Before we begin today, there is a bit of news about America Unearthed. When an avalanche claimed the lives of more than a dozen people climbing on Mount Everest this week, Committee Films was in the process of shooting segments on the mountain for a History Channel documentary as well as America Unearthed, according to producer Maria Awes, whose husband was among the climbers. He was at 12,500 feet when the avalanche hit. All of the Committee Films production team members as well as their Sherpa guides were unharmed and were able to descend. Since today is Easter I thought it might be an interesting time to take a look at a strange bit of information I found that by rights ought to play into fringe history’s Jesus conspiracy theories and yet somehow does not. As I’m sure you’ll recall, I’ve been investigating the ancient texts related to the so-called Pillars of Wisdom best known from Flavius Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews (1.69-71) but which appear nearly everywhere in ancient literature. I came across a reference to these pillars being mentioned in pseudo-Manetho’s Apotelesmatica, an imperial-era forgery in six books. Naturally, most of the writers who mention this know the reference only secondhand, making it a huge pain to try to find the actual text, which was cited to Book V and “p. 93” of the 1832 publication of the Greek text. Of course that edition isn’t online, and the more recent editions have a bizarre dual book numbering system, making it hard to tell which Book 5 was meant. Anyway, I finally found it, and it was rather useless, merely alluding to the “mysterious stelae” of Hermes at 5.2. This seems to be the same as the “stelae set up in the Seriadic land” in another contemporary pseudo-Manetho forgery, the Book of Sothis (Syncellus, Chronicon 72), as well as the “secret stelae” of Hermes in the Kore Kosmou. I almost missed the Syncellus reference because the standard English translation of the Manetho fragments by Waddell inexplicably translates the Greek stelai (literally: blocks of stone) as inscriptions. Similarly, the Kore Kosmou’s standard English translation by Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland gives the “secret stelae” as “hidden tables,” which isn’t very accurate. Anyway, in researching this and reaching what I hope is the bottom of the barrel on such references, I came across a footnote in a book that asks readers to compare this to Cainan’s discovery of antediluvian stelae in Jubilees 8:3. Jubilees is a non-canonical book (outside of Ethiopia, anyway) that was for a long time venerated by Christians and Jews alike. I wasn’t familiar with that passage, but I’ll be darned if it doesn’t say something interesting: And he [Cainan] found a writing which former (generations) had carved on the rock, and he read what was thereon, and he transcribed it and sinned owing to it; for it contained the teaching of the Watchers in accordance with which they used to observe the omens of the sun and moon and stars in all the signs of heaven. (trans. R. H. Charles) And there’s the missing link I had been looking for that proves that at least some ancient Jews believed that the Watchers had set up the Pillars of Wisdom otherwise attributed to Seth’s children (in Josephus) or to Hermes or to Enoch. (The Ethiopian Jubilees actually splits the difference between Enoch and Josephus and asserts that the Watchers and the children of Seth are the same.) It further is a fairly clear reflection of the Babylonian belief that Xisuthrus had preserved the antediluvian wisdom of the apkallu sages on tablets, which were recovered after the Flood (Syncellus, Chronicon 28; Eusebius, Chronicon 7), just as Cainan finds the rock with the Watchers’ teachings from before the Flood.
So what does this have to do with Jesus? The fellow named Cainan, son of Arphaxad, appears only once in the Bible, in Luke 3:36, where he is given as one of the ancestors of Joseph, the husband of Mary, mother of Jesus. For all the Jesus conspiracies involving Christ receiving instruction from Buddhists in India (from the Victorian forgery, the Life of St. Issa), or from the priests of Amun in Egypt, I’ve never heard one involving Jesus being the recipient of the ancient wisdom of the Watchers, who are, of course, space aliens according to ancient astronaut theorists. And yet here we have an actual textual connection between the Watchers and Jesus, especially notable since Jubilees was written at least 200 years before the Gospel of Luke. This makes it all the more remarkable that ancient astronaut theorists continue to exempt Jesus from their speculations.
26 Comments
Clay
4/20/2014 07:28:54 am
Jesus himself is said to have referred to omens of the sun, moon, stars and all the signs of heaven:
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4/20/2014 07:34:45 am
And where did he get them from? The aliens! We now have the proof!
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Uncle Ron
4/20/2014 09:02:08 am
Because it's hard work.
KIF
4/20/2014 11:01:10 am
Aren't portions of the Gospel of Matthew derived from I Enoch
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Damien
4/20/2014 12:11:02 pm
Yes, parts of Matthew originate from the Book of Enoch.
Cyril of Narnia
4/20/2014 12:19:09 pm
R. H. Charles says that "the influence of I Enoch on the New Testament has been greater than that of all the other apocryphal and pseudepigraphical books put together"; and he gives a formidable list of passages in the New Testament which "either in phraseology or idea directly depend on, or are illustrative of, passages in I Enoch", as well as a further list showing that various doctrines in I Enoch had "an ubdoubted share in molding the corresponding New Testament doctrines."
Hiram Anvil
4/20/2014 12:38:25 pm
The Matthew Cook Manuscript 4/20/2014 12:55:42 pm
This section of the Cooke MS. is derived almost verbatim from the Polychronicon of Ranulf Higden (2.18), itself quoting Josephus, with influence from Syncellus' fragments of 1 Enoch and the Latin Life of Adam and Eve.
Carol Ranes
7/13/2015 06:24:16 am
Great research I am reading book of Jasher 2 and it has Cainan as son of Seth and wise king of whole earth writing upon tablets. Does word, son, also mean grandson, great grandson like reference to grandson Canaan in Genisis 9 when Noah got drunk? I am confused but love your research!
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KIF
4/20/2014 08:26:54 am
"Babylonian belief that Xisuthrus had preserved the antediluvian wisdom of the apkallu sages on tablets, which were recovered after the Flood"
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Harry
4/20/2014 01:06:46 pm
There is good evidence that both the Creation and Flood stories in Genesis are based on Babylonian myth. There is also a hypothesis that the Book of Esther, despite being set late in Biblical history, is based on Babylonian myth (in this hypothesis, Esther = Ishtar, Mordechai = Marduk).
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KIF
4/20/2014 08:58:18 pm
But it's a big mistake to believe is "straight copying" - religious stories were borrowed from each other but they were altered and adapted to fit into the various different religious/sociological contexts of the relevant countries. The myth of Noah was borrowed from the myths of Utnapishtim/Ziusudra but Noah definitely was not Utnapishtim/Ziusudra - just like Jesus Christ was not Mithras
Harry
4/20/2014 11:31:29 pm
Absolutely correct.
[jad]
4/20/2014 11:14:17 am
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book of proverbs... wisdom's house hath seven pillars
4/20/2014 11:30:41 am
http://www.bridgetothebible.com/Bible%20Lists/7%20Pillars%20of%20Wisdom.htm
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http://biblehub.com/proverbs/9-1.htm
4/20/2014 11:37:18 am
http://biblehub.com/proverbs/9-1.htm
KIF
4/20/2014 12:06:37 pm
Hello, what's this, Life of Brian time again?
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(jad)
4/21/2014 09:29:13 am
Islam has four or five Pillars of Wisdom.
SeleukosNicator10
4/20/2014 03:07:14 pm
Ok I'm a little confused by something and as I don't have the original Greek text maybe you can clear this up. How on earth did they mistranslate στήλαι (stelai) a first declension feminine noun with επιγράφω, an ω conjugation verb? I mean the difference between those two words are pretty obvious for anybody who knows anything about ancient Greek. I can't help it but think that I'm missing context here and that's were the confusion lies.
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Mandalore
4/20/2014 03:54:19 pm
Stelae are upright stones with inscriptions on them. So the translator thought that the important aspect was the idea of the inscription on the stone and did not actually specify the entire context of the original Greek. In addition, stelai in Greek can rarely specifically refer to writings or agreements without actually being on a stone, Lys. 30.21; Ar. Av. 1051.
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4/20/2014 11:40:11 pm
Exactly. He was trying to emphasize the inscriptions (which, after all, imply they are inscribed on something, namely a rock) because that was what was important for his purpose; it's a reason why consulting the original is so important.
Dave Lewis
4/20/2014 05:32:07 pm
Here is an excerpt from Louis Ginsberg, Legends of the Jews (2003 by The Jewish Publication Society):
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Dave Lewis
4/20/2014 05:35:47 pm
Here is the text of footnote 53 which details the sources for this story. Some of the text was in Hebrew which I was not able to copy
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KIF
4/20/2014 10:00:09 pm
That's taken from Josephus
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KIF
4/20/2014 10:01:54 pm
The story of Seth being mixed-up with knowledge obtained from the Watchers was linked with sin (as in Adam taking the forbidden fruit)
Kathy hatley
7/22/2016 02:05:05 pm
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