in his dramatic sermon to Jezebel and her court 3½ years earlier. Elijah was unflinching in his conclusions, whether the crowd was for him or against him (as it was on this occasion among others.) For several hours, beginning perhaps just before noontime, the astrologer-priests of Baal danced, pled, bewailed and otherwise entreated their deity to fire off some celestial sparks toward Northern Palestine and Mt. Carmel. (Mars didn't.) Elijah observed their entreaties with a gallows humor. (He knew that he was scheduled for Jezebel's torture rack unless something unusual happened.)

Elijah had a few questions which he raised at the appropriate time. His pagan opponents must have resented his posturing in the light of their superior numbers (400 to 2). He asked the pagan planetary priesthood if perhaps Mars was talking with someone else and was too busy to be bothered with their entreaties. Elijah's humor was not appreciated. Next, Elijah suggested that perhaps Baal (Mars) was on a long journey and had no time for the picnic. Again, his gallows humor was unappreciated. Persisting unabashedly, Elijah suggested that perhaps Baal-Mars was asleep and needed to be wakened as the celestial war-dance (and the planetary silence) continued. Elijah's sarcasm and distain became down-right infuriating to the pagan majority that day.

If Mars was 30,000 miles distant, it would have appeared to cover 125 times as much sky as does the Moon at 240,000 miles. Thus, for Elijah to suggest that Mars was on a long journey can be taken in more than one way. Notice, in his humor Elijah did not suggest that Baal-Mars wasn't there. However, in implying Mars wasn't much interested, he was also implying that their entreating activities didn't amount to very much.

In time, the celestial priesthood became tired out and disappointed. Elijah's cajoling didn't help. The planetary priesthood had owned center stage for perhaps 2 or even 3 hours. By consensus, it was Elijah's turn by late afternoon. First, Elijah repaired the ancient altar to Yahweh. With his aide, he repaired that altar with 12 stones, which were symbolic for each of the 12 tribes of Israel. For some 60 or 65 years, there had been a political separation between the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom, and Ahab's dynasty, including his father's (Omri's) reign, was a symbol of that disunification. The repair job utilizing 12 stones was a direct political insult to the throne of the Northern Kingdom, and to Ahab and Jezebel, the regents. Elijah, the unionist, was winning no popularity contests, but he was also making his point.

Next, Elijah slew a heifer and placed the parts, quartered, on the altar, upon some sticks of wood that had been gathered. It could very well be that the sticks of driftwood also numbered 12, but that is speculative. Finally, Elijah asked for four barrels of water, which were provided and which he poured out over the sacrifice. It was probably sea water, which unlike fresh water, happens to be rich in ions. (The magneto-tail of Mars was sweeping Eastern Asia, advancing 1700 m.p.h., but it had not yet arrived in Palestine.) Nothing was happening on the electrical front, and since timing was of the essence, Elijah asked for another four barrels, a request he repeated a third time. This aspect of the sacrificial rite now totaled 12 barrels of water, like the 12 stones and possibly like some 12 sticks of driftwood, all symbolic of the 12 tribes of a united Israel. Observe the irony of the story. After the third "baptism " of 4 barrels of sea water, Elijah, a prophet, not a chemist, paused. Strategically, this salty baptism may have gained Elijah another hour.

We estimate the time was now around 4:30 p.m. or perhaps 5:00. Perhaps by this time it was 2½ or 3 hours after the Mars perigee. Perhaps the magneto-tail of Mars was raking Eurasia, sweeping across it at a rate of 1700 m.p.h. Perhaps it was Palestine's moment of truth. ZAP!

Then the fire of the Lord fell,
and consumed the burn sacrifice,
and the wood, and the stones, and the dust,
and licked up the water that was in the trench.
I Kings 18:38

This a remarkable case in ancient literature, very possibly an eye-witness rendition, which, if so, enhances its historic value.

There was considerable amperage in this thunderbolt. It barbecued the beef. It boiled the water and it heated the stones. The boiled water was there in some volume. It even melted the dust (and possibly sand). It may be of interest to note that the thunderbolt from Mars struck not just Mt. Carmel generally. Rather, it struck their specific barbecue pit. Elijah probably would have been vindicated if the lightning had merely struck the mountain, sending shock waves across the picnic party. As it was, there were probably shock waves which knocked the picnickers, cup over tea kettle. Notice that if the lightning licked up the dust, perhaps it also vitrified any dust or sand adjacent the altar. Perhaps glass was created on that beach that day from silicon oxides that melt at around 3000° F. Wouldn't it be amazing if some amateur archaeologist of the Planetary Catastrophist persuasion searched those beaches and the adjacent region, and would find vitrified glass? Such a discovery would be welcome, but it would not be a total surprise.

Elijah and his unnamed aide did not have the first laugh that day. But, the last laugh they did have. The gutty prophet went on to further confrontations with the reigning planetary pantheist, Jezebel. She had been seeking his "scalp " for several years, and now her determination did not wane. Surprisingly, the gutty prophet outlived her. The unflinching prophet was among the more dynamic figures in Hebrew history, as would be Jonah and Isaiah in the century to come, the 8th B.C.

As we pointed out earlier, science is not regulated by majority votes at scientific conferences. It is regulated by immutable rules, laws and principles. Similarly, the falling of fire on Mt. Carmel that day in 864 B.C. was hardly governed by majority vote, which was 400 versus 2 to the contrary. The falling fire was regulated by the timing of the magneto-tail of Mars, sweeping across Eurasia it would seem. In addition, there were other factors, like saltiness, like faith and divine omniscience which may have played a role, a role which most scientists don't understand, but which many theologians respect.

The Story of Phaethon Apollo

The story of Phaethon Apollo is found in Greek heroic literature, and it has been preserved in Latin by the great poet, Ovid. There are numerous parallels between Ovid's Book II of his Metamorphoses and Hesiod's Theogony and Shield of Herakles. The reader is encouraged to acquire Ovid's works and read the entire story of Phaethon, son of Apollo. It is but 553 lines in length. The following is Edgar and Ingri D' Aulaire's condensation, as well as two of their portraits depicting two scenes, one of celestial serenity and one of Phaethon's difficulties in driving the chariot of Apollo (his father) across the cosmos. That cosmos happened to include the region of the Earth's gravitational and geomagnetic fields.

Helios had a son named Phaethon. He was a mortal and very proud of his radiant father. One morning as Helios was about to set off on his daily journey across the sky, Phaethon came to him and begged him to grant his dearest wish ... but when he heard Phaethon's wish, he sorely regretted his oath. He tried in vain to make his son change his mind, for what Phaethon wanted was to drive the sun chariot for one day, and Helios knew that no one but he himself could handle the spirited steeds.

Phaethon was determined to have his wish, and Helios had to give in. Sadly, he put his golden rays on his son's head and rubbed divine ointment on his skin so he could withstand the searing heat of the chariot. He barely had time to warn him to stay well in the middle of the heavenly path when the gates of the palace were thrown open, and the rearing horses were brought forth. Phaethon leaped into the chariot, grasped the reins, and the horses rushed out.

At first, all went well and Phaethon stood proudly in the glowing chariot. But the fiery steeds soon felt that unskilled hands were holding the reins. They veered off the heavenly path and brushed by the dangerous constellations that lurked on both sides of it. The animals of the zodiac were enraged: the bull charged, the lion growled, the scorpion lashed out with its poisonous tail. The horses shied and Phaethon was thrown halfway out of the chariot. Far down below he saw the earth and he grew so dizzy that he dropped the reins. Without a firm hand to guide them, the horses bolted. They raced so close to the earth that the ground cracked from the heat of the chariot and rivers and lakes dried up. Then upward they sped so high that the earth froze and turned to ice.

Zeus stood on Olympus and shook his head. He had to stop the careening chariot to save the earth from destruction, and he threw a thunderbolt at it. In a shower of sparks, the chariot flew apart and Phaethon plunged into the river Po... Hephaestus had to work the whole night through to mend the broken chariot so Helios could drive it again the next day. Helios grieved over his lost son, and he never again allowed anyone to drive his chariot except for Apollo, the god of light.¹

Commentary on the Phaethon Apollo story may be in order. Observe the grasping, grabbing claws of Cancer. Jupiter with its massive gravitational field grasped at Mars many times as it passed through its ancient 218-million-mile aphelion, 45% of the distance from the Sun out to Jupiter. Jupiter is 320 times as massive as the Earth and 3000 times as massive as Mars.

Notice that all of this action occurred during one day. The problem for Hephaestus and his cosmic crew was to repair the chariot so that it would be ready to resume early on the following morning. Mars in a flyby scenario as depicted in Figures 9 thru 12 would have advanced 27,000 m.p.h. relative to the Earth's velocity, but at an absolute velocity of 77,000 m.p.h. in its orbit. With respect to the Earth, the chariot of Apollo advanced between 600,000 and 650,000 miles in a 24-hour period. The Phaethon story is limited to one 24-hour period, or a fraction thereof, just like the flyby of Mars.

Notice that the horses pulling the chariot passed near the Earth, while Phaethon looked down on our planet. The horses raced so close to the Earth that there was much heat. There were also thunderbolts and showers of sparks. Phaethon's chariot traversed regions from fire to ice in a fraction of a day. Notice that Zeus, or Jupiter (from the position we know to be Cancer) shook his observing head. Notice that the road the horses galloped over was a heavenly path, not an earthly dirt road. Observe also that the horizon was seen as careening, which we interpret to be a wiggling and a wobbling of the planetary spin axis. After this day was over, Apollo (a Greek transliteration of Baal) once more took the reins. Ovid in his 550 lines of descriptive action is considerably more expansive than was the condensation of the D' Aulaires.

Was Ovid's review of Phaethon Apollo a late reworking of a Greek description of the flyby of 864 B.C., the Barbecue? We cannot say for certain. There were three subsequent flybys, in 809 B.C., in 756 B.c. and in 701 B.C. according to our model. What we can say with certainty is that the flyby of 864 B.C. was the closest flyby of the first millennium. This conclusion is based on the positioning of Saturn, l80° opposite Jupiter, exerting its additional influence to the maximum to narrow down the orbit of Mars.

One can calculate the difference in the gravitational impact of Jupiter versus Saturn on Mars to an overall or average extent. Saturn is only 30% as massive as is Jupiter. In terms of closeness Saturn is only 55% as close to the Sun (and to the average position of Mars) as is Jupiter. However, Saturn stays in any particular sector of the zodiac 250% as long as does Jupiter. By multiplying these three factors (.30 times .55 squared times 2.50), the result is about 23%. Thus, Saturn's effect was about one-fifth that of Jupiter in terms of warping the Martian orbit.

Figure 1, (in Chapter I) presented our conclusion as to the ancient orbit of Mars. To a person with a uniformitarian world view it is shockingly radical. To a person with a catastrophist point of view, it is carefully constructed and supported. Figure 1 is presented as a system. That Mars-Earth system had a relationship to Jupiter and Saturn which is depicted in Figures 6 and 7 in Chapter III. It is important to get the "little " picture as presented in Figure 1. It is of equal importance to get the "bigger " picture as is presented in Figures 6 and 7. In Figure 6 it is easier to begin perceiving the influence of Jupiter on Mars, which in the catastrophic era was profound. Similarly profound was the influence of Saturn. With Figures 1, 6 and 7, we have the ¼ billion mile perspective, the 1 and the 2 billion mile perspectives of the four important related orbits of the catastrophic era. The Greeks also must have sensed some of the importance of "Zeus-pater " (Jupiter). While Ares was important, nevertheless, Ares had a "father " and that paternal planet was Jupiter, while its "uncle " was Saturn.

All in all, it seems that from the Greek perspective, the flyby of 864 B.C. was a disaster. From the perspective of the 400 prophets of Baal and the Phoenician religion, this flyby was also a disaster, at least in regard to their auguring abilities. For Elijah and his aide, we sense that "his " beef, as well as his meat, was well-done.

EXAMPLE # 11 March 20/21, 809 B.c. THE GREEK PICNIC " ON TROJAN SHORES.

In Greece, like in Palestine, the tradition of celestial destruction accounts ran deep, and the prospect of each coming celestial flyby was the subject of speculation, apprehension, and sometimes, opportunism. In 810 B.C., the Greek military viewed control of the Dardanelles (and Troy) as a choice plum; the city controlled trade routes involving much foreign commerce. Troy commanded the channel between Europe and Asia, leading from the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea. Through this channel sailed commerce to the Danube River and the Balkan region, to the Dneiper and Don Rivers and Southern Russia, where there were slaves. It also controlled the commerce to the Caucasus where gold had been found. It was a crossroads location. If cosmic lightning were to hit the city of Troy, as had been the case in the past, would such an occasion be a devastation or would it be an opportunity? The answer to that question depended on whether one was a Greek or a Trojan.

Heinrich Schliemann (1822- 1890) as a youth read and reread The Iliad by Homer. He suspected that it contained much historical truth. He became intimately associated with the story's details. Subsequently, he led a dig which was an endeavor to discover Troy. The dig uncovered a city he believed to be Troy; it had been destroyed five or six times by fire. To a Planetary Catastrophist, this is particularly interesting because Troy was constructed of largely brick and other inflammable materials. Our belief is that the city he considered to be Troy had been struck by celestial lightning which had been generated by Mars, a rotating generator.

Assume that the city we shall call Troy was founded around 1700 B.C. In 9 centuries, the Earth had experienced about 16 flybys of which half (or 8) affected the Eastern Hemisphere electrically. If Troy had been hit by celestial electricity on 5 of those 16 flybys, its odds of being struck during the next flyby were in the range of 30%; 60% for daytime flybys.

The Greek military, including Achilles, Agamemnon and Menelaus, consulted the priests of Apollo (Baal), Calchas and Chryseis by name according to The Iliad. The question put to the sooth-sayers was whether Troy would once again be zapped with an electrical discharge of cosmic dimensions. The second question concerned whether earthquakes accompanying the flyby would be sufficiently intense to weaken or collapse any part of the city walls. If Troy were to suffer either full destruction (and be turned into a cauldron) or partial destruction, who would be there to pick up the pieces? The Germanic Goths from the Balkans? The Scythians from Southern Russia? The Hittites from Central Turkey? The Phoenicians from what we now know as Lebanon? The Phoenicians were worldwide traders and liked to establish overseas colonies. The Greek political and military leaders felt that they, the Hellenes, would be the most appropriate successors to Troy. And then there was also something about repossessing the beautiful Helen for the king of Sparta, Menelaus.

Calchas and Chryseis confirmed for them that Troy would be zapped once again by Apollo. With confirmation from these "sages " of Apollo, the dice were cast. Many city states of Greece agreed to supply contingents, including the Athenians, the Argives, the Myrmidons, the Pylians, the Ithacans, the Cretans, the Rhodians, the Phthians, the Ionians, the Danaans and of course, the Spartans. The timing of the invasion was planned to coincide with the flyby of Apollo-Mars-Ares, who would be doing most of the dirty work, the destruction from on high.

It is our perception that this catastrophe described in The Iliad was in mid-March, 809 B.C. for three reasons. First is the literary reason. In The Aeneid, it is stated that Aeneas, a Trojan survivor, visited Carthage as it was being built. Most scholars date the founding of Carthage in the very early part of the 9th century B.C., between 810 B.c. and 805 B.C.² Additional input is that the famine of 867 B.C. to 864 B.C., just discussed, played a major part in the desire of some Phoenicians to emigrate. Thus, we think that the Phoenicians migration to the African colony commenced in the drought of the 860's B.C., while the construction of the city of Carthage commenced some 60 years later, around 805 B.C.

Secondly, there is textual analysis. Nowhere in The Iliad is the year of the campaign or even the month of the campaign mentioned. However, the time of the arrival of the various Greek contingents was a windy month. That is in the text.

...and when the child of morning, rosy-fingered dawn, appeared they again set sail for the host of the Acheans. Apollo sent them a fair wind, so they raised their mast and hoisted their white sails aloft. As the sail bellied with the wind the ship flew through the deep blue water, and the foam hissed against her bows as she sped onward.³

If the waves were strong and if the sails billowed, the wind was strong also.

There are a variety of planetary wind systems. In this case, the mid-latitude westerlies are the controlling wind regime. The westerlies are calm in the Mediterranean in September and October, probably the two calmest months of the year. On the other hand, February and March are particularly windy months, traditionally coming in as either a lamb or a lion and leaving the opposite way. If Greece (like Palestine) were some 5° or 6° higher in latitude, for reasons discussed in earlier chapters, at 45° N., the strength and certainty of the spring winds would have been even greater than in our time, when Troy is at the 40th parallel north.

Thirdly, there is cyclic analysis. October catastrophes of that era were in 756 B.C., 864 B.C., 972 B.C. and 1080 B.C. Each of these is eliminated. Mid-March catastrophes occurred in 701 B.C., 809 B.C., 917 B.C. and 1025 B.C. Only the date of mid-March 809 B.C. fits well. By combining geography, history and cyclicism, we find a new tool for dating ancient events prior to 701 B.c.

By mid-March, the various contingents arrived from the Greek city states, from Cilicia (the Danaans), from Crete and from Rhodes. They unloaded their bags and equipment. Their armor included iron helmets, iron mail, iron battle axes, iron spears, iron swords and iron shields. Some of that iron came from a district in Greece called Magnesia, from which is derived our word "magnet. " In fighting tools, iron was much superior to bronze, bone or wood. This iron armor (along with their other supplies) was laid out on the beaches as Apollo-Ares approached inexorably, 650,00 miles per day, night after night.

As it was with the Barbecue, it seems that destruction on this occasion came in late, around the time of dawn. Whether it came from the flux tube or from the magneto-tail of Mars we are uncertain, but we favor the flux tube.

Thus did he (Agamemnon) pray, and Apollo heard his prayer. He came down furious from the summits of Olympus, with his bow and his quiver upon his shoulder, and the arrows rattled on his back with the rage that trembled within him. He sat himself down away from the ships with A FACE AS DARK AS NIGHT, and HIS SILVER BOW RANG DEATH AS HE SHOT HIS ARROWS IN THE MIDST OF THEM. First he smote their mules and their hounds, but presently he aimed his shafts at the people themselves, and all day long the pyres of the dead were burning.⁴ (Caps and pars ours)

Since Mars or Apollo is pictured as having a face "as dark as night, " this suggests a normal, inside or sunward side flyby with Mars in a thin, but brilliant crescent. As it was in Elijah's day, so it was in the day of Agamemnon, the falling fire was remarkably hot for normal wood-fueled fires. Fires were also somewhat scattered or widespread.

Where did the fire come from? Did the Trojans have an electromagnetic and/or gravitational scalar beam that they beamed down across the beaches, busy with Greek soldiers and supplies? Was there a broad spillage of gasoline? Could there have been a sudden spurt of submarine petroleum injected into the sea? Hardly! Students of ancient Greece have failed to perceive that these were electric fires, a result of discharges or thunderbolts from Ares, or Mars, via (1) the flux tube of electrons and charged particles, or (2) the sweeping magnetotail of Mars sweeping across the planet. These sparks, in the Greek perception, were sparks or flaming arrows shot from the Bow and Silver Bowstring of Apollo Shootafar. (Incidently, "Shootafar, " like "Passover, " is a highly descriptive word.) "Passovers " were measured as the crow flies, and varied usually from 25,000 miles to 60,000 miles in our estimate. Flux tubes were looping, and materialized around 125,000 miles from the Earth when Mars was that close.

Two contingents seem to have been hit especially hard, the Argives and the Danaans. The Argives were from Argos, a city state about half way between Athens and Sparta. In an earlier century, the explorer Jason (with his Argonauts) had hailed from Argos.

Then the god sent a deadly dart upon the Argives, and the people died thick on one another, for the arrows went everywhither among the wide host of the Achaeans. At last a seer in the fullness of his knowledge declared to us the oracles of Apollo.....⁵

Since the flaming arrows went "everywhither, " we know that this fire did not result from a gasoline spillage or a petroleum leak.

The magneto-tail of Mars seems also to have joined the fray.

Thus marched the host like a consuming fire, and the earth groaned beneath them as when the lord of thunder is angry and lashes the land about Typhoeus among the Arimi, where they say Typhoeus lies. Even so did the earth groan beneath them as they sped over the plain.⁶

The groaning Earth suggests a wave of earthquake activity. Typhon, we believe, was the flux tube, even as Gorgon (cited in Chapter I) was the ugly face of Mars itself, pocked with 3,000 craters, waving spiral "hair, " and with three huge eye-sockets (Argyre, Isidis and Hellas).

The steeds of Mars were not absent either.

These were inspired of Ares, but the others by Athene-- and with them came Panic, Rout and Strife, whose fury never tires, sister and friend of murderous Ares, who, from being first low in stature, grows till she uprears her head to heaven, though her feet are still on earth. She it was that went about among them and flung down discord to the waxing of sorrow.....⁷

Panic and Rout were Phobos and Deimos. Strife possibly is another satellite which may have been swept out in one of the last 3 flybys. Homer pictured Mars as being sometimes very small but which grew rapidly in size. In 2 years, Mars would approach the Earth from a distance away as far as 300 million miles down to as close as 30,000 miles, and during certain mega-catastrophes, even somewhat closer. Indeed "Scarface " grew in size and resided with its head in the heavens.

The Greeks had petitioned Ares for the zapping of Troy; now their questions demanded an answer as to why the Greeks themselves had been the recipient of cosmic discharges instead. Achilles spoke with some urgency to Menelaus, king of Sparta.

"Son of Atreus, " said he, "I deem that we should now turn roving home if we would escape destruction, for we are being cut down by war and pestilence at once. Let us ask some priest or prophet, or some reader of dreams (for dreams too are of Zeus) who can tell us why Phoebus Apollo is so angry....⁸

Heavy questions were being directed to leaders such as Agamemnon, Achilles and Menelaus about the "pestilence. "

A display of iron armor amid their encampment was unthinkable as a factor for drawing the wrath of Apollo.

...and Agamemnon prayed, saying: "Zeus, most glorious, supreme, that dwellest in heaven, and ridest upon the storm cloud, grant that the sun may not go down nor the night fall till the palace of Priam is laid low, and its gates are consumed with fire.... " ⁹

As mentioned earlier, the prayers of the Hellenes (including Agamemnon) were that Troy would receive a cosmic discharge. Furthermore, it seems that the prayers of the Greeks were that Troy would be zapped on this particular day.

To make a long story short, it seems that Agamemnon and Menelaus asked (demandingly) of the sooth-sayers, Calchas and Chryseis, what had gone wrong. (After all, they were the experts on Apollo and other celestial matters.) Those two seers, however, were mentally nimble. They were not about to take any blame. Chryseis maintained that the reason was the disrespect which Menelaus and especially Agamemnon had shown for Apollo (and perhaps his priests too.) Such, they asserted, was the cause for the wrath of Ares. With the pointing of their sooth-saying fingers, all eyes turned back to Agamemnon and Menelaus for an explanation. The Argive and Spartan colonels had no answer for such cosmic accusations.

Such is the story behind the story of the Hellenic invasion of Troy. What had been expected to be "a piece of cake " for the Greek military turned into a long, dragged out, bloody war of attrition. In time, the Greek invaders resorted to strategies involving a "horse " other than the celestial steeds of Apollo. And so it was that the "picnic " on Trojan shores was not a piece of cake, and it did not turn out as expected.

In our model and theory, Homer portrayed the next to the last of a long series of some 85 mid-March flybys, or passovers. The modern world is fortunate that his description has survived the ravages of the last 28 centuries. However, it is unfortunate in that our 20th century uniformitarian heritage has not allowed us to understand, to appreciate, or even to correlate the celestial catastrophism of this story (among others).

Could it be that Troy would have been the victim of a discharge of celestial lightning that early morning hour in March of 809 B.., except for the Greek iron armor on the beaches close by, attracting the wrath of Ares? Even as the Greeks were consumed with awe and dread of Ares-Apollo, so it should be no surprise that the Phoenicians (and their colonists at Carthage) were equally as consumed with fealty toward Baal and Ashtarte. In addition, the city of Rome, founded in the aftermath of the flyby of 756 B.C., was filled with awe of Mars, Jupiter (Zeus-pater) and Saturn.

EXAMPLE 12 October 24, 756 B.C. A "WHALE OF A PICNIC " AT NINEVEH.

The flyby of 756 B.C. shall be discussed from four different geographical locations, Assyria, Italy, the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. Their respective capitals were Nineveh, the future Rome, Samaria and Jerusalem. As one gets closer to the period we designate as Uniformitarian Period II, beginning in 701 B.C., the surviving literature of catastrophism noticeably expands.

In Jonah's time, the political situation, so far as the Hebrews were concerned, had become very bad. About 950 B.C., on the banks of the Upper Tigris River, the Assyrian Empire had emerged with its capital at Nineveh. The Assyrian government developed traditions making it among the most aggressive, butchering and cruel of all the empires up to that time. Assyrian psychological warfare was dispiriting. Before Assyrian legionnaires would attack a city, the option of surrender was given with the condition that all the citizenry would be deported to another sector of the empire. Such was the Assyrian method of assuring that no local patriots remained to stir things up. If the city refused the terms of surrender, its populace would be butchered, down to the last baby.

Jonah hated the Assyrians, even though their capital was 500 miles distant. By Jonah's time, Assyrian soldiers had already invaded those Hebrew provinces beyond the Jordan River, the other side of Galilee. Those populations had been deported to the lower and middle reaches of a river identified in the Bible as the Gozan River. The Gozan has now been identified as the Volga River, a river 2300 miles in length (compared to 1700 miles for the Euphrates and 1000 miles for the Tigris.,)¹⁰ Assyrian legionnaires expanded their empire easterly into India, northerly into Russia and Siberia, and westerly toward Palestine and Egypt. The southern boundary was the shores of the Indian Ocean and, to some extent, the deserts of Arabia. The Assyrian government deported these first and second waves of Hebrew captives to their northernmost outpost, where they were to serve as a buffer between the "civilized " Assyrian Empire and the "barbarian " hordes, the Bulgars, the Huns, the Medes, the Mongols, the Penchenegs, the Tatars and other wild nomadic peoples of the northern plains. They were deported deep into Central Russia, 700 miles up the Volga, where the Hebrews founded the ancient city of Samara, the "New Samaria. " They also seem to have founded Kazan, another 200 miles even farther upstream. This was the coldest and most inhospitable fringe of the Assyrian Empire. Their descendants later became the core of the Hebrew population of Eastern Europe, a population which has maintained its cultural identity now for 2750 years. This was the place where some of Jonah's friends had been deported. Jonah did not care for the Assyrian military or political leadership in the least.

It would seem that Jonah, a native of Galilee, had studied reasonably well, including some astronomy, some geography, some history and also the Hebrew religion. Could it have been that one of Jonah's teachers had been disappointed that God had not zapped Nineveh in 864 B.C., the day of the Barbecue? And, if not in 864 B.C., could not the flyby of 809 B.C., which zapped the Greek encampment on Trojan beaches also have zapped the more deserving city, Nineveh?

Into this predisposition of Jonah's mind came the calling of the Lord. It was a call for Jonah to preach, of all places, in Nineveh. Jonah wanted nothing to do with it and with possible deportation to Russia. Instead, he boarded a ship sailing westward, perhaps to Italy, to Tarshish, to the Etruscan capital on the banks of the Arno. Then came the storm and the whale (or big fish) and the terrified sailors' sacrifice to the storm-god: Jonah himself. To the whale, Jonah was indigestible. To Jonah, the whale's digestive system acted as a bleaching agent.

After this experience, a call to preach at Nineveh wasn't so bad. Ashen, bleached and pale, Jonah now responded. Such a call would compare today with preaching a message of imminent destruction to the warlords of Moscow on their home turf, not exactly a bed of daffodils. Why would God call Jonah (or any other Hebrew prophet) to preach to Nineveh of all cities and to their royal court? That government had already banished Hebrew captives to Central Russia and perhaps to some of the cities of southern Siberia. This call of Jonah's (to preach) is a question the answer of which escapes us.

Jonah, being indigestible, was burped up on some beach of the Eastern Mediterranean, with a change of color, a change of heart and with a new determination. Originally dark-haired and recalcitrant, could it be that now he was transformed into a Bible-preaching blond? He set off for Nineveh and arrived there, we think, sometime in early September of the year 756 B.C. He must have begun his series of messages from the Lord promptly.

Jonah's preaching in Nineveh began around September 14, 756 B.C., which was just one week before the autumnal equinox (September 21 and the first day of autumn.) Also, it was precisely 40 days before the scheduled flyby of October 24 of the same year.

And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey,
and he cried, and said,
"Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. "
Jonah 3:4

In a normal year, Jonah would have been jailed, killed or at the very least, extradited to Central Russia. But, 756 B.C. was no average year. The more Jonah thought about it, the more he relished the prospect of astronomical disaster for Nineveh. What a stroke from the Lord he envisioned. So, he camped outside the city, although his sermons were delivered, apparently, to high places including the palace in downtown Nineveh.

Jonah must have preached to the citizenry about the imminency of astronomical disaster to the wicked capital city. He expected that the Lord of Hosts would zap Nineveh, doing even more damage than had happened on the shores of Troy during Agamemnon's assault of mid-March, 809 B.C. Cities such as Troy had experienced catastrophism once every one or two centuries for a long time, and such cities as Nineveh wanted no more of it. Jonah preached catastrophism, that is, in modern parlance, "fire and brimstone. " The fire was from celestial discharges from the magneto-tail of Mars and the flux tube, and perhaps to a lesser extent from volcanic eruptions. Jonah had no idea that the Ninevites would listen to his sermons and repent.

So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sack cloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto THE KING OF NINEVEH, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by decree of the king and his nobles, saying,

"Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything: let them not feed, nor drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea let them turn every one from his evil way, and FROM THE VIOLENCE THAT IS IN THEIR HANDS. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, AND TURN AWAY FROM HIS FIERCE ANGER, THAT WE PERISH NOT. "

And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil, that he said that he would do unto them; AND HE DID IT NOT.
Jonah 6:5-10 (Caps ours)

Such was the king's decree, reflecting a wholesale change of attitude, a change in unison. But what kind of a "change " was it? Was the repentance "from their violence " or was it more superficial?

On this flyby occasion, Nineveh, now about 200 years old as capital of Assyria, fared like Jerusalem in 972 B.C. and like Troy in 809 B.C. For whatever reason along with their general repentance, Nineveh was spared. Why did the Ninevites repent? Why did they even listen to Jonah? Under such conditions as an impending flyby of Mars, why should the Ninevites want to be in disfavor with any of the regional deities, Greek, Hebrew, Indo-Aryan, Persian or whomever? The fact that the Lord of Hosts of the Hebrews was the Creator, and not just another regional planet deity, escaped them.

In the Book of Jonah, Jonah's sermon material is not given. (It may have been much like the sermons of Joel, preaching at the same time to the citizenry of Jerusalem, whose fiery sermons are recorded in part.) However, the king's response is given, though not the name of the particular king. In the last century, the ancient king lists of Assyria have been unearthed on clay tablets at Nineveh. The lists are complicated. Information from Thiele's work indicates that the king in 756 B.C. may have been none other than Assurbanipal.¹¹ It was King Assurbanipal's library where clay tablets were discovered by Rawlinson and Layard, and which clay tablets were first read by the amateur archaeologist, George Smith, late in the 19th century. Among that library of clay tablets was found The Epic of Gilgamesh, cited in Example # 1 of this series, describing Utnapishtim and the Ark, that is, Noah.

Assurbanipal (if he indeed was the king in 756 B.C.) may have repented "from the violence that is in their hands. " However, either his repentance or his reign didn't last very long. Assyrian legionnaires resumed their butchery and raiding, assaulting more than 100 cities throughout the Middle East during the next 50 years, cities stretching from the delta of the Nile to the delta of the Indus and the delta of the olga. Subsequent expansive-minded emperors included Tiglath Pileser, Sargon, and Sennacherib. However, for the citizenry of Nineveh, the cosmic crisis was over, and the city relaxed and celebrated. There was dancing in the streets. For many, it was picnic time.

Jonah, however, didn't join in with the festivities. He perceived that Nineveh, the cruelest of capital cities, had been spared. Jonah was very angry with God, who seemingly dismissed his prayers and dashed his fondest hopes, to say nothing of proving him a faulty prophet. Inside the city, the petitions of the populace seemingly were heard; outside the city Jonah went into depression. The story is there, including the gourd (or squash or pumpkin) in leaf season, establishing that this flyby could not have been a mid-March one. Thinking his mission a failure, the blond bombshell "bombed out. " We hold that this was the 169th in a long list of some 170 Mars flybys. Jonah failed to foresee that the next would be the last, and he failed to foresee how much destruction it would wreak, and where, and upon whom. Had he foreseen such, his criticism of the Lord of Hosts might well have been muted. Apparently Jonah's prayer to God did not include a petition for patience.

THE "BLASTED ETRUSCAN PICNIC " OF 756 B.C.

There is evidence, not cited here, which suggests that at this same time, Central Italy was hit by a meteorite, one of the components in the ancient ring system of Mars. Perhaps it was a satellite with dimensions of 3 to 4 miles. Perhaps it was a little brother to Deimos and Phobos.

Such a large projectile hit the Earth in Central Italy, about midway in the boot " between top and bottom, and between east and west (the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Seas.) It has left an impact basin, a crater about 60 miles north of Rome, Lake Bolsena. The lake's dimensions are 7 miles by 9 miles. Lake Bolsena is not in a caldera of a volcano, for there is no volcanic talus present.¹² But outflows of lava (or basalt) are numerous on the lake bottom.

Our theory is that this meteoritic blast was so destructive to the Etruscan State in Central Italy that the Etruscan State never did revive. (Perhaps the Gauls came in to ravage the survivors.) This lake is less than 100 miles from the current city of Florence, and the Arno Valley, the core of the Etruscan State. Instead, Rome arose in its ashes, on the southern flank. Rome's founding is described by Livy and is dated at 750 B.C., plus or minus 2 years. This is just 6 years after the destructive flyby witnessed by Amos and Jonah, if our cyclic analysis is correct. Bearing this in mind, is it any surprise that the patron deity of Rome was the planet Mars? Is it any surprise that Jupiter and Saturn (the other two resonant planets) were the ones of prominence in their celestial triad? Indeed, before Rome was even 50 years old, the Romans had built temples to each of these three planet deities. The temple of Saturn happened to serve as the treasury of early Rome. Since undersea volcanoes and earthquakes created massive tidal waves during flybys, it was shrewd of the Romans to found their city 10 miles up the Tiber River, safe from any future massive tidal waves that might occur. In conclusion, what became a festive picnic for the Ninevites became a disaster of grave proportions to the Etruscans. And that disaster provided an opportunity for the founding and growth of Rome.

THE "PICNIC " OF 756 B.C. IN THE NORTHERN KINGDOM

A brief reading of the Book of Amos will reveal a battery of catastrophic scenes and terms, some being poorly translated. Amos began his series of "fire and brimstone sermons to the court of Jeroboam II in the year 758 B.C., probably in the autumn, just two years before the raash, sometimes translated as earthquake. Jeroboam II was a successor to Ahab of the Northern Kingdom during the next October flyby, 108 years subsequently. Amos began his sermons just two years before that "earthquake. " If his sermons commenced around the time of Halloween, Mars was making its last orbit before the flyby of 756 B.c. According to our theory, in the last week of October in 758 B.C., Mars was 600,000 miles distant at its closest. It was a good time for a Planetary Catastrophist to warn the citizenry of what would be recurring in just 24 months.

Concerning a raash, it has been improperly perceived and translated. It was an earthquake; earthquakes were one of six or eight courses on the "catastrophic menu. " In being translated as "earthquake " by the King James translators, that implies to our age that it would have been capable of being measured on the Richter scale of a modern seismograph. Earthquakes much greater than a seismograph could possibly measure were part of the catastrophic "menu " of October 24, 756 B.C. Other courses on that menu included celestial discharges, possibly with momentary heat of 100,000° F. at the strike site, as were shock waves, capable of being heard for 15,000 miles. Tidal waves would have swept the coasts, generated by submarine volcanism and earthquakes. Renewed volcanism, spin axis re-tilts, significant crustal skids, modest relocations of the cardinal points of the compass, magnetic polarity reversals, geomagnetic field recharging and a scattering of regional prairie fires would have occurred, to say nothing of possible falling meteorites, debris from the ring system of Mars. Beyond this was the orchestra, a cacophony of noise from the clashing planetary magnetic fields in collision, and the celestial scenery. To call that event an "earthquake " is like calling World War II a regiment-sized skirmish.

One can only imagine the contents of Jonah's sermons by reading those of Amos and Joel. In the first 1% chapters of the Book of Amos, the prophet opens with a fiery introduction. His forecast was that fire would fall from heaven, just two years hence, on eight regional capital cities of the Middle East. Nineveh, some 500 miles distant, like Memphis on the delta of the Nile, was not included. Included were:

Samaria was the scene of the sermon. Jeroboam's court was not thrilled by the plucky prophet, who did not shrink from denouncing ethical, moral and political sins in high circles.

Later, in his brief writings, Amos castigated the Moabites for worshipping planetary images. He predicted that in two years the structural integrity of the buildings throughout the land would be tested severely. (A flexing of the Earth's crust as much as 1,000 feet in some regions, if not Palestine, was likely.) Amos predicted widespread destructions of fields, orchards and pastures by prairie fires out of control. He predicted a fearful despondency which would overwhelm the corporate population of the land, from royalty to peasantry.

Amos seems to have described the planet Mars in its trajectory in chapter 9, but the King James translators, among others, have missed it.

And the Lord God of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourm: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the FLOOD OF EGYPT.

It is he that BUILDETH HIS STORIES IN THE HEAVEN, AND HATH FOUNDED HIS TROOP IN THE EARTH; he that calleth for waters of the sea, and poureth them out on the face of the earth: The Lord is his name. Amos 9:5-6 (Caps ours)

In Chapter III, a description of the Exodus catastrophe occurred. Included in that catastrophe was a tidal wave, radiating out from the submarine volcano, Thera, 60 miles north of Crete. On that occasion, the Minoan civilization centered on the north side of the island of Crete was destroyed in one single hour. Some 500 miles distant, radiating tidal waves, lower in height, swept across the Sinai Isthmus, timed to engulf the pursuing Egyptian militia. Amos predicted that the coming flyby might be like this on the sea coasts. Inland, during a flyby day, would be a better location.

"Buildeth " in Hebrew is banah meaning to build or to set up. Height is implicit in this word, but the translators have not realized that it was 30,000 or 40,000 miles of height. "Stories " in the heaven is a word we think occurs only once in the Old Testament, maalah. Meanings of this word include a journey to a higher place, an arising (as a thought), climactic progression, as in a set of stairs. It is related to ma'aleh which also means ascent, elevation, platform, cliff, going up, mounting up and climbing stairs. In the "heaven " comes from the Hebrew word shameh which has meanings including a visible arch (as in a rainbow), the higher aether where celestial bodies revolve, air and heaven. Since the meaning of this word includes the ethereal heavens, why should that region not be considered 40,000 and 50,000 miles upwards? There is nothing in the text that indicates otherwise. Arches describe rainbows and they also describe sectors of orbits. Clearly, October 24, 756 B.C. was not a day of rain and rainbows. It was to be a day of fire and brimstone according to Amos, and it was a day of fire and brimstone according to Joel.

"Troop " in Hebrew is 'aggudah. The normal meaning of this word includes a band, a bundle, a knot or an arch. Alternative meanings include burden and troop. Translators of the King James era and of our era have been thinking of chariots, horses, soldiers of valor, charioteers, and such, including horses hoofs and horses prancing. A moving band or bundle in the cosmos is, in our opinion, an improvement. Even better is a rotating knot or a rotating wheel or a gyroscope whose path is an arch. "Founded " in Hebrew is yacad, and it means to lay a foundation, to establish and to appoint.

If a translator were a Planetary Catastrophist, his work would contain distinct improvement over the traditional translators, lacking such a point of view. Is it too much to say that the traditional translators may have mistaken this verse completely? Amos handled the cosmic description rather well, and furthermore, his listeners, having seen Mars 600,000 miles distant in 758 B.C., and having heard much about the flybys of 864 B.C. and 972 B.C., knew precisely what kind of a picnic Amos meant. It was true that they would be eating outside (perhaps in storm cellars, caves or fox holes) because eating inside poorly constructed buildings would not be safe.

THE "PICNIC " OF 756 B.C. IN JUDEA

This flyby was also the occasion of the writings of another prophet of "fire and brimstone " caliber, Joel. Unlike the case of Jonah, we know nothing of the personal life or career of Joel. Also unlike Jonah, we have an interesting sampling of his sermon material. The Book of Joel embraces 3 short chapters of fiery figures of speech, perhaps the most fiery of the entire Old Testament.

To Joel (like to Isaiah, Amos and Jonah), the "Day of the Lord " was a very meaningful term, as it was to the populace of Palestine at large. It was another term for a passover, only usually the "Day of the Lord " seems to have referred to an October flyby while "Passover " was a mid-March term.

Let all of the inhabitants of the land tremble:
for THE DAY OF THE LORD COMETH,
for it is nigh at hand.
Joel 2:1 (Our caps)

Amos began preaching fire and brimstone about 720 days before the flyby occurred. Jonah began his series of sermon about 40 days before the flyby. Joel also preached that "fire and brimstone " was near at hand, although we do not know how many days near at hand " might have been. Like Jonah, it may have been a matter of weeks.

Joel's catastrophic forecast was similar to that of Amos.

A DAY of darkness and gloominess,
A DAY of clouds and of thick darkness....

A fire devoureth before them;
and behind them a flame burneth. ...

Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains shall they leap,
like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth stubble....
Joel 2:2a, 3a, 5

The noise of a prairie fire, only magnified substantially, was compared to the noise of the Day of the Lord. There were thick clouds emanating from the huge volcanoes of Mars; their massive sizes reflect (1) the gravity of the Earth, far greater than that of Mars, pulling on its internal mantle, and (2) the number of times flybys must have occurred, a number somewhere between 150 and 200 if we interpret paleomagnetic polarity reversals correctly. There were also massive outpourings of gases and lavas from volcanoes around the Earth, a symphony of discordant noise.

Joel also expected rather intense earthquakes. Those were the days when a "fire and brimstone " preacher had the rapt attention of the whole community.

The earth shall quake before them;
the heavens shall tremble:
the sun and the moon shall be dark,
and the stars shall withdraw their shining....
Joel 2:10

... for the DAY OF THE LORD is great and very terrible.
Joel 2:11lb

The Lord also shall roar out of Zion,
and utter his voice from Jerusalem;
and the heavens and the earth shall shake.
Joel 3:16

Richter scales on seismographs are designed to measure earthquake magnitudes, but on a logarithmic (not an arithmetic) scale. This means that a rating of 2 is 10 times stronger than 1, and a rating of 8 is 10 times stronger than 7. Between 1904 and 1957, there were only six earthquakes that measured a magnitude of 8.4 or greater on the logarithmic Richter scale. It is our opinion that the earthquakes of Joel's day and Jonah's were so severe as to have gone off the graph and even might have destroyed the instrument itself, had any seismographs existed. Our modern world is uniformitarian and empirical in experience. If, in our modern time, "the present must be the key to the past, " is it possible that our modern age has no comprehension of those ancient times, none at all?

JOSEPHUS ON THE "EARTHQUAKE " OF 756 B.C.

In the Old Testament, Amos, Joel and Jonah prominently describe the flyby of 756 B.C. In addition to that, Josephus displays some additional material. No one is certain of all of the sources of Josephus, but they were clearly wider than the Old Testament or the Hebrew language. Josephus wrote his history of the Jewish Nation about 80 A.D. His section on the reign of King Uzziah (who ruled in 756 B.C. in Jerusalem) is of particular interest for two reasons. First, he describes how bad the earthquake was with respect to the First Temple. William Whiston's translation of Josephus is as follows.

Suddenly the earth quaked so violently that a great breach was torn in the Temple, through which a brilliant ray of sunlight pierced... Nor was that all the damage done by the earthquake. On the west side of Jerusalem, half of the mountain was split off and hurled to the east, into a road at a distance of four stadia. ¹³

A stadium is a Latin word, derived from the Greek word, "stade, " about 600 feet. The landslide seems to have been over 2,000 feet, almost a half mile down one of the gulches of that ancient, rather hilly city. Observe the eye-witness nature of this rendition, rather like the scene portrayed at the Barbecue and the pair of eye-witness accounts at the time of the Davidic Flyby. These four eye-witness sources should not be undervalued.

A second reason this account is of major importance is the story given by Josephus that, on this occasion, something possessed King Uzziah so strongly that he broke holy tradition and entered the temple to lead worship. Such a function was forbidden to royalty and was reserved to the priesthood. Nevertheless, Uzziah broke the long-standing tradition, to the great dismay of the priesthood. Simultaneously, he seems to have suffered something of a stroke. Perhaps the celestial fear was too great for the veins in his brain. This malady was siezed upon very soon by the offended priesthood to disqualify Uzziah from reigning. He was retired and his son, Jotham, more acceptable, was crowned co-regent.

From Biblical sources, this flyby year is very difficult to date. From Amos, it is clear that it is toward the end of the reign of Jeroboam II of the Northern Kingdom. Jeroboam II's dates are 782 B.C. to 753 B.C. This points us toward the decade of the 750's. Jotham, Uzziah's son, reigned for 25 years, including his co-regency, and he died in 731 B.C.¹⁴. Twenty-five years plus 731 B.C. yields 756 B.C. This is an oversimplification of a rather complicated analysis of dating for the middle of the 8th century B.c. This is how we have dated this catastrophe, which we suspected was periodic even before our dating was established.

Thirdly, from the description of Josephus, it appears that Jerusalem suffered heavily from earthquake activity. Numerous buildings must have collapsed, and others threatened to do the same, as did the First Temple. But, Jerusalem seems to have escaped electrical damage, as it did on the occasion of the 972 B.C. flyby. In addition, there are indications that there was a modest spin axis re-tilt on this occasion. This comes from the description of the last flyby of 701 B.C., described by Isaiah. Analyze Isaiah 38:8-b with specific reference to a "returned " shadow, a word with connotations of the sun dial shadow changing not just once but twice, if not more.

Summary of Chapter

Twelve catastrophes have been examined in this work thus far. Some were discussed in depth, and many were briefly treated because the literary record is so scant. Between 2484 B.C (our model's date for the Noachian Flood) and 756 B.C., there were 16 flybys of the October case, one every 108 years (like clockwork). This book has touched on 8 of them, or 50%. There were also 16 flybys of the mid-March case, flybys which affected the Western Hemisphere far more grievously than the Eastern Hemisphere. Four of the 16 have been cited, one from Greek sources and three from Hebrew sources. In addition, a fifth (and the last) March flyby is about to be discussed. With 5 of 16 discussed, this is nearly one-third. Combining the October cases with the mid-March cases, 13 are cited out of 32, for a "batting average " of .406. This list includes the last 4, and 5 of the last 6. This reflects that the ravages of the catastrophic era affected libraries of the 2nd millennium B.C., and urban life in general very severely. A case in point is the Etruscan state of which virtually nothing is known. (Only one of the first ten catastrophes is described, The Great Noachian Flood.)

The next catastrophe we have chosen to discuss will be our thirteenth. In our Western world, traditionally the number 13 is unlucky. " If there is a well-founded correlation of misfortune and the 13th, perhaps it is for the 13th of Nisan, always a Friday on the Hebrew calendar, and always March 20th. Most of the mid-March flybys were at night for the Eastern Hemisphere. Our Halloween theme of the Celtics reflects nighttime flybys although the October flybys were the daytime ones. It seems that the orbital time of day of Mars varied, but only modestly, a few hours from one flyby to the corresponding flyby 108 years later. This is in harmony with what we know in celestial mechanics.

In our study, the thirteenth of this series of catastrophes is also the last. On the night of March 20, 701 B.C., the flux tube of Mars unloaded its celestial lightning on Assyrian armor. (Jonah would have loved to have seen it.) We think that the Assyrian army was 250,000 strong. Assyrian cunieform indicates that the Assyrian emperor, Sennacherib, survived, but it also indicates he had been badly burned, perhaps flash-burned on one side.¹⁵ The thirteenth on this unfolding list was unlucky for Sennacherib, and even more so for 185,000 of his legionnaires, who lost their lives. But, as it so happens, the thirteenth in our discussion with respect to Earth history could be judged fortunate.

It is our theory that this was the final Mars flyby and the first and only outside flyby. It unravelled the catastrophic orbital system, thereby bringing the era of global cataclysms to an end. Sennacherib and his legionnaires were unlucky. For subsequent generations, Sennacheribs misfortune became their good fortune. Celestial peace arrived in the year 701 B.c.

On some unknown day somewhere around 10,000 B.C., perhaps even 9,900 B.C., it is our theory that Astra fragmented on the Roche Limit of Mars, sending thousands of fragments into space, becoming the asteroids. Other thousands hit one side (and only one side) of Mars, creating craters. A few remained in orbit around Mars, creating a ring system. The core of Astra (the Hellas fragment) hit Mars at almost the bull's eye. It is only 10° east of the center of the cratered hemisphere, centered at 320° W. longitude and 45° S. latitude.

Because of the collision with Hellas, Isidis, Argyre and thousands of lesser fragments, Mars staggered, lost some potential energy, and fell into a new orbit where its new perihlion was a staggering 75 million miles close to the Sun, and its aphelion was out near the fragmentation scene, some 215 million miles from the Sun. That day, 9900 B.C., there was an energy exchange for the planet Mars, which insured that the Mars-Earth Wars, or Catastrophes, would occur. It insured that the Earth would experience crustal deformations on a global scale, and incidentally in swath-like flyby patterns. It insured that the Earth would experience oceanic upheavals, and the aftermath, settling sedimentary strata. It insured that the Earth would experience much friction at the Moho between the thin crust and the 1700-mile-deep mantle. It insured that the Earth would develop a geomagnetic sheath, and that the Earth's magnetic polarity would become reversed, alternately, for many, many cycles. The Earth's geomagnetic sheath or umbrella thus developed, would intercept the solar wind and the solar alpha particles, and thus would assist the conditions for biological life on our planet immensely.¹⁶

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