Amos

Not just doubful but simply not true. The event recurs and should have occured to every Christian . . . if indeed he is a Christian according to this common method (which is not so common in the end but universal nonetheless).

[ April 16, 2002: Message edited by: Amos ]</p>

Amos

The earth stood still because on Easter Day the night did not follow the day and is why Easter is celebrated for two days. Easter is symbolic of the seventh day of creation which is the day on which the night did not follow the day. Notice that on the first 6 days of creation the night always followed the day but on the seventh day this does not happen (NAB). Notice also that in Rev. 22:5 "the night shall be no more" and the "the sea was no longer" (the [celestial] sea is the soul and the merging of heaven with earth removes the sea, just as Atlantis merged with the sea). Anatta is no soul because Maya (illusion or ego) is gone.

At Christmas the sun stopped and therefore Christmas is celebrated for two days, or, do you maybe think it is the other way around? The point here is that if the sun stopped at high noon (metaphorically) the night does not follow and if the earth stopped at midnight the day does not follow. Context should tell you the difference between these two.

Christmas is the dark night on which the day did not follow the night. Christmas is opposite to Easter in this sense just as Passover is opposite to Easter. By this I means that Passover led the Children of Israel into the promised land where sin was supposed to have stopped (matzah) but did not and that is why they died. Sin is sybolic for rising action and so they were sinners while in purgatory (sic) and hence they died despite their effort and symbolism. So Jesus had good reason the die for them because they do not know how to get a life while in the desert and so Jesus showed them the way.

Today Catholics erroneously associate Easter with Passover but Jn.6 makes it clear that the body and blood of Christ are not the same as manna because they will bring eternal life while in the promised land. Hence Easter is for Catholics only
and remains futuristic for Jews.

[ April 16, 2002: Message edited by: Amos ]</p>

Godless Dave

Here's the <a href="http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_083.html" target="_blank">straight dope</a>.

Biblical scholars don't even agree what century the story of Joshua was supposed to have taken place in, let alone the exact date. And I don't think enough is known about Incan calendars to sync them exactly with the modern western calendar (which of course is completely different from the one Joshua used - he certainly didn't number his years "B.C."!). I think the Chinese kept pretty consistent records (never having been totally obliterated in an invasion), but I'd be very surprised if we could take a day on an ancient Chinese calendar (the 6th day of the month of the Monkey in the year of the Dog during the rain of Chin IV) and match it up exactly with a particular day in the Roman or Jewish calendar.

KeithHarwood

The oldest historical event that can be dated to within a day is the Battle of Marathon, 17th September, 490 BCE.

David Gould

Thank you for your assistance in this matter. I have sent a polite email to my friend clarifying the matter. I await his response...

David Gould

He has responded by saying that he never claimed that it was to the exact day, merely in the same century... &lt;sigh&gt;

The scholar he cites is Zecharia Sitchin, who has apparantly dated the Exodus to the 15th century BCE rather than the traditional 14th century, matching the events described in the Bible to events described in Egyptian records in that period.

Has anyone heard of this guy and his evidence?

David Gould

I don't think people need bother with this one...

Zecharia Sitchin is a UFOlogist who says that humans were created by a race of aliens from a planet that turns up every 3,600 years between Mars and Jupiter...

However, if people have simple (not too technical) rebuttals to any of his claims, specifically to do with Exodus, then I would be glad to here them.

For example, are there Egyptian records that can be reconciled with the Exodus story, of whatever date?

Nihlo

Is that the same guy who believes that humans were a genetic experiment by aliens?

Marduk

"Is that the same guy who believes that humans were a genetic experiment by aliens?"
Yes indeed!
From Tablet 6 of the Enuma Elish:
“And communicated to him the plan that he was considering.
Let me put blood together, and make bones too.
Let me set up primeval man: Man shall be his name.
Let me create a primeval man.
The work of the gods shall be imposed (on him), and so they shall be at leisure.
Let me change the ways of the gods miraculously,
Let the one who started the war be given up to me,
And he shall bear the penalty for his crime, that you may dwell in peace.'
The Igigi, the great gods, answered him,
Their lord Lugal-dimmer-ankia, counsellor of the gods,
It was Qingu who started the war,
He who incited Tiamat and gathered an army!'
They bound him and held him in front of Ea,
Imposed the penalty on him and cut off his blood.
He created mankind from his blood,
Imposed the toil of the gods (on man) and released the gods from it.”

He also claims there is a Central American myth about a day when the sun did not rise, from this period. (I've read that many mesoamerican myths were made up to please the Spainiards who conquered them)


" For example, are there Egyptian records that can be reconciled with the Exodus story, of whatever date?"
maybe, sort of
<a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=51&t=000168" target="_blank">http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=51&t=000168</a>

[ April 17, 2002: Message edited by: marduck ]</p>

SmashingIdols

People of similar lattitude will have made the same astronomical observations as those in Palestine.

The three days of "no sun" or "three days in the grave" is quite simply explained by the three shortest days of the year - they occur at winter solstice, are almost exactly the same exact length, and were intrepreted to the ancients as the death of the sun.

The resurrection was the day immediately following this period, where the day became longer again, in other words "The new sun was born." For this reason nearly every religion of this lattitude selected December 25th as the birth of the Savior - Krishna, Jesus, Buddha, Horus, Mithras; all of them share the same birth date. All of these saviors are in peril however - because the night is still longer than the newborn day, which was seen as fragile. Not until spring would the day be triumphant, that is to say "longer" than the night.

This observation is doubly puncuated by the disappearance of the moon for three days at the end (or begining) of each cycle. The earliest calendars were lunar, not solar. The alignment of the lunar and solar calendar were paramount to the ancients, for good reason - planting time, and the correct placement of the season.

Incidentally, there is a gnostic account of this anamoly surviving in revelations, the woman seen as standing on the Moon, dressed in the Sun, with a crown of 12 stars. The adjusted calendar; based upon the lunar, fitted to the solar, and divided evenly to 12 months.

Survival of these beliefs is evident today, with the holiday of Easter. The specifications are clear, the First Sunday after the Full Moon occurring immediately after Passover. This fits precisely with what was said above. This is mythologized as Jesus' three days in the grave following passover, ie the synchronization of the lunar and solar calendar. Not to mention that this places the day as longer than the night! Stated as Jesus' ascendancy into heaven, the defeat of darkness by light.

The three days is merely a factual astronomical observation by people all over the world.