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The Long Night of Sennacherib
The Final Flyby, March 20/21, 701 B.C.
In Chapter IV, it was proposed that the Long Day of Joshua was about 28 hours long rather than 24, and the daytime part of that day was 16 hours rather than 12. It was caused by a combination of crustal skidding and spin axis shift, or precession. If there was an extra-long day, as in the case of Joshua, could there also have been a lengthened night? This question is considered in the following pages.
That Hesiod described a flyby in his The Shield of Herakles seems to this writer to be beyond dispute. In our model, there were only two Mars flybys after Homer's time. One was in 756 B.C., a daytime flyby for Palestine, and the other one was in 701 B.C., and was a nighttime flyby. In the daytime flyby of 756 B.C., Mars made an inside, or sunward flyby, and its form was as a crescent. In the 701 B.C. flyby, Mars in March made an outside flyby, and it appeared as a "full Mars" and was shaped like a full Moon or like a round shield.
The shield of Herakles (or Hercules as it is often known) was not badge-shaped. It was circular or round. Perhaps the round shield as a visualization doubles for the disc of Mars on the final flyby. Hesiod described that shield as follows.
For all THE CIRCLE OF IT with enamel and with pale ivory, and with electrum it shone, and with gold glowing it was bright, and there were folds of cobalt driven upon it. In the middle was a face of Panic, not to be spoken of, glaring on the beholder with eyes full of fire glinting.
(Caps ours) 1
What did Hesiod mean by "pale ivory," "enamel," "shining electrum," and "glowing gold?" Could this be a comparison to the disc of Mars, when it was a full moon as it was during, and only during the last flyby?
Hesiod we know was a Greek writer who lived after Homer. Our model of cyclic catastrophism indicates that Homer portrayed the flyby of 809 B.C., the dating of the Trojan War. Lattimore, a translator of Hesiod, gives the following information.
To Herodotus, Homer and Hesiod were contemporaries... Modern opinion tends to put Hesiod later. What seem to be the two main reasons for this are not, I think, sound. ...
I believe, nevertheless, that Hesiod is a little later than Homer. The best piece of evidence is precisely the one which has bothered many scholars in the past. Hesiod's competition, mentioned above, was at the funeral games for Amphidamas, who was a figure in the Lelantine War and whose death ought then not to have taken place before the end of the 8th, or the beginning of the 7th, century. 2
Lattimore's analysis allows us a second reason to conclude that Hesiod witnessed the flyby of 701 B.C., just like Isaiah.
Hesiod wrote three works, The Works and Days, Theogony and The Shield of Herakles (or Hercules.) The Works and Days contains little of a catastrophic perspective; it is largely on outlooks upon life. In line 766, Hesiod indicates that the Greeks had a calendar with 30 days per month, and 12 months per year, a total of 360 days.
Observe the Days that come from Zeus, all in their right order. Explain them to your workers; that the thirtieth of the month is best for supervising works.... 3
Other ancient calendars also contained 30, but never 29½ or 28½ days per month. Also the ancient year contained 360, and not 365 or 365¼ days.
The following is a sampling of ancient calendars or other time-keeping methods, all of which operated with a 360-day year.
Arabia: The ancient Arabs had 360 statues surrounding Hobal, which is yet another form of Baal-Mars. Each statue had one genii for each day, and there were 360 genii.
Assyria: One sarus was a decade. A sarus was composed of 3600 days. 4
Babylonia: The Babylonians of the 2nd and the early 3rd millennium B.C. had a ten-day period known as a decan. There were 36 decans per year. Their circle had 360 degrees also.
China: The ancient Chinese calendar contained 360 days, and their ancient circle also contained 360°. Later, both were changed to 365¼, both days and degrees. The additional 5¼ days was termed "Khe-ying."
Egypt: The sacred Book of Sothis and the Canopus Decree both say that the Egyptian year was 360 days. That ancient year was adjusted to 365 by a committee on calendric reform, priests who met at Canopus in 238 B.C.
Greece: The ancient Greeks had 360 idols in their theology of Orpheus, one idol for each day per year.
India: The ancient Veda texts speak in unison of an ancient year of 360 days.
Japan: The ancient Japanese had 360 idols before the palace of Dairi, one for each day of the year.
Mexico: The Mayans had 72 weeks per year in the ancient times. Each week was comprised of 5 days.
Palestine: The Pentateuch contains 12 months in a year, and each month was 30 days. Each month was specifically 30 days, not 28, 29 or a fractionated number.
Persia: The sacred Bundahis has a year divided into two rogin or apertures. Each rogin had 180 apertures. That system was eventually revised to accommodate another 5¼ days.
Peru: The ancient Inca calendar was divided into 12 quilla. Each quilla had 30 moons. Later, a 5-day addition was made, which was named Allcacanquis.
Rome: The earliest Romans of the 7th and 8th centuries B.C. had a calendar which contained 36 days per month, and there were precisely 10 months, once again making a 360-day year. The last 36-day month was December. That system seems to have been carried down from the even more ancient Etruscans.
Thus, 360 as a day count per year can be divided many different ways. Those ways included by 2, by 5, by 10, by 30, by 36, by 72 and by 180. More research is apt to turn up with 4 and 90 also, for the duration of the four seasons.
Like Hesiod 800 years earlier, Plutarch understood that the ancient calendar had been composed of 360 days. It had been changed on the occasion of a celestial crap game. The planets played with dice, however, the stakes were not coins or chips but rather days. The gamblers were not persons but planets. And the casino was not in Nevada, but encompassed the celestial regions.
Hermes playing at draughts with the moon, won from her the seventieth part of each of her periods of illumination, and from the winnings he composed five days, and intercalated them as an addition to the 360 days. 5
This is especially interesting when one notes that 360, divided by 70, yields 5.14 additional days. Modern astronomers consider the day to be 365.256 days. Thus, Plutarch was in error by only 0.116 days, or about 2 hours.
Plutarch seems to have had the right theme (an additional day count per year) but there was some confusion in details. From our model of cyclic catastrophism, we theorize that it was not Mercury that won, but Ares, which gained energy as its day count per year diminished from the ancient 720 to the modern 687 days. The gain by Mars was a gain in the sense of energy. The Earth lost energy and revolved more slowly as its orbit expanded, and the day count required to complete the new orbit increased to 365¼ days.
Hesiod's Theogeny pictures an ongoing warfare; the warring stars are celestial rather than military. These include Zeus (Jupiter), Kronos (Saturn), Ares (Mars) and Gaia(Earth). He also depicts an epic battle between the Titans and the Olympians.
Then, when Zeus had put him down with his strokes, Typhoeus crashed, crippled, and the gigantic earth groaned beneath him, and the flame from the great lord so thunder-smitten ran out along the darkening and steep forests of the mountains as he was struck, and a great part of the gigantic earth burned in the wonderful wind of his heat, and melted, as tin melts in the heat of a carefully grooved crucible when craftsmen work it, or as iron, though that is the strongest substance, melts under stress of blazing fire in the mountain forests.... 6
Typhon (Typhoes) we met in Apollodorus as a Greek corollary to the Sword of the Lord and the flux tube of ions and charged particles which Voyager photographed between Io and Jupiter.
Hesiod confirms Isaiah that there were lightning strikes of immense amperage.
All earth was boiling with it and the courses of the Ocean and the barren sea, and the stream and the heat of it was engulfing the Titans of the earth, while the flames went up to the bright sky unquenchable, and the blaze and the glare of thunder and lightning blinded the eyes of the Titan gods for all they were mighty. The wonderful conflagration crushed Chaos ...
The winds brought on with their roaring a quake of the earth and dust storm, with thunder and with lightning, and the blazing thunderbolt, the weapons thrown by great Zeus, and they carried the clamor and outcry between the hosts opposed, and a horrible tumult of grisly battle uprose, and both sides showed power in the fighting. Then the battle turned; before that, both sides attacking in the fury of their rage fought on through the strong encounters. ... 7
Hesiod's themes are parallel to Joel's themes, and both are much like the themes in Isaiah's and Amos' accounts. It was an unforgettable scene, as (what we now know were) planetary magnetic fields charged into each other at a relative velocity differential of 27,000 m.p.h. or so.
The battlefront was 100,000 miles broad if indeed not broader in this electrical sense. The two magneto-heads were between 40,000 and 60,000 miles in diameter each, in our estimate. Their two magneto-tails were shaped like very long, tapering wings with shoulders that may or may not have been symmetrical on that day. Each magneto-tail stretched out 200,000 miles or more in the direction opposite the Sun, driven by the solar wind. Hesiod painted a very similar picture to that which Isaiah sketched, only in a different language and amid a different culture.
Works and Days includes 828 lines, but it does not feature catastrophic themes. Theogony contains 1024 lines and features an abundance of themes of celestial chaos. The Shield of Herakles contains only 480 lines, but this essay contains a panorama of catastrophic themes even richer than Theogony. Following are selected citations.
Horses and chariots of a cosmic order are pictured, featuring the son of Ares in the "precinct" of Apollo.
It was he, Herakles, who killed Kyknos, high-hearted son of Ares, for he came upon him in the precinct of Apollo, who strikes from afar, himself and his father, Ares insatiable in battle, blazing both of them like the light of burning fire in their armor, and standing in their chariots, and their running horses trampled and dented the ground with their hooves ...
Lines 56-62 8
The "precinct" of Ares might relate to the "first point of Aries" in the ancient zodiac, which was also related to the Earth's orbital position on March 20/21. If so, that is additional support that Hesiod was reporting on the final flyby of 701 B.C., when the son of Ares (Kyknos) was defeated.
Ares or Mars featured arrows, or thunderbolts, or sparks and loud, crashing noises, which is again reminiscent of the writings of catastrophic scenes by the Hebrew "fire and brimstone" prophets.
... nor fear the crashing of man-slaughtering Ares who now, screaming aloud, courses all over the sacred grove of Phoibos Apollo, the lord of far-ranging arrows. Strong though Ares is, this passion for battle is madness.
Lines 98-101 9
Apparently the Greeks, like the Romans, considered Ares-Mars to be the deity who behaved crazily amid scenes of celestial warfare.
It seems that the Greeks were quite aware that the Earth was spherical, and was rotating, and was of the same order of things as was Ares.
My uncle, in very fact the father of gods and mortals exalts your head, as does the bull-god, THE SHAKER OF THE EARTH...But come, put on your armor of battle, so that, with all speed, we may bring together the two chariots, ours and Ares', and fight; he will not terrify either yourself, the fearless son of Zeus, nor me, Iphiles' son...
Lines 103 , 104 and 108-110 (Caps ours) 10
In our model, Mars was indeed the "Shaker of the Earth" and vice versa. Hesiod portrays both planets as having celestial chariots, or should one say, orbits.
The steeds of Mars, Deimos and Phobos, were also prominent.
On it were wrought the figures of Onrush and Backrush, on it Battlenoise and Panic and Manslaughter were blazing, and Hate was there with Confusion among them, and Death the destructive; she was holding a live man with a new wound, and another one unhurt, and dragged a dead man by the feet through the carnage. The clothing upon her shoulders showed strong red with the men's blood, as she glared, horribly, and gnashed her teeth till they echoed. And on it were the heads of snakes, dreaded, indescribable, twelve of them, who across the land pursued the races of mortals, those fighters who tried to fight in the face of Zeus' son, Herakles.
Lines 154-164 11
Mars had an appearance more terrifying than any Halloween costume ever designed. But then, the Halloween themes from the Celtics may have been derived from scenes just like this, except as seen from Northwestern Europe.
Ares must have looked very much like a grim reaper.
On it were standing the swift-footed horses of grim-faced Ares, in gold, and he himself, the spoiler, the destructive, gripping his spear in his hands and calling out to the foot-fighters and stained red with blood, as if he stood in his chariot and were killing real, live men, and beside him Terror and Panic stood, straining forward to get into the battle of warriors.
Lines 193-196 12
Deimos and Phobos (Terror and Panic) were escorting this grim reaper.
We do not understand a role for Venus in the panorama of Mars-Earth catastrophism. We do suspect, however, that the orbit of Venus was in 8:5 resonance with Earth's orbit and hence 16:5 with the orbit of Mars.
... such was the son of Amphitryon, insatiate of battle, as he stood up to face Ares, advancing on him and swelling the valor within; and the other came close to him, heart vexed with fury, and the two of them, screaming aloud, advanced to encounter. As when a boulder, breaking loose, springs from a great cliff and rolls down in long bounces, and with furious force the crashing noise goes on, but then there is a high cliff standing in its way, and the boulder crashes into it, and is stopped there; with such tumult Ares the destructive, burden of chariots, charged crying aloud on Herakles, who came eagerly to meet him. But now Athene, daughter of Zeus of the aegis, came to stand in the path of Ares...
Lines 432-444 13
The path of Ares was also the orbit of Ares. Athene was Venus. We do not know where Venus was on that pivotal day, but if it had some ancient role in its present orbit, that would not be surprising, having been so close to the perihelion of Mars. Hesiod compares the clashing planetary magnetic fields to the sound of a particularly massive avalanche. Words abound of superlative power, destruction, and terror, usually related in one way or another to Ares in The Shield of Herakles. Why Hercules received the credit for the defeat of Ares is not known to us; however, perhaps the credit had to go to some stout-hearted cosmic warrior. Hercules is one of many archetypes of Mars in Greek literature.
Hesiod seems to have had his roots in the city state of Boetia, near the Greek Thebes, about 50 miles northwest of Athens. He described the last flyby of Mars as a circle or disc, or shield coated with glowing gold, shining electrum, enamel and pale ivory and very bright. There are three descriptions of what we conclude was the same scene Hesiod saw, during the night of March 20/21, 701 B.c. in the Bible, found at Isaiah 37:36, II Kings 19:35 and II Chron. 32:21.
BACKGROUND. In 756 B.C., under the influence of Jonah's sermon and the impending Mars flyby, the citizens of Nineveh and even the king repented (much to Jonah's chagrin.) They experienced a reprieve from divine wrath. But that repentance, from the theological perspective of the Judeo-Christian tradition, was brief. Soon the violence and the killing continued. The Assyrian kings who succeeded Assurbanipal (such as Tiglath Pileser, Shalmaneser, Sargon and Sennacherib) carried on with the bloody tradition of military conquest, raiding, plundering and butchery far and wide. Each year, it seems, another sector in the expanding Empire was designated for further imperial conquests.
In the era of 722 B.C., the Northern Kingdom and Samaria, its capital city, were under assault. The city was captured after a long siege and consequent famine. The captured populace was marched eastward and northward some 1500 miles, past the headwaters of the Euphrates and Mt. Ararat, and past the Caucasus to the Volga River. From the mouth of the Volga, many were sent upstream to the big bends at Samara and Kazan, another 500 or 600 miles. In 701 B.C., Jerusalem (like Samaria in 722 B.C.) was surrounded by Assyrian legionnaires. Would they, if they surrendered, also be sent to Central Russia? In the light of Assyrian foreign policy, military might and the size of the empire, such was entirely possible. 14 15
In the year 701 B.C., once again it was the turn for the southwest sector of the Assyrian Empire to expand, and incorporate Judah and Egypt. Egypt was the plum. Judah and Jerusalem were merely burrs under the saddle on the way to Egypt. They would be disposed of early in the spring, so that the Assyrian juggernaut could get on quickly with the summer campaign on the delta of the Nile.
In 702 B.C., in Nineveh, the astrologers of Sennacherib advised him that the raiding and pillaging, plundering and general political rapine would be especially easy and especially rich in March of the year 701 B.C. Nergal (the Assyrian Mars) was ready to once again render cosmic assistance. The crystal ball-gazers were having a heyday in Nineveh, perhaps partly encouraged by the reprieve of 756 B.C., and perhaps partly encouraged by a perception that mid-March flybys normally missed the Eastern Hemisphere, as they electrically raked the Western Hemisphere.
The Assyrian military command was impressed by the crystal ball-gazers and the monthly prognosticators, much as the Greek military had been impressed in 809 B.C., some 108 years earlier. Judah and its capital city, Jerusalem, probably would surrender rather than experience liquidation. If they didn't, the earthquakes might rift the walls, or perhaps the celestial arrows of Apollo Shootafar would hit Jerusalem, turning it into a cauldron. By the first of May, Palestine would be in hand, and the lush delta of the Nile would be in sight. The year 701 B.C. promised excellent "pickings" for the legendary legionnaires of Sennacherib.
IN JERUSALEM, as in Assyria, there was a new king, Hezekiah, who acceded in 716 B.C. Preparing for a prolonged siege, Hezekiah authorized the digging of a great tunnel under Jerusalem to provide sufficient water for the city's populace, even if swollen with refugees. Hezekiah also chose Isaiah as one of the members of his cabinet. We conclude that Isaiah had experienced the flyby of 756 B.C. as a youth, and very likely had helped clean up the rubble of the destroyed buildings. Thus, Isaiah in 701 B.C. was nearing 70 years of age.
THE QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR. What would be Hezekiah's decision in the face of the oncoming assault of Sennacherib and his military machine? Would he surrender, and accept deportation to Central Russia or some place even more remote (like Siberia)? Would he commit suicide and let someone else make the decision? Would he resist and pray to Yahweh for a miracle? Would he plead for mercy, especially territorial mercy from Sennacherib (for was not Israel the chosen people but also the chosen land)? What would be the advice of the respected cabinet official, Isaiah? Would the other cabinet officials concur with Isaiah, or would they concur with the emissaries of Sennacherib? Jerusalem was indeed between a rock and a hard spot.
For some time, and up well into late 702 B.C., Isaiah counseled peace and surrender. Perhaps he emphasized the importance of the survival of the Jews as a nation and as a culture. But a short time later, by late 702 B.C., for some reason, Isaiah changed his counsel entirely and advocated resistance. We can only suggest that Isaiah had received some kind of a message from the Lord of Hosts, a message that HE (the Lord) would deliver Jerusalem. In fact, Isaiah began to offer the astounding advice that the Assyrian legionnaires (with all of their valor and vaunted armor) were in greater danger than was the city of Jerusalem. How could such outrageous advice be considered? The following represents Isaiah's perspective, including his unique advice; it comes from the first 36 chapters of the Book of Isaiah.
In the understanding of Planetary Catastrophists, chapter 37 contains the description of the flyby itself. Talmudic information presents this catastrophic night as the time of the passover, Nisan 13/14. 16 Being that the evening of Nisan 13 was Friday the 13th, would that night be lucky or unlucky? If so, for whom? Hezekiah? Sennacherib? The Assyrian juggernaut? Jerusalem?
A CAGED CITIZENRY, By the end of February, Sennacherib had captured all of the fortified cities of Judah. The last to fall were Lachish and Libnah, 20 and 30 miles to the southwest. Only Jerusalem was left, overburdened with perhaps a half of a million refugees from the farms and villages of the land. Jerusalem was in a state of near panic. The citizens of Jerusalem looked upon themselves like birds caught in a cage.
As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem;
defending also he will deliver it;
and PASSING OVER, he will preserve it.
Isaiah 31:5 (Caps ours)
Birds are aerial images. "Passing over" is also an aerial or bird-like image. Perhaps, in turning to use these aerial images in a different context, Isaiah was incorporating an element of metaphoric humor into his message.
ISAIAH ON THE COMING MISFORTUNE OF THE ASSYRIAN ARMY. The Assyrian army is estimated to have numbered one-quarter million, possibly more. Most of them were veterans of earlier campaigns. These veterans, as in many ancient armies, relished the pillaging, the rape and the general killing they were preparing to do.
Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword,
not of a mighty man.
Isaiah 31:8
What kind of a "'sword" could Isaiah have possibly had in mind? "What other kind of sword was there?" asks the Evolutionist, the Uniformitarian, and the Fiat Creationist? Indeed what other kind was there? And how could it be "not of a mighty man?" Indeed.
THE LIGHTNING NATURE OF THAT SWORD. Isaiah, like Hesiod, was not given to pale adjectives. Humor perhaps. High drama, definitely. But not to anemic, passive language.
And the Lord shall cause HIS GLORIOUS VOICE TO BE HEARD, and shall shew THE LIGHTING DOWN OF HIS ARM,
With the indignation of his anger, and WITH THE FLAME OF A DEVOURING FIRE, WITH SCATTERING, AND TEMPEST, AND HAILSTONES.
For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down.
Isaiah 30:30-31
In this passage, Isaiah uses the metaphor "voice" rather than "sword." Voices travel by means of sound waves, like blasts and shock waves. Lightning and shock waves combined comprise Isaiah's vision of a successful offense against the vaunted Assyrian juggernaut.
ISAIAH ON EARTHQUAKES. Bear in mind that, based on the rule of the mass over the inverse of the cube of the distance, crustal heaving would vary with the distance of Mars. Mars at 240,000 miles would achieve 10 times the heaving by the Moon. At 120,000 miles, it would be 80 times. At 60,000 miles, it would be 640 times. At 30,000 miles, it would be multiplied by 5,000 compared to the lunar-induced crustal tide which is about 3 inches.
...for the windows from on high are open,
and the foundations of the earth do shake.
Isaiah 24:18
Perhaps the crustal tide would not be at its 100% maximum in Palestine, but rather in some other part of the Eastern Hemisphere. Even so, a 20% or 30% portion of that force, flexing the Earth's crust, could create substantial earthquakes. However, would such earthquakes damage Jerusalem's primary defense, its 20-foot thick and 60-foot high walls?
ISAIAH ON A CONFUSED ROTATIONAL PROGRESSION. A confused rotational progression includes the spin axis going into a brief barrel-roll. But it also includes the 10 or 15-mile thin crust going into a 3 or 4-hour skid (easterly).
The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard,
and shall be removed like a cottage.
Isaiah 24:20
In that time in the villages, huts were one step above tents. Huts and cottages could be lifted by a group of men with staves and relocated like a mobile home. This is one figure for the Earth that Isaiah employed. Another figure was that of the drunkard, trying to find his way home in the dark. These are homely metaphors.
What Isaiah actually reported, two or three days after the flyby (see Isaiah 38:8), was that the shadow on the sundial had shortened. It had shortened ten degrees", which is probably better translated ten "hand spans", or about 7 feet. A typical Egyptian obelisk of that era was 80 or 90 feet tall, although some rose over 115 feet. The spin axis indeed had precessed once again, as Isaiah reported the equivalent of the North Pole having moved (and the latitude of Jerusalem). It was the Earth, but more precisely the spin axis of the Earth which acted like a drunkard, having wobbled for a few hours. Isaiah, in reporting such, was indeed a splendid reporter for Earth history.
ISAIAH ON A SHOCK WAVE RADIATING OUT FROM A CELESTIAL DISCHARGE. The following is from a scientific encyclopedia on shock waves.
Shock Wave: An abrupt increase in...temperature, accompanied by a decrease in velocity, in a supersonic field of flow ... An intense sound will develop into a shock wave after traveling a short distance. Thus, a strong explosion inevitably produces a shock wave, which is in some cases the most damaging aspect of the blast. ...
Shock waves are more complex than most other types of waves. The reflection of shocks from surfaces does not obey the law of equality between angles of incidence and reflection; at a critical angle, regular reflection is replaced by Mach reflection in which a triple shock configuration is formed. 17
In many passages, Isaiah describes shock waves, or tumults. The following is a sample.
For thou has been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from THE HEAT, WHEN THE BLAST OF THE TERRIBLE ONES IS AS A STORM AGAINST THE WALL.
ISAIAH 25:4 (Caps ours.)
Once again, Isaiah is perceived as a star reporter on Earth history.
ISAIAH ON CATASTROPHIC NOISE. On the morning of June 30, 1908, an icy bolide, perhaps 200 yards in diameter, streaked through the Earth's atmosphere across Northern China and was seen by millions. It exploded over Northeastern Siberia. The sound of the explosion, a sound wave, was heard in Germany, some 3,200 miles to the west. It was also heard in Manilla, 3300 miles directly south. A reflection of the flash of the explosion was seen in the clouds above London. At Kansk, 375 miles distant, the shock wave knocked down horses two minutes after the flash. At Vanavara, a trading post 40 miles away, the shock wave collapsed windows and ceilings, and flung people into the air. 18 19
All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye,
when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains;
and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.
Isaiah 18:3
Their roaring shall be like a lion,
they shall roar like young lions:
yea, they shall roar....
Isaiah 5:29
And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea:
and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow,
and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.
Isaiah 5:30
Noise generated from celestial discharges is compared by Isaiah to trumpets blowing, to lions roaring, and to the angry sea. Shock waves, incidentally, can kill by concussion, without harming the clothing of the victim or creating any damage to the skin.
ISAIAH ON THE CELESTIAL FLUX TUBE, Mars-Earth Type (Not Io-Jupiter Type.) If Isaiah were about 65 to 70 years old in 701 B.C., he had seen such a flux tube, as a child as had other old timers. A student, no doubt he had access to literature of catastrophes in the libraries of Jerusalem, descriptions of the phenomenon in more ancient times. A cosmic discharge at the bottom of a flux tube, as we have come to understand, was not an unknown thing. Nor is it an unknown thing in our time; similar discharges at the bottom of the Io-Jupiter flux tube occur in our time every day and every hour. They are hot enough to vaporize sodium, sulfur and silicon into gases, and those gases were recorded by the cameras of Voyager.
Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
Isaiah 28:2
Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and GREAT NOISE, WITH STORM AND TEMPEST, AND THE FLAME OF DEVOURING FIRE.
Isaiah 29:6 (Caps ours.)
Great noise? Storm? Tempest? Flame of Devouring Fire? With Earthquake? With Thunder? Being cast down? This is one of many examples of Isaiah's description of the bottom end of the Mars-Earth flux tube of ions and charged particles. Once again, Isaiah deserves credit as a reporter for the "Journal on Earth History." The fact is, in the wider picture, he made a scoop, better than any such "Johnny Come Lately" as Charles Lyell who carped about those "ancient physio-theologians." 20 21 Isaiah was magnificent.
ISAIAH ON THE ASTRONOMICAL APPROACH BY MARS. In our model in Figure 1, Mars came in from its aphelion, a zone out amid the asteroids, some 218,000,000 miles from the Sun, and some 126,000,000 miles from the closest part of the orbit of the Earth. But Mars came in, slowly at first, inexorably, and accelerating when in the inner part of its orbit.
...the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.
They come from A FAR COUNTRY, FROM THE END OF HEAVEN...
and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
Isaiah 13:4-5 (Caps ours.)
On this occasion, Mars came in and across about 200 million miles of space during one year, from April 702 B.C. to March 701 B.C. Indeed it was from the end of heaven so far as astronomers of that era, without binoculars or telescopes, could determine.
ISAIAH ON THE DIRECTION OF THE ASTRONOMICAL APPROACH BY MARS. During the autumn, due to the Earth's spin axis tilt, Mars approached from the celestial south, by all appearance. Our theory holds that on such occasions, the magnetic north pole and the magnetic south pole were reversed, leaving the magnetic north pole on the edge of Antarctica. But by the same token, Mars seemed to approach from the celestial north during mid-March flybys.
Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved:
for there shall come FROM THE NORTH a smoke,
and none shall be alone in his appointed times.
Isaiah 14:31 (Caps ours.)
The tilt of the Earth's spin axis allows us to understand why Mars would come from the celestial north to all appearances. The icy deposition on Mars during The Flood allows us to understand subsequent melting and evaporation of those ices, resulting in a cometary tail. That cometary tail formed each time Mars passed perihelion, some 75 million miles near to the Sun, and not far from the orbit of Venus, if indeed not far from Venus itself. Thus, the cometary tail of Mars was far more prominent to Earth viewers during mid-March flybys than it was amid October flybys. The Exodus catastrophe contains information of a cometary tail, the "pillar of fire by night." Here, the "smoke from the north" seems to be a parallel description, though less dramatic. Mars may well have had a cometary tail 50 million miles long. The translators have chosen the word "smoke" from the Hebrew shan. To our thinking, it might be better-translated as a vapor, as in the tail of a comet (which in effect Mars was).
ISAIAH ON THE ROTATION OF MARS. Mars in our time has a tilt of 24°, very similar to the 23¼%° tilt of the Earth. Perhaps of greater importance to the coming text, Mars has a rotation rate of 24 hours, 37 minutes, again much like the Earth's spin rate.
The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters:
but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off,
and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind,
and LIKE A ROLLING THING BEFORE THE WHIRLWIND.
Isaiah 17:13 (Caps ours)
"Rolling thing" in Hebrew is galgal, sometimes translated as a whirlwind (which also rotates.) Sometimes it is translated as a wheel, which rotates as well. "Wheel" is closer. "Gyroscope" is closest. "Rolling thing" is inadequate.
ISAIAH ON THE DAY OF THE MARS FLYBY. The Hebrew term "passover" is well-titled. March 20 on our calendar was the same day as Nisan 13 in the ancient Jewish calendar, one day before the spring equinox. Even though uniformity in the orbits of Mars and the Earth has been extant for almost 2700 years, the tradition that Friday the 13th is unlucky still persists. Is this a Jewish relic of the catastrophic era?
For it is A DAY OF TROUBLE, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision, BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS, and of crying to the mountains.
Isaiah 22:5 (Caps ours)
And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. IN THAT DAY....
Isaiah 2:19-20a (Caps ours)
The "holes in the rocks" were caves, very valuable items of real estate during flyby conditions. Storm cellars would have been good substitutes.
We have presented one dozen examples of catastrophic reporting by Isaiah. These are mere samplings from his first 37 chapters. Isaiah was a far better observer and reporter on Earth history than was Charles Lyell, the god-father of modern uniformitarianism. In fact, Hesiod (who never received any award) also was a better observer of Earth history than was Lyell, who was awarded a knighthood by Queen Victoria. Superior reporters of ancient catastrophism are relatively few, particularly few outside of the Biblical recorders, as the ravages of time and forgetfulness have destroyed vast literary sources. Among those ancient eye-witness reporters, none (in our opinion) was the equal of the magnificent Isaiah.
Cooperating with his astrologers and inspired by their advice, Sennacherib rolled up the cities of Libnah and Lachish in February and had moved his feared juggernaut to the out-skirts of Jerusalem by mid-March. There, the legendary legionnaires enjoyed a brief bit of R & R, (rest and relaxation). In a few days, Nergal would breach the walls of Jerusalem (with earthquakes) and Nergal also might zap the city with a discharge, turning it into a cauldron. Prospects for looting seemed excellent. Murder and general rapine were expected to be wide-spread. The soldiers re-honed their iron swords, repaired their iron battle axes, polished their iron helmets, and sharpened their iron spears while enjoying a brief respite. The campaign for Egypt and its riches would come very shortly.
Simultaneously and in stark contrast, the citizens of Jerusalem became more jittery and apprehensive every hour as the approach date of Mars came, and as the reflection of Mars grew in the nocturnal heavens, night by night, inexorably and resplendently. Some prepared their wills, while others felt there would be nothing left worth giving after the looting and rapine. Some prepared a leg of lamb with figs or apples, as if it might be their last meal. They ate, drank and made merry, especially with strong wine because from all appearances, there was little to celebrate if sober. Many expected to die shortly, others dreaded the possibility of deportation as slaves to Southern Russia or elsewhere. Some worshipped Baal-Mars and other planets such as Ashtarte-Venus, Khecil-Jupiter and Khima-Saturn. Isaiah was a watchman in the night, and posted himself on a parapet for optimum observation. Deimos and Phobos were circling Mars, one every 20 hours and the other every 8 hours. The craters of Mars such as Argyre, Hellas and Isidis were as visible as ogre's eyes. The volcanoes of Mars began renewed eruptions, adding to the explosiveness of the scene.
By the evening of March 19, Mars was somewhere between 800,000 and 750,000 miles distant, and was closing rapidly (and growing in size). In the middle of the night, Mars disappeared behind the western horizon, only to rise on the eastern horizon 12 hours later and to appear even more fearfully, about 10:00 a.m., March 20. By 8:00 p.m., Mars was perhaps 125,000 miles distant; and the flux tube of electricity began to form, and electricity flowed. Polynesia and shortly, Eastern Asia, began to be swept or raked by the flux tube, which was progressing across the face of the Earth, some 1700 m.p.h., that is, some 35° of longitude per hour. It was visible to Isaiah, who seemed to know something others didn't. Such was also visible to Sennacherib, amid his soldiers and their iron armor. Confident in the advice of his astrologers, Sennacherib awaited eagerly the spectacle of Jerusalem's destruction.
In the early evening hours, Mars continued to approach, growing fearfully in all of its celestial splendor. By 11 p.m., Mars was around 60,000 miles distant, but this approach was different (according to our model). This one was occurring on the outside of the Earth, toward the usual midnight hour as did most mid-March catastrophes; those previous had been on the inside, or the sunward side, showing its crescent. Tonight, it was, shall we say, a full Moon? Or was it a full Mars? It was like an electrum disc, shiny like pale ivory, like shiny enamel glowing with gold, to use Hesiod's words.
At 60,000 miles, Mars covered a full 4° of the sky; shortly at 30,000 miles it would cover 8°. At 60,000 miles, Mars was 125 times as bright as a full moon, and at 30,000 miles it would be 500 times as bright. At 60,000 miles, the closest points, crust to crust were 56,000 miles but at 30,000 miles, those closest surfaces would be separated by only 24,000 miles.
A careful analysis of the account of Isaiah reveals this to have been a nightside flyby, unlike all other flybys. A computer program of the catastrophic orbits of Mars and the Earth will teach that the normal kind of flyby is a sunward flyby. The natural kind is a sunward side flyby. And if resonance is to be maintained, it must be a sunward side flyby. An outside flyby will begin to unravel the system. A distant outside flyby (at 50,000 or 70,000 miles) will threaten the stability. (Some of our research team feel that even a distant outside flyby can unravel the system; others feel it will threaten but not unravel it; however, a close flyby will unquestionably unravel the system and send Mars into a rounder, shrunken orbit.)
Toward midnight, the fearful show intensified, and a genuine nightmare show it was. Suddenly ... ZAP.
Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote IN THE CAMP OF THE ASSYRIANS a hundred and fourscore and five thousand:
and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
Isaiah 37:36 (Caps ours)
Some were killed by vaporization. Some were killed by lethal shock waves. Others were killed by flash burns. None were killed by pursuing Jewish cavalry; the city had none. The caged citizens of Jerusalem were too stunned, too surprised, too elated to do anything in terms of military action. They were completely happy just to survive. Celebrations glutted the city's narrow streets. A good number of citizens praised God their Creator and perhaps made a short trip to the First Temple to compare notes, to worship, to pray a simple prayer of thanksgiving, to sing and to socialize. Shortly, there was dancing in the streets as Jerusalem enjoyed its "picnic time."
Concerning Sennacherib's army, some survived. Assyrian cuneiform indicates Sennacherib himself survived, though burned. Such injury is no surprise to a Planetary Catastrophist. He may have been 500 or 600 yards distant from the center of the encampment. Many of the trees just below the Tunguska Bolide Explosion were vaporized. A little farther out in radius, the trees were sheared off, leaving only the stumps. Out even a little farther, many of the trees were flash-burnt on one side, but not on the other. Similar features surrounded the Mount St. Helens explosion in the state ofWashington recently. Where trees were burnt on one side the temperature of outflowing air masses exceeded 5000° F Many of the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear explosions were flash-burnt on one side but not on the other.
Talmudic discussions of this occasion are cited as follows.
With his vast army Sennacherib hastened onward, in accordance with the disclosures of the astrologers, who warned him that he would fail in his object of capturing Jerusalem, if he arrived there later than the day set by them. 22
The death of the Assyrians happened when the angel permitted them to hear the 'song of the celestials. Their souls were burnt, though their garments remained intact. 23 24
The advice of the astrologers for Sennacherib to hurry and get to Jerusalem before March 20 can now be evaluated. Sennacherib's astrologers were no more insightful than were Agamemnon's or Hitler's. Perhaps it is no coincidence that both Hitler and Sennacherib failed in their campaigns to destroy Judaism.
Nobody knows for certain when the Assyrian Empire arose on the banks of the Upper Tigris River. However, Assyrian king lists go back beyond 890 B.C. 25 The empire was at least 200 years old by the time of Sennacherib, a time span that compares to the duration of the United States at this point in time. On this night, like a comet, the Assyrian empire passed its zenith and its perihelion. Soon after Sennacherib returned to Nineveh to recover from his wounds and his bruised pride, his two sons conspired (successfully) to assassinate him. Then the two brothers had a falling-out. From there, military defeat and political turmoil racked the kingdom. Within 50 years, it was all over. Its disintegration began the night when over 180,000 elite legionnaires were killed by burns, by concussion and by vaporization, outside the city wall of Jerusalem, amid their iron weaponry. Their weapons, like the iron armor of the Greeks under Achilles and like the iron chariots of the Canaanites under Sisera, had served as excellent lightning rods, if nothing else.
Was Jonah's prayer in vain? If answered, it was not answered when he preferred. Nor was it answered where he preferred. Jonah would have preferred the blast to fall on Assyrias capital city rather than on its marauding military forces. Jonah instead went into depression, apparently a discredited prophet, and a very disappointed one. It might have been better had he prayed the prayer, "Lord, give me patience, and give it to me right now."
The preceding paragraph touched on a theological matter; this work is not a theological work. Ours is a historical work, with scientific overtones. But perhaps there is a deeper, more difficult question of a theological nature which should be raised. That question is, "What would have happened to Jerusalem if Sennacherib's army would have stayed at home?" Would Jerusalem have been zapped with the same amperage of lightning that hit the Assyrian armor? If so, would such have turned Jerusalem into a cauldron and signaled the end to Judah as a state and the end of Judaism as a culture? Was King Hezekiah fortunate that Sennacherib's iron armor was so close at hand on that particular night, despite the strong apprehensions of the citizenry?
Even farther afield, how did the magnificent Isaiah come to his conclusion that the Assyrian legionnaires were in greater danger than were the citizens of Jerusalem? Was he clairvoyant about Earth history in the sense that Emanuel Swedenborg wasn't? Did the Lord show Isaiah something, in some manner or other, that most cannot understand? How can those modern theologians, steeped in uniformitarian thinking, possibly understand Isaiah's theology?
The standard modern explanation for the demise of Sennacherib's army involves bubonic plague. It seems, allegedly, that there was a swarm of mice or rats, carrying fleas infected with bubonic plague, that swept through Sennacherib's bivouac. The fleas bit the soldiers, and miraculously, the incidence or curve of infection was all in one night. Such is the "pestilence" in modern thought, sometimes called modern rational thought.
What about Assurbanipal? What might have happened if he had really listened to the blond bombshell preacher from Galilee? Perhaps, had Assurbanipal listened and exchanged his predilection for violence, imperialism, butchering and slavery for more humanitarian values, the consequent history of Assyria might have been written by more humanitarian leaders, with more humanitarian ethics and values. Perhaps the Assyrian Empire would have been longer-lived, perhaps even for centuries.
What about Sennacherb's astrologers? Clearly, they had been about as accurate as were Calchas and Chryseis, seers in the time of Agamemnon and Achilles. When Sennacherib began to question their auguring abilities (as he surely must have done) and their crystal ball prognostications, what happened? Perhaps the Assyrian court astrologers shifted their political favor to Sennacherib's sons (who hadn't suffered from their poor advice). Who knows? If so, then it might be easy to predict the kind of advice they would conjure up to his sons. (Historical accounts say that shortly after Sennacherib's return to Nineveh, he was assassinated by his two sons.)
The text of Isaiah 38, as well as two other places in the Scripture, mention this angel-directed mass destruction. But only in the Book of Isaiah is it described as both a midnight flyby and one with falling thunderbolts, or celestial lightning. According to orbital mechanics, these two observations could mean only one thing, an uncharacteristic variant outside flyby.
Steinhauer, an associate, made a computer program charting a variety of possible orbits for Mars. The resonant orbit depicted in Figure 1 fits the best. Further computer analysis has indicated that an outside flyby destabilizes a resonance system and if sufficiently close and intense, unravels it. This seems to be what happened.
We understand from analyses and collages of data concerning paleomagnetic polarity reversals that there have been about 170 of them. This count is accepted as a working number, even if it is not precise. 26 If every close flyby (within 60,000 to 70,000 miles) caused a magnetic polarity reversal, which we believe to be also the case, then this was the 170th and last flyby of the catastrophic era. From other analysis to be presented in a more technical sequel, it is apparent that the cyclicism was 54 years between successive flybys, but 108 years between successive October (or mid-March) passovers.
From analysis based on astronomical atlases and an ephemeris, it is known that Jupiter was in Capricorn, and Saturn was 180° opposite in Cancer in 701 B.C. Both effected a narrowing of the "b" axis and a lengthening of the "a" axis of the orbit of Mars.
What caused this flyby to be on the nightside? We do not know. We have some insights. One insight is the Jupiter-Saturn geometry just mentioned. Either, Mars was two or three hours behind the standard schedule, or its orbit had been pushed outward an extra 60,000 or 75,000 miles. Was that accomplished by the hand of the Lord? Was the change in the orbit of Mars accomplished by hitting an asteroid? Was it accomplished by the heavy catastrophes of 864 B.C., 809 B.C., and/or 756 B.C.? Certainly it was helped by Jupiter and Saturn, but that apparently would have been only contributory.
Figure 17 illustrates first, the general range of Mars trajectories which our model allows for Mars during the first 169 flybys. These ranged between 15,000 and 75,000 miles from the Earth, and as a group they may have formed a bell-shaped curve, averaging 40,000 to 45,000 miles. Figure 17 also illustrates the Roche Limit of the Earth for fragmentation. Any large body, with enough mass to have significant internal tides, if smaller than the Earth, will fragment somewhere around the 11,000-mile zone from the Earth's core.
Analysis to be presented in our sequel will give reasons why our conclusion is that the Flood Flyby of 2484 B.C. was the closest of them all, and is estimated at 15,000, or perhaps even 14,500 miles distant. This is extremely close, but then, that was an extremely destructive event. Several of the ancient flybys in the pre-Flood era were of the range of 17,000 to 20,000 miles, also extremely close. These close flybys deviated from the norm, as presented in Figure 17, by 25,000 and 30,000 miles. But the flyby of 701 B.C. deviated by a gigantic 75,000 or perhaps even 90,000 miles. Clearly we suspect something beyond the routine influences of Jupiter and Saturn. Our best answer to this question is "the Hand of the Lord." But how that hand worked is something the mechanics of which is not presently understood. Further, they may never be understood.
THE ROUNDING OUT OF THE MARTIAN ORBIT
By examining Figure 17, it will be evident that, in our model, the final flyby of 701 B.C. was different from all of the previous flybys. The previous inside or sunward side flybys had functioned to perpetuate the catastrophic orbit of Mars. But the last flyby functioned to unravel it, or perturb it in the opposite direction necessary for its maintenance. When Mars made inside flybys, the Earth tended to be pulled inward, and Mars tended to be pulled outward. With the final flyby, all of that was reversed.
But, did this flyby as illustrated in Figure 17 really cause the rounding out of the Martian orbit? There are two kinds of answers to this question, that of the historian and that of the engineer or physicist. To this question, a historian versed in catastrophism will attest that history finds no more catastrophes after 701 B.C. Furthermore, with the coming of the 7th century B.C. and then the 6th, ancient cultures revised their calendars to shift from the former 360 days to the more accurate 365. Plutarch's discourse on the gambling planets is an illustration, as is the Chinese new inter-calendaric "Khe-ying," the Incan "Allcacanguis," and the Hebrew "Veadar," to name but three examples. In each case, 5 days were added, suggesting an expansion of the Earth's orbit, requiring an additional 1½% day-count per year. This matches the contraction of the Martian orbit from the ancient 720 days to the current 687 days. The circumstantial evidence might be construed by some as conclusive.
On the other hand, one encounters astronomers, engineers, orbital analysts and physicists. They deal with energy and motion, and can be rather indifferent to history and ancient calendars. To the question posed above concerning the rounding out of the orbit of Mars, the engineer will point out that while the flyby of 701 B.C. may have been close, and it may have been on the "wrong" side, and it may have been the last, in any event Mars was within the range of the lunar orbit (240,000 miles in radius, 480,000 miles in diameter) for a rather brief time period, about 16 hours. Histories and mysteries aside, 16 hours is not sufficient time for Mars, a planet one-tenth as large as the Earth, to gain or add 4% or 5% to its energy. The accomplishment of such a monumental energy exchange, short of a fragmentation, could not be possible, in the eyes of a competent engineer or physicist. Whom is one to believe, the historian who says that such must have been the case or the engineer who says that such could not have been the case?
Our research team is fortunate to have among its members Ronald Hatch, a physicist and an orbital analyst, whose duties include research in satellite navigation systems. Hatch understands the characteristics and behavior of many kinds of orbits. This precise question has occurred to Hatch, who believes there is a solution, one in which neither the historian nor the engineer is mistaken as it turns out.
Hatch has conceived the following scenario, with which we concur. Mars went out of resonance during the flyby of 701 B.C. If a metaphor is appropriate, one might consider a grandmother, rocking a baby in a rocking chair. There are 85 rocks backward and 85 rocks forward in this metaphor. During the 170th rock, a forward motion, the baby's brother sneaks in and pushes the rocking chair, along with the dozing grandma and baby. The rocking chair pitches forward, spilling the contents. In our metaphor, the rocking chair is the resonant behavior. Grandma is the long axis of the orbit of Mars. Grandma gets up and in so doing continues in a forward course. So it was with the long axis of the Martian orbit; it began to plunge forward in a counter-clock wise direction. Figure 18 illustrates. In our metaphor, the question is: What is grandma going to do when she gets up? In our scientific analysis, the question is: What is going to be the change in the line of apsides (the long axis) of the orbit of Mars?
With considerable insight, Hatch proposes that the big issue was the very next flyby of Mars, in 699 B.C. Due to the flyby of 701 B.C., Mars may have gained 309% of the energy needed to round out its orbit, but certainly not enough. In April of 699 B.C., 25 months later (and one month later than the March 20-21 anniversary), Mars once again approached the Earth and for the second successive time, on the outside. This time the distance was in the range of 80,000 to 90,000 miles. No violent catastrophes happened to the Earth.
However, partly by rounding out its orbit, and partly by rotating its long axis, Mars had slowed down. Its historic flyby speed was 78,000 m.p.h., compared to the Earths velocity of 67,000 m.p.h. faster. Now, Mars had slowed to 67,500 m.p.h. and the Earth had slowed to 66,500 m.p.h., only 1000 m.p.h slower. This time it took 320 hours rather than 18 hours for Mars to make a chord through the Moon's orbit. This was about 15 days, perhaps more.
It is proposed that indeed Mars did make a slow, distant flyby, coming in as close as 80,000 miles, passing on the nocturnal side. It may have taken Mars 2 or 3 weeks (not 18 hours) to pass through the Earth's gravitational field, and more specifically, through its gravitational "radius of action." During each and every hour, Mars was sucking up energy from the Earth, and the Earth was yielding energy to Mars. We propose that, of the total energy Mars gained in the two flybys, 70% was gained in 699 B.C., the second, slow flyby.
This theory suggests several things. First, indeed the 701 B.C. flyby tended to round out the Martian orbit (but not enough to bring it to its current orbit.) Secondly, there was an intermediate flyby, that of 699 B.C., wherein 70% of the energy exchange was achieved. Thirdly, the orbit of Mars converted over from an eccentricity (in the catastrophic era) from about .49 to an eccentricity of about .36 after the first flyby, whereas after the second one, it rounded out further from an eccentricity of .36 down to about .09. Fourthly, this total rounding out process required at least 20 years, if not 30 or 40.
Hatch points out another pair of interesting phenomena in our solar system. There are examples where other astronomical bodies have gone out of 2:1 resonance and into a non-resonant orbits. One example is in the Rings of Saturn. Saturn has rings because it has vacant areas, thoroughly swept out, as dividers between its rings. The biggest vacant zone is known as the Cassini Division. It is 2800 miles wide and is sandwiched between the B Ring and the A Ring. Presumably this empty region once was populated with icy fragments of an even distribution with the ring regions. The Cassini Division is centered precisely at the 2:1 orbital resonance location of Saturn's innermost satellite, Mimas. Evidently, perturbations generated by Mimas (and assisted by Tethys) have functioned as a broom, sweeping ice fragments out. The rings resume at a period both 4½% closer to Saturn, and 4 ½% more distant. When the fragments were swept out, they found their new stability 4½% away from their original period. These dark, empty regions between Saturn's sparkling icy rings illustrate going out of resonance, and how far a body usually goes before a new stability of orbit is achieved. Tethys, another satellite of Saturn, is in 1:2 resonance with Mimas, and therefore it is in 1:4 resonance with the Cassini Division. Tethys, perhaps more than Mimas, swept out this vacant zone, because of its greater mass and gravitational force. See Figure 19.
There is a second example, less easily perceived. It concerns the Kirkwood Gaps, which are gaps in the distribution of the asteroids. In Figure 20, the distribution of the asteroids is given according to their periods. It is to be observed that there is a gap at 900 arc seconds, which is the 3:1 position. Some asteroids have piled up on either side of the gap. Of more significance is the 2:1 gap at 600 arc seconds. Here, asteroids have been swept out by Jupiter in considerable numbers. More have been swept outward than inward, but the inside hump is that to which we wish to bring attention. Here again, when asteroids were swept out of resonance, they found a new orbital stability in the range of 570 arc seconds, which is also a 4½% orbital contraction. We have viewed the Mimas-Tethys pair as the broom in one case, and Jupiter as the broom in the other case. We have cited the icy fragments of Saturn's rings as the "dirt to be swept" in one case, and rocky fragments, the asteroids, in the other case. The point is that when an astronomical body, be it an ice fragment, a rock fragment or a planet, is propelled out of resonance, the propulsion is not stabilized until it jumps a distance of about 4½% or 5%. At the root of the issue is harmonic perturbations versus non-harmonic perturbations.
Now observe our model of Mars, which also is considered to have "jumped out" of 2:1 resonance. Its former orbital period was 720 days. Its new orbital period is 687 days. This also is a 4½% "jump." More precisely, it is a 4.58% change. This may help us understand that Mars has behaved just like other astronomical bodies which have gone out of resonance. Figure 18 illustrates our best understanding of its sequences of line of apsides positions, as it rotated counter-clockwise for 20 or 30 years until the new stability was achieved. Figure 19 and 20 both illustrate a new energy level for a body having left 2:1 orbital resonance.
Our model has it that the rounding out of the orbit of Mars was accomplished in two steps, not one. Those two steps were first, the fast and furious outside flyby of 701 B.C., and secondly, the slow and steady outside flyby, more distant, of 699 B.C. Between the two, Mars left resonance. Because Mars was on the outside of the Earth during these two flybys, it gained energy from the Earth, and therefore its new out-of-resonance orbit necessarily had to be a shrinking as well as a rounding out of its catastrophic orbit. Typical of other astronomical bodies that have left resonance, such as the icy fragments in Saturn's ring system and the rocky fragments which comprise the distribution of asteroids, Mars also settled into a new, stable orbit just 4½% lower in period than its more ancient, catastrophic orbit. Thus, it turns out that the supportive historian was right since he did not perceive the flyby of 699 B.C. was distant and thus non-cataclysmic. So also, the engineer in his skepticism was right until he perceives the intermediate orbit of 699 B.C. Neither were mistaken.
In the history of the human race, there are a few particularly important "days." One was the "day" that mankind was created. A second was the day that the inspired Noah determined to build the Ark. A third was that day when Sennacherib's army, urged on, was destroyed and Jerusalem, on the brink of celestial destruction itself, was spared. This was the day King Hezekiah decided to follow Isaiah's advice.
So there were 3 days particularly important in Earth history, and in solar system history. One "day" of great significance was when the Sun captured its family of planets, and the Earth-Moon system came to reside between the zones of fire and ice. A second "day" of great significance was the day that Astra fragmented, creating some 3,000 asteroids and splattering one side of Mars with another 3,000 "asteroids" or fragments. On this day, Mars staggered, and lost potential energy as it fell into its catastrophic orbit. This fragmentation and energy exchange insured that the Earth would suffer from Mars flybys for a considerable period of time.
The third day of great significance in the history of the Earth-Moon system was the "day" when the catastrophic orbit of Mars began to unravel and to round out, bringing serenity to the Earth-Moon system. This third day of great importance in Earth history coincides with the Long Night of Sennacherib. This night was especially long for Sennacherib for several reasons. One was that he lost most of his army. A second reason was that he apparently was flash-burned. And a third reason that this was a uniquely long night was for the same reason that the Long Day of Joshua was a uniquely long day. We suspect that there was another spin axis precession as well as a crustal skidding in the easterly direction, perhaps slightly south by east. This caused the shift in the shadow of the sun dial, a shortening of the shadow, changing the latitude of Jerusalem once again, but for the last time. Figure 21 is our perception of what happened. The ten "degrees" were more likely a measurement of ten "hand spans," or just spans. A span can be 7 or 8 inches. This would be 6 or 7 feet of shortening of the shadow, depending on the height of Ahaz' sun dial.
Isaiah reported the celestial discharge on the Assyrian encampment and wholesale, sudden slaughter. Next he reported the unique deviant outside flyby. Third, he reported the change on the shadow of the 80 or 90 foot sundial. As a reporter for Earth history, Isaiah merits three stars, perhaps more. He also advised King Hezekiah superbly when he advocated resistance rather than surrender.
Mars threatened to come within this deadly range of the Earth, and this threat was viewed by ancients as the end of the world. What would (not might) have happened had Mars fragmented on the Earth's Roche Limit zone? This question can be answered by reviewing another such scene. About 10,000 B.C., in our theory, a smaller planet (Astra, considerably smaller than the Moon) came too close to Mars. It fragmented. Perhaps 65% of its fragments hit one hemisphere of Mars. One hemisphere of Mars is seen to contain 91% of all of its craters, and the other contains a mere, serene 9%. Obviously there was a fragmentation. The geographical pattern is scattershot. That pattern has a circular edge or rim where craters abruptly cease. The center of the cratered hemisphere on Mars is 45°S. latitude and 320° W. longitude, just west of the massive Hellas Crater. This cratered hemisphere has over 2900 craters, each of which is over 20 miles in diameter. Other craters have been covered up by lava outflows and by bigger craters.
THE RATIO. Our estimate of the ratio of the fragments of Astra is 65% to 34% to 1%. Some 65% hit Mars and formed craters. Some 34% missed Mars and formed the asteroids. About 1% remained in the gravitational control of Mars and settled down into a ring system, revolving around the Martian equator. That ring system has been almost cleaned out by the subsequent Mars-Earth flybys, but the cratered up Deimos and Phobos still remain.
The Comparison. If Mars had fragmented, first, the Earth would have one serene hemisphere, almost devoid of craters, and the other hemisphere would have had perhaps 10,000 craters, each larger than 20 miles in diameter. Secondly, the Earth would have a ring of rocky debris, including chunks of irregular size with diameters of 40, 60 and 80 miles. There might be thousands, even tens of thousands of tiny meteorite-like fragments in such a ring system. Thirdly, there would be a second zone of asteroids, those fragments of Mars which missed the Earth and escaped its gravity. Many of their perihelions would be in the 90 million and 95 million mile range.
The Bulges. Opposite to the giant Hellas Crater (990 miles in diameter on such a small planet with a 4200 mile-diameter) in the serene hemisphere, one finds the Tharsis Bulge. It is as if the fragment creating the Hellas Crater also punched outward and upward on the opposite side the Tharsis Bulge. This bulge is about 2,500 to 3,000 miles broad in diameter in the serene hemisphere, and it is 20,000 to 25,000 feet in elevation above mean crust level of Mars.
Fourthly, the Earth would have a bulge in its serene hemisphere opposite where the largest of the Mars fragments hit. The largest of these bulges might be 50,000 feet high and as large as a continent such as Africa or Australia in area.
Fifthly, if the Earth ingested 65% or 75% of the mass of Mars, it would become more massive and it would gain a greater diameter. Today the Earth's diameter is between 7900 and 7926 miles depending on where it is measured. That diameter would increase to about 8,000 miles.
Sixthly, as in the case of Mars, there would be regions where the Earth's crust (with a new diameter) would need to expand, especially in equatorial regions featuring block-like uplifts separated by deep and narrow chasms rifts and valleys. The preponderance of these chasms and rifts would be in a north-south direction.
Seventhly, depending on the geometry of the fragment impacts, probably the Earth would lose momentum, and stagger. It's orbit would shift into a somewhat shrunken orbit, closer to Venus. Temperatures on the Earth would be accordingly higher, but hopefully not high enough to trigger a runaway evaporation of the oceans into steam similar to the condition of Venus.
Eighthly, in the hemisphere of craters, almost no biota would survive, and the serene hemisphere would suffer from suddenly uplifted shields, well beyond the 15,000-foot limit of breathing. Oceans would slosh in tidal waves with dimensions ranging in the tens of thousands of feet. Continents would be rinsed, and a completely new series of sedimentary strata would emerge from the settling silts, sands and precipitates.
Ninthly, most of the fragments would hit the oceans of the Earth, which comprise 70% of the Earth's surface. Hitting at velocities of 25,000 to 27,000 m.p.h., their energies too would be converted to heat, vaporizing millions of cubic miles of water. The increased barometric pressure (and consequent rise in temperature) might well be lethal to all biota.
Tenthly, the Moon would probably get several dozen if not a few hundred new craters if it were in the path of those Mars fragments which missed the Earth, or if it were in their paths on subsequent orbits of those same fragments.
In summary, three things could have happened to Mars. One is that it could have stayed in its resonance orbit, or catastrophic orbit as depicted in Figure 1. This will be discussed shortly. Statistically, this case was likely. A second thing that could have happened is that, sooner or later, a flyby would have come within 11,000 miles of the Earth (and the Earth's Roche Limit.) Mars would have fragmented and that case, a possibility that might have happened, was just discussed.
The third case is that Mars might have overshot the Earth and made a close flyby, successfully missing Roche's Limit. This case is depicted in Figure 17, and this is what apparently did happen although, statistically, it was least likely. In this, Saturn played some small, secondary role. The major role in the deviant orbit of 701 B.C. we attribute to the Hand of the Lord, the mechanics of which are unknown.
The human mind, so imbued (subconsciously) with uniformitarianism, is shocked by how close and how often the ancient flybys were. The modern mind tends to recoil from astronomical interaction and geological action so sudden, so cyclic and so violent. Figure 17 portrays how fortunate the Earth was to experience an outside flyby by Mars rather than to experience a Mars fragmentation, which seems the more likely, statistically.
As it was, within a century or two after the disengagement or divorce of the Earth and Mars, certain other changes subtly occurred in human history. As catastrophes became a thing of the ever more distant past, historians (like theologians) no longer understood them very well. There appeared fewer and fewer prophets in Israel, but more and more rabbis. In Greece, there were fewer and fewer sooth-sayers and seers, but more philosophers. In the world of politics, city states prospered and some grew handsomely both in city size and in regional power. Empires appeared such as the Persian, the Greek and the Roman, unconcerned about having their armies or their capital cities zapped any longer. Astrology declined as did the worshipping of Mars and Jupiter, Baal and Ashtarte, Ares and Zeus. The ravages of foreign armies continued but the ravages of Mars and its celestial lightning along with accompanying earthquakes ceased. Many ancient historians have sensed such changes after the 8th century B.C., but heretofore few have been able to articulate why.
We have examined what did happen after the catastrophic orbit of Mars unraveled. We have assessed what could have happened had Mars pierced the Earth's Roche Limit and fragmented. Now we shall turn to the final case. What if Mars had remained in its catastrophic orbit for another 9,000 years?
Had Mars remained as it was for another 9,000 catastrophic years, the Earth would have continued to experience October catastrophes in 108-year cycles, as well as mid-March catastrophes also in 108-year cycles. Furthermore, mega-catastrophes (when Jupiter and Saturn were in 180° opposite position during catastrophic years) would have continued every 540 years for each case, the mid-March case and the October case.
Mega-catastrophes such as The Long Day of Joshua would have recurred in October of such years as 324 B.C., 220 A.D., 740 A.D., 1280 A.D. and 1820 A.D., the era of Cuvier, Gauss, Bohnenberger, Faraday, and Lyell. Had they lived under such catastrophic conditions, perhaps their research and discoveries would have had an entirely new dimension.
Mega-catastrophes such as Gideon's Midnight Bash would have recurred in mid-March in such years as 161 B.C., 383 A.D., 923 A.D., 1463 A.D. and 2003 A.D. Contemporary man probably would not have experienced World Wars I and II. Rather he would have experienced World Wars of another sort, the flybys of 1895 A.D. and 1936 A.D. Furthermore, he would be apprehensive of the appointed time of mid-March in 2003 A.D., when Saturn would be in Cancer, an ominous 180° from Jupiter in Capricorn, both narrowing the orbit of Mars menacingly once again.
Such would be the negative aspects of history as it might have been. But there are positive aspects also. Every time the generator Mars made a flyby, the Earth's geomagnetic field would be boosted, as well as having experienced a polarity reversal. Were this in the catastrophic age, the strength of the Earth's geomagnetic field would be a very healthy 1.0 to 1.5 Gauss, and the Earth's geomagnetic sheath would extend even farther out into space. It would experience recharging (like an iron nail experiencing periodic electric charges) with minimal decay. Today, 27 centuries after the last flyby, the Earth's geomagnetic field strength has decayed to a .307 Gauss level, and is decaying 5% per century, which is 50% in 1350 years. Mutations caused by the solar wind would be virtually nil, and the prospect of future mutations also would be nearly nil.
As it is with every coin, there are two sides to examine before coming to a conclusion. And as it is with every contention, there are at least two sides to hear before arriving at an opinion. The first 150 generations after Sennacherib and Isaiah (until 3400 A.D.) would live under a geomagnetic sheath that would decline from 1.2 Gauss to .075 Gauss and would enjoy the serenity of The Second Age of Uniformitarianism. However, the next 150 generations might never exist as the alpha particles of the Sun would sweep the face of the Earth daily, virtually unimpeded, destroying all biota at the cellular level. (And such it must have been in the First Primordial Age of Uniformitarianism, with no periodic cable-jumping, recharging flybys.)
Figure 3 (in Chapter I) portrays the differences between the catastrophic orbit of Mars and the uniformitarian orbit of Mars, the current orbit. Observe that it has rounded out. The length of the "a" axis (the line of apsides) has shrunk from 293 to 283 million miles. Its "b" axis lengthened by a comparable figure. Its orbit now precesses freely, and is no longer frozen or aligned perpendicularly to the apsides of Jupiter. Its day count per year has shrunk from 720 to 687. Its orbital eccentricity dropped from about .49 down to the present .093, a function of the rounding out of its orbit.
In Chapter I, a triad of world views on the origin of the Earth were cited, including the Evolutionary Uniformitarian, the Fiat Creationist and the Theistic Evolution views. The first and last of this triad are similar in most aspects. Along side this traditional three were placed perspectives from a Mars Planetary Catastrophist view. Five cases were cited in order to grasp the assumptions buried in each world view. These five cases shall be cited from Chapter I and briefly re-examined.
THE CHANGE IN LATITUDE FOR JERUSALEM. The traditional triad of views agrees unanimously that the ancient latitude of Jerusalem and the entire Near East was the same as it is today, even though the foundation of the First Temple is found to be 6° out of plumb to the cardinal points of the compass.
Our view is that there were repeated shifts of a few dozen miles and up to a couple of hundred miles variously. Most (though not all) of them had geometries of mid-day flybys in the October cases, which pushed Palestine farther south (and pushed Alaska farther north). Those changes in latitude were caused by a combination of two forces, (1) spin axis shift and (2) crustal skid. The proportions of this combination are not understood, but the directions are somewhat. Spin axis shift can only be understood when one views the Earth as an active gyroscope subject to tipping and torques ... and to planet flybys. Crustal skid is an issue that depends on whether the interface between the bottom of the crust and the top of the mantle (known as the Moho) is slippery and lubricious. The greater the lubricity, the greater was the skidding. The greater the viscosity or stickiness, the greater was the friction and the recharging of the geomagnetic field. It was this combination, and not Continental Drift, that brought subtropical fossils to the high latitudes, to such places as Alaska, Greenland, Canada, Siberia, Spitzbergen and even Antarctica.
THE LONG DAY OF JOSHUA. The traditional triad have been making guesses as to how that day was reported as being lengthened. The evolutionary duet suggests mass hallucinations occurred in Joshua, Chapter 10, and in Josephus, Book V, Chapter 1. However, when hallucinations do occur, they are restricted to individuals and are not en masse. The Fiat Creationists handle theoretical science in this case much as a magician handles a silk handkerchief which appears and disappears at the will of the magician. In this case it is the Earth's spin rather than a magician's handkerchief which appears and disappears at will. All three of these world views, for different reasons, are flawed. All three of these world views fail to consider the gyroscopic nature of our planet, to say nothing of the electric generating nature of Mars flybys.
NOAH'S FLOOD. Noah's Flood was not "Santa Claus stuff" as the Evolutionary Uniformitarians favor. The Flood was not caused by a particularly severe hurricane or typhoon, blowing up the Persian Gulf toward the mountains of Ararat, a view Theistic Evolutionists commonly hold. Neither was Noah's Flood caused by a secret cache of subcrustal water, in the region of the Moho, which God suddenly unzipped, released and then called back after the appropriate number of days or months. Once more, the explanation of the Fiat Creationists resembles the magician, who this time makes glasses of water appear and disappear at will, sometimes even two at a time.
Noah's Flood is best understood as the most intense of a long series of Mars flybys, a very close one at about 15,000 miles (core to core.) To this scenario is the added feature of an icy satellite of Mars, perhaps 10,000 miles distant. On this close occasion, it pierced the Earth's Roche Limit, fragmented, and it sprayed both planets with ice fragments, including perhaps some traces of the rare element, iridium. Even the Moon got a tiny skiff. Thus the Planetary Catastrophist diagnoses both global floods as being simultaneous. One icy spray created the dry river beds of Mars and the other (greater) icy spray created for the Earth first, a hot rain and secondly, a glacial age, with icy flour spiraling down over both magnetic polar regions. In October of 2484 B.C., "Glacis" fragmented, as had Astra some 7500 years earlier.
God's initiative in warning Noah and in providing Noah and his sons with various skills, including that of boatwright and other needed assets, should not be overlooked. This warning may have happened 40 years or so before the Watery Disaster, and some 14 years after a mid-March flyby which our model suggests occurred in March of 2537 B.C.
THE HISTORY OF THE SUN. The two evolutionary views hold to the idea of the two Emmanuels, Swedenborg and Kant, who theorized some 250 years ago. It is known as the "nebular hypothesis," a dame who has been dressed up regally and liberally sprayed with the best of Paris perfumes. Yet none of these attentions cover up her warts; they merely focus attention on her beautiful attire. Focus can be drawn away from those warts, but that lady does not belong in any beauty contest.
The Fiat Creationists once more appeal to theo-magical explanations which tend to torture scientific data. They hold that the Sun, with all of its family, and the galaxy materialized some 7,000 to 10,000 years ago. When Fiat Creationists call attention to the warts on the evolutionary lady, they in fact do "wax eloquent." But when attention is drawn to the blemishes in their system, they deny vociferously that such defects exist and quickly change the subject to one more comfortable.
There are seven or eight lines of reasoning which support a recent capture theory for the Sun's family and for its sunspot cycles. These include the near universal planetary ecliptic plane (for all planets except the distant Pluto, and including the vanished Astra.) There is a case for the origin of the asteroids which was due to too close a flyby between Astra and Mars, rather recently it would seem. There is the distribution of mass in our solar system, heavy in the "distant" regions, circa ½ to 1 billion miles but scant in the inner regions within ¼ billion miles. There is the distribution of the elements, the lighter ones (helium and hydrogen) prominent in the Sun while heavier elements are prominent in the inner planets. There is the shrinking Sun, which is shrinking at least 8 miles per year in diameter, which is 125 feet per day and is 6 inches of shrinkage per hour. The Sun could not have been shrinking very long because it has not engulfed the asteroid Icarus or the planet Mercury. Furthermore, spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy deny any logic to the propagandists of uniformitarianism, who hold that the Sun with its Orion Arm have made 25 such galactic orbits without the Orion Arm dispersing.
THE LOCATION OF THE EARTH-MOON SYSTEM BETWEEN THE ZONES OF FIRE AND ICE. The Evolutionary View holds that the Earth was established in its present orbit 4.6 billions of years ago through planetesimal accretions and condensations. They hold that neither God nor any other power has been detected rearranging any orbit. Its adherents do not understand the catastrophic geography of Mars (and its pocked satellites), nor do they allow that one planet has disappeared, leaving asteroids and craters on one side only of Mars. Advocates of Evolutionary Uniformitarianism have no idea what caused pan-continental layers of sediments, or strata, and they have no idea why mountain cycles are in swath-like (read flyby) patterns. They maintain that time accommodates almost anything, and there have been hundreds of millions of years of "recent" i.e. biological Earth time.
The concept that the orbit of Mars has been radically altered not once but twice in the last 12,000 years (once by Astra and once by its over-shot of the Earth) is an idea of which the Evolutionary duet is largely unaware. However those evidences are solid, and they are increasing rapidly with the increase in space mission data, available only in the last two or three decades.
This writer prefers the idea that God spun the Earth-Moon system out of an ancient binary when Jupiter and Saturn were also captured by the Sun. That was when the Sun was cable-jumped by the new planetary tides, and when the Sun began to radiate at a new and higher level. And that was when He, the Lord of Hosts, placed the Earth-Moon system very nicely between the regions of fire and ice. Within His providential government of space, the Mars flybys began to occur, with their consequent crustal deformations, stratigraphical depositions, spin axis precessions, crustal skids and a recharged geomagnetic sheath. 27
This view presupposes that there was a paleomagnetic polarity reversal on each and every Mars flyby occasion, but that cannot presently be proved. It can be proved that the Sun experiences a general polarity reversal every time the center of mass of the solar system wanders outside the rim of the Sun, which cases average once every 11½ years. Suppose that it turned out that paleomagnetic polarity reversals occurred only during mega-catastrophes, one in five. That might place the origin of the Earth's geomagnetic sheath (and life-enabling environment) somewhere within the last 45,000 years. Would such make a major difference?
WISHFUL THINKING, NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE. Fiat Creationists have a remarkably interesting approach to paleomagnetic history. They strongly endorse the valid data which indicates that the Earth's geomagnetic field is decaying about 5% per century. Their half-life for the geomagnetic field is 1400 years; ours is 1350 years. They interpret this in a retroactive or back ward projection to 100,000 B.C. when the Earth's magnetic field would have been greater than a black hole, an impossibility. Their only alternative suggestion (naturally) is Fiat Creation.
However, when the subject of paleomagnetic polarity reversals occurs, which is demonstrated on a global scale, Fiat Creationists reject the data. (There is no place for polarity reversals in their world view.) Our prediction is that this curious posture of Fiat Creationists will be emotionally defended. The practice of defending such an incongruity may cast aspersions and may compromise their claim to veracity. Their behavior is to deny as facts any harmful evidence which most scientists find to be indisputable.
Such is similar to an evolutionary dilemma, where both existing data (along two lines) as well as logic suggest that the Sun is shrinking. The data indicates a rapid shrinkage as viewed by uniformitarian time standards. Without a shred of evidence and without logic, Evolutionists claim there are "solar oscillations" and that our Sun just happens to be in a "down phase", one of a long series of waves. This is similar wishful thinking, but of the positive variety; it imagines "facts" for which no data exists, for which no logic exists, but which is badly needed to bolster a shaky posture. Such academic waffling betrays a fragility which we detect in each world view.
For all five of these selected key issues, the Planetary Catastrophist world view offers the most in the way of solid explanations, answers which seem to integrate well with the most recent discoveries of our space age. Such recent discoveries include the pitlets of Deimos and Phobos, the dry river beds of Mars, the Io-Jupiter flux tube of ions and charged particles, the relatively weak planetary magnetic field of Saturn, and the wildly offset magnetic axis of Uranus. To all this, what will Voyager add in February of 1989? Our prediction is on record.
Good theory has the trait of growing fruitful predictions. As mentioned in previous chapters, one such prediction is a third flux tube between Triton and Neptune, to compliment the ancient Mars-Earth flux tube and the ongoing Io-Jupiter flux tube. A second prediction is that friction generated by tides will be recognized as the generator of planetary magnetic fields. Thirdly, the person who demonstrates this to the satisfaction of the scientific community will be a Planetary Catastrophist. (Mars was that generator of the Earth's field.)
Finally, any good theory bears certain characteristics. As mentioned above, one measure of any theory is its success in accurate predictions. A second is horizontal consistency with the facts of history. A third is a vertical consistency with the known laws of science. A fourth trait is simplicity of premise, such as one icy fragmentation simultaneously spraying two planets (not two icy fragmentations). A fifth trait must involve general fruitfulness of thought. With respect to these traits, the Mars-Earth Catastrophic Model provides crucial insights to old issues and new evidence with which the modern cosmologist must reckon.
NOTES
Richard Lattimore, Hesiod. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1959, p. 199, lines 141 - 145, Shield of Herakles. ↩︎
Op. cit., p. 12 (Introduction.) ↩︎
Op. cit, p. 109, lines 765 -767. ↩︎
Immanuel Velikovsky, Worlds in Collision. New York: Doubleday, 1950, p. 334-355. Many of the citations of ancient 360-day years are taken from Velikovsky's excellent 8th chapter. ↩︎
Op. cit., p. 337. ↩︎
Lattimore, op. cit., p. 175. Lines 857 - 865, Theogony. ↩︎
Op. cit., p. 164 - 165. Lines 695 - 700 and 705 - 712, Theogony. ↩︎
Op. cit., p. 194. Shield of Herakles. ↩︎
Op. cit., p. 197. Shield of Herakles. ↩︎
Op. cit., p. 197. Shield of Herakles. ↩︎
Op. cit., p. 200. Shield of Herakles. ↩︎
Op. cit., p. 202 - 203. Shield of Herakles. ↩︎
Op. cit., p. 217 - 218. Shield of Herakles. ↩︎
Immanuel Velikovsky, "Beyond the Mountains of Darkness: The Search for the 10 Lost Tribes." Kronos, VII-4, Summer 1982, pp. 40- 47. ↩︎
Reena L. Zeidman, "Deportations in the New Assyrian Empire." Catastrophism & Ancient History, Vol. VII, Part I, Jan. 1985, p. 25 ff. ↩︎
Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews. Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, Vol. IV., p. 268. "In the following night, which was the Passover night, when Hezekiah and the people began to sing the Hallel Psalms, the giant host was annihilated. The archangel Gabriel.. " ↩︎
James R. Newman, Harper's Encyclopedia of Science. New York, Harper & Row, 1967, p. 1079. ↩︎
John Baxter and Thomas Atkins, The Fire Came By: The Riddle of the Great Siberian Explosion. New York, Warner Books, 1976, p. 21 ff. ↩︎
Op. cit., p. 103."Knowing the basic parameters of the Tunguska explosion, its temperature can be calculated. It turns out that the temperature was several tens of millions of degrees." ↩︎
A. Hallam, Great Geological Controversies. Oxford, Oxford Univ. Press, 1983, p. 51. ↩︎
Charles Lyell is viewed by such authoritative sources as geological faculty members and encyclopedias as having authored the most important work ever written in geology in his Principles of Geology (1830-1833.) It revived the uniformitarian theories of Hutton and vigorously attacked the catastrophic school.
While Lyell's book has been widely acclaimed as the most influential of all geological literature, our opinion is that this work is not a great work, nor is it even a good work. The truth of the matter is that for geological circles, a truly great book has yet to be written. ↩︎
Ginzberg, op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 267 - 268. "With his vast army Sennacherib hastened onward, in accordance with the disclosure of the astrologers, who warned him that he would fail in his object of capturing Jerusalem, if he arrived there later than the day set by them. ↩︎
Op. cit., p 269. ↩︎
Op. cit., Vol. V., p. 363. The latter states that Jewish tradition considers Hamon, "noise" (comp. Is. 33.3), to be the name of the angel Gabriel. This is corroborated by Aggadat Shir 5, 39. According to Sanhedrin, the angel clapped together his wings, and the noise caused by it was so terrific that the Assyrians gave up their ghosts. Another view given in Sanhedrin is that the angel blew out the breath of the Assyrians. This means that he took their souls without injuring their bodies." ↩︎
Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings. Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1965, p. 209. Thiele's The Assyrian Eponym List begins with the year 892 B.C. and ends in 648 B.C. ↩︎
Ronald T. Merrill and Michael W. McElhinny, The Earth's Magnetic Field. New York, Academic Press, pages 153 and 198. "The reversal chronology for the past 170 Ma is now well determined from analyses of marine magnetic anomalies.... One of the features of the reversal time-scale for the past 170 Ma (Fig. 5.9) is that the character of the reversal pattern changes markedly with time." Merrill cites some geologists who suggest there were up to 320 paleomagnetic reversals. ↩︎
For further details, see Donald W. Patten and Samuel R. Windsor, "The Organization of the Solar System," Aeon. Part I July, 1988. Part II Sept. 1988. Portland. David Talbott, editor. ↩︎
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