Eclipses of the moon happen so regularly that even astrologers think of them as regular features of the heavens. However, the appearance of four “blood moons,” or eclipses where the moon seems to turn red, in an eighteen month period beginning early this morning have led to bizarre prophecies that this marks the end of the state of Israel or even the Second Coming of Jesus. According to Pastor John Hagee, who previously announced that Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for a planned gay pride rally in New Orleans, the blood moons fulfill the prophecy of Joel (2:31), reiterated in Acts 2:20: “The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.” There will be a solar eclipse on April 29. He isn’t sure that this is the Second Coming, but he believes a “world-changing” event is upon us and that it is intimately connected with the Jews. Michael Heiser has some informative commentary and links to YouTube videos explaining just why these claims are beyond silly, but I’d like to use this opportunity to share something I stumbled across in reviewing Seneca’s discussion of the end of the world in his Natural Questions (3.29). Embedded in that discussion is a fragment of Berosus on the end times that has something very interesting to say—though not about when the world will actually end. Some suppose that in the final catastrophe the earth, too, will be shaken, and through clefts in the ground will uncover sources of fresh rivers which will flow forth from their full source in larger volume. Berosus, the translator of [the records of] Belus, affirms that the whole issue is brought about by the course of the planets. So positive is he on the point that he assigns a definite date both for the conflagration and the deluge. All that the earth inherits will, he assures us, be consigned to flame when the planets, which now move in different orbits, all assemble in Cancer, so arranged in one row that a straight line may pass through their spheres. When the same gathering takes place in Capricorn, then we are in danger of the deluge. (trans. John Clark) To dispense with the date: Graham Hancock, in Fingerprints of the Gods (1995), asserted that Berosus was referring to the conjunction of five planets on May 5, 2000—which included Uranus and Neptune, planets unknown to Berosus. Hancock, who had read and endorsed Richard Noone’s 5/5/2000: Ice, the Ultimate Disaster (1982, rev. ed. 1997), calling it “brilliant,” followed Noone in suggesting that a pole shift might occur on that date. Obviously, it didn’t happen.
But did you catch the really interesting thing in the Berosus fragment? Berosus said that Babylonian astrology predicted both a flood and a fire that would end the earth when the stars were right. Where did we hear that before? Flavius Josephus reported that the Jews believed in “Adam’s prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water” (Antiquities 1.2.3, trans. William Whiston). Again, in the Latin Life of Adam and Eve: “Our Lord will bring upon your race the anger of his judgement, first by water, the second time by fire” (49.3, trans. R. H. Charles). And of course this follows with all of the derivatives I discussed in my post on the prophecy of Adam. Similarly, the Arab pyramid myth not only preserves the dual destruction but also relates it to astrology, albeit in the deep past: “After a thorough review, it was recognized that a deluge would occur after which would appear a fire out of the constellation Leo which will burn the world” (al-Maqrizi, Al-Khitat 1.40, my trans.). I don’t recall reading about Berosus’ discussion of Babylonian End Times beliefs in any of the literature on the prophecy of Adam, at least not in any significant depth, but it would seem to be highly relevant given the close connection between the Enochian literature and Mesopotamian mythology and astrology. In a quick literature review, I see a brief mention of the connection in a piece by J. Estlin Carpenter in a 1912 article called “Buddhist and Christian Parallels,” though it is not terribly developed. It is mentioned in a footnote to Guy Stroumsa’s Another Seed (1984), a book about Gnostics, though only by citation; Stroumsa prefers to discuss a parallel text in Plato’s Timaeus, where the Egyptians state that “There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes” (trans. Benjamin Jowett). The conclusion is that the fire and water dual destructions were a broad theme found across the ancient Near East. I am sure there must be other discussions, though I do not have any at my fingertips right now. It’s interesting, anyway. Heiser also has another important point that speaks toward the discussion Scott Wolter wants to have about the way peer review suppresses his truths. Heiser points out that Discussions in Egyptology, a peer-reviewed journal, published in 1995 an article debunking the so-called Orion Correlation Theory. This isn’t news except, as he notes, that same journal published Bauval’s original peer-reviewed article on the correlation in 1993, in issue 27: “Cheops’s Pyramid: A New Dating Using the Latest Astronomical Data.” This contradicts two of Wolter’s claims: First, it shows that alternative or fringe material, presented with sufficient academic rigor, can be published in a peer-reviewed journal, and, second, that peer-reviewed journals can and do publish articles that disagree with one another rather than publishing only articles that conform to a fixed dogma. So, if Robert Bauval can publish his Orion Correlation in a journal, what is the problem with Scott Wolter publishing his findings? I, for one, would welcome a thorough discussion of the solid facts that prove that Oreo cookies are secret Templar-Freemason goddess-worship communion wafers. I found his current published account, in Akhenaten to the Founding Fathers, to practically demand a more thorough analysis.
82 Comments
Gunn
4/15/2014 06:33:23 am
Yes, it is probably so that these four Blood Moons are to signify and usher in obvious change to Israel...as the near seasons change.
Reply
KIF
4/15/2014 06:47:33 am
There you go
Reply
Uncle Ron
4/15/2014 12:32:39 pm
...again.
Gary
4/16/2014 12:44:23 am
Gunn, why is there to be a miles high wall around the New Jerusalem?
Reply
usually few dare to outstrip kynge david's regal 1000 B.C splendour grand
4/16/2014 05:59:06 am
(jad) any wall bigger and tackier than
Sir Gunn
4/16/2014 11:43:32 am
Gary, here's everything you could possibly want to know about the wall, which seems to symbolize elements of the Garden of Eden and geometric exactitude. Think Templars.
Gary
4/16/2014 01:06:08 pm
Gunn, that was a big waste of my time. There was no answer to my question of why there would be a need for God to put a 1500 mile high wall around his ultimate city of peace. If you don't know the answer, be honest enough to just say so.
Gunn
4/16/2014 02:26:35 pm
Gary, why are you purposely being a fool? I gave you two reasons, both having to do with God's own design. If you don't like God's design, take it up Him, not me. Open your eyes and ears. Garden of Eden...geometric exactitude, maybe more etc. Don't play the fool here with me, just because may be an unbeliever. If you don't believe in God, you will never agree with anything I say of a spiritual nature. God Himself, in His Holy Word said: The fool says in his heart, there is no God. So take up your disagreements and disgruntlement and foolishness with your Maker.
Gary
4/17/2014 12:56:34 am
So, Gunn, are you saying that you don't believe in a literal New Jerusalem a described in Revelation? You believe, but only in the parts you want? The page you directed me to suggested that it was derivative of something in the Old Testament which just makes it more myth making rather than prophesy. Perhaps you don't believe in prophesy and I'm just assuming you do from your other statements.
Gunn
4/17/2014 04:10:47 am
Gary, the point you're missing is that God can make any number of heavens in any configuration He wants to. There's a lot of information we're not privy to, but there's also a lot of information provided if you choose to study the matter. If God liked certain things in the Old Testament and wants to include those things in the hereafter, that's fine with me. I have no argument with God using any degree of sacred geometry He chooses.
Gary
4/17/2014 05:37:01 am
"Gary, the point you're missing is that God can make any number of heavens in any configuration He wants to. "
Newton in the 1600s opined on a rebuilt Temple [jad]
4/19/2014 08:03:25 am
Galileo and Bishop Ussher are contemporaries,
Mandalore
4/15/2014 07:03:12 am
The only problem with this being a sign of the End Times is the fact that these events are not uncommon. There will, in fact, be nine such tetrads in the 21st century. The only thing special about this one is that all four will be visible from the US. A little conceited that it is the US eclipses that are indicative of the end of the world. Tetrads are a very normal part of our solar system, why should this one indicate anything special?
Reply
KIF
4/15/2014 07:21:15 am
Mat. 24:3
Reply
KIF
4/15/2014 11:35:04 am
I predict that Scott Wolter will never put things to the critical test, that he will permanently accept things without question
Reply
Mike M
4/15/2014 02:25:43 pm
In fact I believe there was something of a critical test to which Wolter submitted at least some of his work. Around 2003 or 2004 the Kensington Stone was taken to Sweden to be inspected by the foremost authorities in runic studies. This was to include an inspection by a team of geologists who would review claims about the weathering evidence on the Stone. One upshot of this episode was the publication of the Edward Larsson letters which showed that the rune forms on the Kensington Stone were familiar to working class nineteenth century Swedes. Some described these letters as the ‘smoking gun’ in the Kensington Stone debate making it clear that it was a fake. The geologists who examined the Runestone failed to endorse the claim that the Stone was medieval. That report is available online and has been mentioned previously on this blog. Perhaps some would describe this as a ‘peer review’, but not with a result favorable to Wolter’s forensic study of the Kensington Stone.
Reply
KIF
4/15/2014 02:40:58 pm
The inscription on the KRS contains a linguistic anachronism dating from the sixteenth century. Quoting Kenneth L. Feder:
what if the KRS's scribe starts a trend in the academia of the Latin 1300s?
4/16/2014 07:52:48 am
what if dusty old manuscripts once had half*latin/half*rune
Titus pullo
4/15/2014 01:27:53 pm
In about for billion years the sun will reach the iron limit in terms of fusion and the earth will be toast. Baring a major asteroid strike or getting zapped by a gamma ray burst from a supernova, the end of days is a long way off. Oh and gunn, I'm darn glad we have co2 in the atmosphere, without it and we would nit be alive.
Reply
Gunn
4/15/2014 03:58:49 pm
Titus pullo, we have too much co2 in the atmosphere, which is contributing to global warming via the greenhouse effect. The oceans are becoming acidic, besides rising due to ice melt. co2 falls in the category of many things where too much of a good thing becomes bad.
Reply
KIF
4/15/2014 11:55:21 pm
Hallelujah!
Titus pullo
4/16/2014 03:40:01 am
What percentage of the atmosphere is co2?
Gary
4/16/2014 05:25:29 am
The Christian fantasy of a future time when there will be no more Jews.
Gunn
4/16/2014 11:57:16 am
Gary, there will be plenty of Jews worshipping their Jewish Savior. God's intention is completed. Forget DNA. That which is of the Spirit is Spirit, and that which is of the flesh is flesh.
Gary
4/16/2014 01:12:55 pm
No, Gunn, you believe and hope that the prophecy will come true that most of the Jews will be dead and the minority of survivors converted to Christianity, which is not some sort of advance form of Judaism. The anti-Jewish attitudes are built into Christianity. So now they've gone from actually murdering Jews to just wishing for it.
Gunn
4/16/2014 02:14:29 pm
Gary, do you think it is possible for Christians to love Jews...keeping in mind that many DNA-established Jews are, in fact, Christians? You are confused by trying to separate Jews out from the crowd on the street. On the streets of Heaven, there will be humans of every race.
Gary
4/17/2014 01:02:55 am
Yes, Gunn, I believe that individual Christians live individual Jews that they know, but the idea that Christians love a whole group of people who have certain beliefs who the Christians hope and pray for the future day when most will be killed and a few converted to other beliefs is absurd.
KIF
4/17/2014 12:25:58 am
Hallelujah!
Reply
Rev. Phil Gotsch
4/15/2014 04:02:12 pm
So …
Reply
Only Me
4/15/2014 04:58:04 pm
That would be your "friend and colleague of 25 years". Jason just wants his findings to be published in a journal.
Reply
Matt Mc
4/16/2014 12:32:42 am
Here you go Phil
Reply
4/16/2014 12:42:37 am
Was this simply too ridiculous to show on TV, or part of the upcoming season? Or maybe Oreo didn't want to advertise on A+E Networks if they accuse them of being part of a conspiracy.
Matt Mc
4/16/2014 12:58:36 am
I don't know I found it a few weeks ago. I just assumed you saw it. It almost looks as they are making a cross promotion with the camera focused on the Nabisco label.
Knights Templar symbol used in Oreo Cookie
4/17/2014 12:47:29 am
Here it is, the video clip
Reply
John Lowe
4/15/2014 11:41:45 pm
Looks like we have good times ahead. Check out this new breakthrough.
Reply
KIF
4/16/2014 12:30:09 am
Let's hope this flying saucer technology exists at Area 51 (hinted at in the film "Independence Day"), then at least some can escape Armageddon
Reply
Matt Mc
4/16/2014 12:40:22 am
Yeah the seawater to fuel is a pretty cool thing. Still has a long way to go before it is commercially viable but the good news is that is all technology based, right now it takes about 23,000 gallons of seawater to make 1 gallon of fuel but the process will get better. A zero carbon fuel would be great and really help protect our environment.
Reply
Paul
4/16/2014 03:39:47 am
According to an article on the Navy news website they are capturing carbon dioxide and hydrogen to create a synthetic hydrocarbon fuel, a fossil fuel by another name.
Titus pullo
4/16/2014 03:46:10 am
This ridiculous obsession that so called fossil fuels are bad is a religion. Sorry there isn't any new energy sources which are more productive in terms of extraction, processing, distribution costs than oil or gas. And you are not going yo support 8 billion people on a wood based energy system. Like I said, this green view has zero to do with science and more to do with a utopian wish of a new garden of Eden where the few elites can pontificate and go to wine tastings avoid work but be artists or whatnot. Sorry the jungle is a bad place, real nature is brutal, civilization does not come cheap.
Matt Mc
4/16/2014 04:06:24 am
Its not that they are bad more than that they are limited and are causing us to create changes in the environment and not just global warming. Mining and other things are altering the very terrain of the landscape. I know for my generation and my children's generation this might not be a huge deal but who knows what will happen and how it will affect things 200 years from now.
John Lowe
4/16/2014 05:30:24 am
@ Titus,
all politics begins locally, ultimately...
4/16/2014 06:18:41 am
http://video.pbs.org/program/local-usa/ on the 21st of April,
Gunn
4/16/2014 12:27:47 pm
John Lowe, thanks for the reference. I, myself, have been recently propelled towards the consideration of producing hydrogen from water, which currently is being done in Ohio. Hydrogen--jet fuel--can be stored in tanks, similar to propane. Cars can and ARE running on fuel cells, on hydrogen. There are machines currently being produced to create hydrogen, which burns clean.
Matt Mc
4/16/2014 01:28:02 pm
See Gunn we can agree on something.
Matt McNutt, you got yourself a deal.
Varika
4/17/2014 07:00:45 am
You can't have a zero-carbon fuel while using combustion; it's part of the chemical definition OF combustion. I will also say that other fuels will have their problems, too. Should we move away from fossil fuel dependency? Probably, but not because "it's better for the environment," since it's really not, it's just a different set of environmental problems. We should move away from that dependency, in my opinion, because the renewability cycle on fossil fuels lies in the millions of years range, rather than the few months range that, say, ethanol offers, and because I happen to think that the fossil fuel industries (oil and coal) are having a terrible effect on our economy, so breaking them would mean a certain restructuring.
Matt Mc
4/17/2014 08:00:43 am
Everything on this Planet is allowed to have what it needs, Varika, including humans. Not sure what you ment by that.
B L
4/16/2014 03:12:11 am
The only reason Scott Wolter will not put forth his KRS work for peer review (I use the term "peer review" in its accepted definition rather than the Scott Wolter definition) is because he has no clue how to assemble and construct a submissible research paper. It's much easier to rail against the establishment than to do the actual work required for your ideas to have a chance at gaining acceptance.
Reply
j.a dickey
4/16/2014 05:11:06 am
^^^^^^^^this^^^^^^^^^
Reply
thah pseudo B L
4/16/2014 09:54:25 am
sorry about that. luv...
Rev. Phil Gotsch
4/16/2014 08:28:53 am
Scott Wolter's work on the Kensington Rune Stone is WELL documented and is out*there for any and all interested persons to read, discuss, critique, evaluate …
Reply
Matt Mc
4/16/2014 08:34:50 am
Can he put it on an Oreo cookie, or if he does send it can he include Oreo cookies
B L
4/16/2014 09:11:17 am
Rev., if he doesn't want to jump through the accepted hoops everyone else adheres to that's fine, but then he should shut up about the vast conspiracy crap.
B L
4/16/2014 09:38:16 am
even if you are only semi-serious, you really are close to a vintage
B L
4/16/2014 09:42:20 am
^^^ That post most definitely did not come from me.
KIF
4/16/2014 09:47:03 am
Scott Wolter's "work" on the KRS is wishful thinking based on faith
KIF
4/16/2014 09:56:59 am
we all can make neat & tidy leaps of faith or conjecture
KIF (the real KIF)
4/16/2014 11:00:05 am
Some people cannot tell the difference between the subjective and the objective, and are immune to reason and rationality
[jad]
4/16/2014 11:26:13 am
my objectivism is telling me that the internet is one vast turing test
KIF
4/16/2014 11:42:37 am
You think too much
Rev. Phil Gotsch
4/17/2014 04:23:39 am
"You will be assimilated … resistance is futile … "
B L
4/17/2014 06:39:00 am
Rev. Phil, the problem (as I see it) is that by bypassing the accepted peer review process Scott Wolter almost assures that his ideas will never be accepted.
Rev. Phil Gotsch
4/17/2014 08:18:34 am
Early on in his geological-minealogical studies of the Kensington Rune Stone, Scott presented his findings and (then tentative) conclusions at two neutral professional meetings -- the Minnesota Chapter of the American Institute of Professional Geologists, and then the Midwest Plains Archaeological Conference (I attended the latter as an invited guest) …
j.a.d
4/16/2014 05:13:42 am
whut 90% of the public CAN read
Reply
J.A.D
4/16/2014 05:15:11 am
SW=middlebrow
Reply
J.A.D
4/16/2014 05:30:20 am
popularizing in and of itzself ain't a bad thing.
Reply
newton himself expected something to happen by or on 2060 A.D in a book of Dan'L way...
4/16/2014 06:03:54 am
Sir Gunn's curious USA aspected "blood moons" are before the big
Reply
clearly clearly clearly
4/16/2014 06:07:12 am
we all will need to pump out all our basements
Reply
j.a.d
4/16/2014 06:14:03 am
sir i.newton opined on the biblical Book of Daniel
Reply
duckies...
4/16/2014 10:00:43 am
KIF + B L
Reply
Rev. Phil Gotsch
4/16/2014 10:47:58 am
Exsqueeze me … ???
Reply
B L
4/16/2014 10:50:11 am
On this we can agree, Rev. Phil Gotsch. :)
Rev. Phil Gotsch
4/16/2014 11:15:46 am
Excellent … !!!
Matt Mc
4/16/2014 01:30:36 pm
I wonder if Gertrude Stein mode is next.
Reply
Rev. Phil Gotsch
4/16/2014 02:17:20 pm
huh …
Matt Mc
4/17/2014 12:24:07 am
Just making comments on his talking and imitating Famous writers known for experimental or absurdist writing style.
Rev. Phil Gotsch
4/17/2014 07:51:41 am
I dunno …
[jad]
4/16/2014 11:20:29 am
James Joyce
Reply
[jad]
4/16/2014 11:23:47 am
dublin = ireland (admin level!)
Reply
[jad]
4/16/2014 11:31:05 am
KIF (our own one & only)
Reply
[jad]
4/16/2014 11:41:08 am
http://huespedes.cica.es/iberjoyce/MacCarthy.pdf
Reply
.
8/17/2014 04:25:30 pm
william joyce was hanged in 1946
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
Enter your email below to subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my latest projects, blog posts, and activities, and subscribe to Culture & Curiosities, my Substack newsletter.
Categories
All
Terms & ConditionsPlease read all applicable terms and conditions before posting a comment on this blog. Posting a comment constitutes your agreement to abide by the terms and conditions linked herein.
Archives
February 2025
|