Comet Halley of A.D. 66 and the Beast that Rises Out of the Sea (Revelation Ch. 13) (original) (raw)
Related papers
2012
Here I outline a material-theoretic framework for an archaeoastronomical study of the New Testament Book of Revelation. I begin with basic principles of materiality theory. I then argue that carefully observed celestial objects, as part of the material landscape, are on par with human-used structures. Thus, I develop a deeper notion of the “astral landscape.” Within this framework, I fit the basic Annaliste paradigm of three levels of space-time, and propose what I call a “cognitive-heuristic approach” to the study of this cognitive-material structure. Finally, employing data from astronomical software and the iconography of Roman coins, I show that this cognitive-heuristic approach allows an understanding of the New Testament Book of Revelation as a case of ancient prophetic sky reading.
Dy-Liacco_Comets Cults and Coins_2012_Hukay
The first part of this article draws on materiality theory, Annales school concepts, and the iconography of ancient Roman coins to provide the theoretical archaeological framework for what follows. The second part uses computed astronomical charts and draws on ancient writers to connect Caesar's comet of 44 BCE to the image of the "great red dragon" in Revelation 12:3; and to connect the path of Comet Halley of 66 CE through the constellations Aquarius (located in the region of the ancient sky known as the celestial "sea"), Capricornus , Virgo, Crater, and Hydra, to the image of the "beast rising out of the sea" in Revelation 13:1, to the image of the earth beast in Revelation 13:11 that has "two horns, like a ram" but that speaks like "dragon", and to the image of the"great harlot" who sits on the sea beast and in whose hand is a "cup" in Revelation 17:1-4. The result is a positive dating of these texts in the New Testament Book of Revelation to the years 66-70 CE of the Jewish War.
"A GREAT STAR FALLS"-COMETOLOGY IN SYRIAC LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
2023
The Syriac language has, among all the Aramaic varieties, by far the largest number of terms for 'comet' or 'meteor'. Is there a simple explanation for this fact? The systematic investigation of Syriac technical terminology in the field of astral sciences addresses this question. Such a study also impacts three issues relevant to Semitic studies: (1) The question of the sources and languages the Syriac writers were able to access; (2) the linguistic strategies for the creation of neologisms; (3) the existence of a common Aramaic technical koiné (standard literary Aramaic). This article sets forth the terms for comets and meteors in Syriac as a representative selection of astral terminology, and investigates their value for the questions mentioned above. The two pillars of this investigation are the comparison of the literary genres in which this terminology surfaces with those of other Near Eastern literatures in which this terminology surfaces, and the linguistic analysis of these terms in Syriac.
Literature extract of Iurii Mosenkis: Historicity of the Bible astronomically decoded
2021
Contents: 1. SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE: 2 1.1 How to resolve contradictions 2 1.2 Why astronomy might be concealed in the Bible 3 1.3 Some key terms to understand of following text 3 2. DECIPHERING BIBLICAL CALENDARS 4 2.1 Three sons of Noah and three seasons of the year 4 2.2 Twelve sons of Jacob and the zodiac 4 2. THE CREATION OF THE WORLD AND THE EXPULSION FROM THE PARADISE: 5 When did it occur and what does it mean? 5 3.1 Primordial Heaven 5 3.2 What happened on the 6th of October 3760 BCE? 5 3.3 What might Eden symbolize? 6 3.4 The meaning of Cain-Abel story 7 3. THE GLOBAL FLOOD AND THE BABEL TOWER: 7 Where and when were they? 7 4.1 The centuries-old enigma of the Great Deluge 7 4.2 The Babel Tower is found 8 5. THE AGE AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE PATRIARCHS: 9 Precise astronomy, synchronization with neighbors, and the Santorini volcano eruption 9 5.1 Why did the Patriarchs live so long? 9 5.2 Contemporaries of Patriarchs in the neighboring 9 5.3 Seven years of famine after the Santorini eruption 400 years before the Exodus 10 6. REALITY OF THE EXODUS: 10 From the Plagues of Egypt to the capture of Jericho 10 6.1 The pharaoh of the oppression and the pharaoh of the Exodus 10 6.2 The Egyptian evidence of Moses? 11 6.3 The Biblical evidence of Merneptah? 11 6.4 Forty years from the Egyptian darkness to the eclipse of lunar Jericho: a chronological key ……………………………………………………………………………..…….…………. 11 7. JUDGES, KINGS, AND PROPHETS 12 The standing sun, the fiery chariot, the sky circles 12 7.1 When the sun and the moon stood and stones were falling from the heaven 12 7.2 Samson the hero among other Judges 12 7.3 Precise chronology of the first kings Saul, David, and Solomon 12 7.4 The celestial fiery chariot of Elias 13 7.5 Ezekiel the astronomer, a predecessor of Pythagoras 13 7.6. Daniel’s astronomy 14 8. THE CELESTIAL SIGNS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 14 8.1 Sky symbols of Jesus Christ and the Apostles 14 8.2 Heavenly Signs in the Book of Revelation: 15 9. APOCRYPHICAL BOOKS OF ENOCH: 16 Manuals of Megalithic Astronomy 16 9.1 What are these books? 16 9.2 Megalithic Observatory 17 9.3 1 Enoch: The Length of Day and Latitude 17 9.4 2 Enoch: Shift of the Sunrise Point and Latitude 18 9.5 The Seasonal Stars 19 9.6 The circumpolar Constellations 19
Hermann Gunkel considered Revelation 12 to contain an originally Babylonian myth about the birth of a hero, who would grow up and later kill the dragon, being the primordial water monster. This myth is found nowhere in the Babylonian or Jewish material and Gunkel’s theory has not gained acceptance. At the same time, Revelation 12 is used in churches as a reference to the birth of Christ. Revelation 12 is about two scenes in the sky. In this respect, there is a possible connection between this story and the story about the magi visiting Christ in Bethlehem, both being about births and events in the sky. Gunkel did not use the Babylonian divination manual, Enuma Anu Enlil, when he discussed Revelation 12. If he had done so, he would have found more connections between Revelation 12 and Babylonia. He would also have found connections between the horsemen of Revelation 6 and Babylonia. In this essay, the possible connections between Babylonian divination and Revelation 6 and 12 and the Star of Bethlehem are examined. It is argued that the connection Gunkel sought for is not an ancient myth, but could be a direct link between the early Christians and at least one magi, who saw events in the night sky 3 BC and 2 BC, and interpreted them according to Enuma Anu Enlil. This interpretation is perhaps the background to the Star of Bethlehem and has reached us through Revelation 12.
Beached Whales and Priests of God: Kepler and the Cometary Spirit of 1607
Early Science and Medicine, 2012
This essay examines the cometary theory of Johannes Kepler and his claim that an “ethereal spirit” could lead a comet to appear at a providential place and time. In his account of the comet of 1607, Kepler suggested that a spirit served as a navigational principle that steered the comet on a particular course. I argue that this principle was an extension of Kepler’s celestial physics and part of his larger conception of causes at work in the heavens. I also explore the critical response Kepler received from the theological faculty at the University of Leipzig, where he planned to publish his account. I explain why Kepler turned to natural philosophy to resolve the opposition of his religious authorities and how this was received as a foreign incursion on Sacred Scripture. In my final analysis, I discuss whether Kepler ultimately abandoned spiritual principles in his cometary theory and arrived at a system of celestial physics that was fully free of animistic ideas.
Seeing the God Image, Space, Performance, and Vision in the Religion of the Roman Empire, 2018
The problematic of this volume revolves around ancient visualizations of tran- scendent figures – how such images were perceived, how humans made sense of them, how these functioned in social and specifically religious contexts, and how these systems of meaning developed as they moved through time and space. My chapter makes the argument that in order to interpret such ethereal experienc- es we must pay attention to the material conditions that always surround and inform visualization. I begin with Jaś Elsner’s proposal regarding two forms of ancient viewing and supplement this with Charles Long’s attention to materiali- ty. I then use this hybrid approach to analyze two bodies of data – the Temple of the Sebastoi at Ephesos and an apocalyptic vision that is now part of the Book of Revelation. My goal is to suggest that every vision of the divine, every tran- scendent sighting, also has an accumulation of objects that help us see societal taxonomies, hierarchies, and spaces that would otherwise have eluded us.