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have discovered something
very interesting in the Book of Enoch. In the 18th chapter, he is describing a journey with
the angels, where they are flying in an angelic "spaceship"
southwards on the earth, and coming to a place where there are
pillars of heavenly fire.
To me, this sounds like they were flying over Africa (from the Middle East), and coming to the South Pole, and watching the Southern Lights.
Enoch describes how he is passing several mountains, which quite well fits in with the mountains in east and south Africa 1. He passes over where the "waters collect", which obviously is where the oceans gather south of Africa 2. Then when they come to the place further south, he sees a deep rift, or abyss 3, which would suggest that Antarctica at that time was free from ice. And we know that there are ancient maps that seem to depict Antarctica as an ice-free landmass 4.
Now, over this abyss, where the heavenly fire goes up and down like immense pillars, there are seven stars 5. This is of course not stars here on earth, but stars hovering over the South Pole horizon. A well known formation of seven stars is the Pleiades. Were the stars Enoch saw the Pleiades? Several things seems to confirm this. Firstly, the angels tells him that certain fallen angels were to be bound to those stars, because of their mingling with women on earth 6.
This story is very similar to myths in Greece and Mesopotamia. In the Greek myth, seven women were put in the starry heaven because of their mingling with the Titans, by which they were made pregnant 7. This is also a clear parallel to Genesis 6. And in Enoch, which describes this story in detail, we read, in the chapter after chapter 18, that the women who were seduced by the fallen angels, were to be imprisoned together with those angels, among those seven stars 8. These Greek women were called the Pleiades, and therebye we know that those seven stars in Enoch must be the Pleiades.
Then there is also a myth from Mesopotamia, where seven demons were bound as seven stars in the sky. Also here those stars are identified as the Pleiades 9. This star formation was very well-known to all the ancients, because of its beautiful appearance and for its role for agricultural dates.
Thus we can be quite sure that the stars Enoch saw on the horizon
above Antarctica, were the Pleiades.
...
OW, THIS OF COURSE
can be put to test with a modern astronomy program. At first I
wondered if those stars really can be viewed at the southern hemisphere
of the Earth. It's a totally different sky there. So was my interpretation
of the Enoch text true, or would an astronomy program debunk the
whole idea?
I opened the Stellarium, which is a free download program, and entered the South Pole as the viewing position. Then I changed the date to a thousand years back in time. And then I looked through the night sky, around the celestial globe - and found nothing. The Pleiades were not viewable from the South Pole a thousand years ago. And they are certainly not viewable from there today.
Then I put the date back to the time of Christ, and found nothing. The Pleiades were under the horizon all the year and all day and night, at that time.
Then I set the date to the time of Noah's Flood, about 2300 BC. Nothing. By that moment I thought my idea was destroyed. Clearly, I thought, one cannot see these stars on the other side of the earth. I should have understood that from the beginning.
But then I remembered, that Enoch lived a couple of hundred years before the flood. In fact more than 700 years before the flood, between 622 and 977 after the creation of Adam - which is about 3000 BC.
So, with my last hope, and with a great feeling of exitement, I put the date to 3000 BC, and started to rotate the scene. And there they were! The Pleiades could be seen at that time, just above the horizon, at the South Pole! Wow! and Hallelujah!
Because of the Precession of the Equinoxes, they had
a time-window in that age, when they were just visible above the
South Pole horizon, a certain time of the year. Since then they
have never been seen from such southerly positions on earth 10.
...
OW IS THIS TO BE
EXPLAINED? Was it just a very good guess of who ever that wrote
the supposed "pseud-epigraphical" book, supposedly around
the 3rd century BC (as they say about the book)? Note that it
is never stated that the stars are the Pleiades in Enoch, or that
the route goes over Africa. Why would a writer in that period
not mention such well-known names, if he was just putting together
a fantasy story?
Or was this journey real, and written down by someone who really lived five thousand years ago? And who obviously must have known, or seen, Africa and the Southern Ocean from above, and then the South Pole, with its pillars of light? How could anyone just guess all that, or put it together in a story, when all of it is perfectly accurate - geographically, astronomically, and in exactly the right timeframe?
I think this is a stunning evidence that the Book of Enoch really is written before the Great Flood, and that he really did travel with the angels of God in some sort of a flying vehicle, around the world.
- and also into outer space, which is depicted in other parts of the book.
"And I, Enoch, alone saw this vision,
the ends of all; and no man has seen them as I have seen them."
(Enoch 19:3)
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"And I proceeded towards the south; and it burns day and night there where seven hills of precious stones are, three towards the east, three towards the south. But of those towards the east, one of colored stone, one of pearls, and one of antimony; and those towards the south of red stone. But the middle one reached up to heaven, like the throne of God, of alabaster, and the summit of the throne of sapphire. And I saw a burning fire which was in all the hills." (Enoch 18:5b-8, Schodde's 1882 translation)
This is a description of pre-flood Africa, with active vulcanoes. The highest mountains in Africa are in the east, among them Kilimanjaro, which could be the middle mountain described as reaching up to heaven (that is, its top was covered with clouds), and with alabaster (snow) on its sides. As for the red mountains in the south: there actually are red mountains in South Africa, and even a nature reserve called Red Mountain Nature Reserve.
"And there I saw a place, beyond the great earth; there the waters collected." (Enoch 18:9)
South of Africa is where the great oceans float together, so this is an accurate description. The oceans are forming a circular current around Antarctica.
"The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), sometimes called the 'great ocean conveyor', connects the three great ocean basins, Atlantic, Indian and Pacific, allowing water, heat, salt and other properties to flow from one to the other."
"And I saw a great abyss in the earth, with columns of heavenly fire; and I saw among them columns of heavenly fire, which fall and are without number, either towards the height or towards the depth." (Enoch 18:10)
There are very deep lakes under the ice of Antarctica, for example Lake Vostok, which is 800 meters deep, so it is fully possible there was a deep rift or abyss at that time.
Antarctic Rifts | Antarctic Lakes
And even if it sounds fantastic, one cannot role out the theories of the earth having holes at its poles.
The "columns of heavenly fire" are of
course the Southern Lights. You couldn't get a better description
than that:
Here's a Youtube clip.
(A completely other possiblity is that there was a thinner layer
of ice at that time, and that a vulcano had melted a hole and
was extruding burning lava and fire though the opening.)
The well-known Map of Piri Reis depicts the north of Antarctica without ice, but it is not the only one. There are maps showing the whole continent as ice-free, and theories of Antarctica being ice-free about 4000 years ago:
The Orontius Fineus Map of 1531
These maps go back to the time of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) - which is interesting because it is the same time as when the Book (or rather books) of Enoch, began to do their second round in the world.
"And over that abyss I saw a place which had no firmament of heaven above it, and no foundation of earth beneath it, and no water above it, and no birds upon it; it was a void place. And there I saw a terrible thing: seven stars, like great burning mountains and like spirits, that petitioned me." (Enoch 18:11-12)
Here we have to consider that Enoch saw this from inside an angelic vehicle, perhaps with a zooming function on a screen, or in a window. So when he has seen those stars over the horizon, the view is then magnified, so that he can watch them at a close up, out there in the "void" space.
(If you don't believe that angels are using tools and devices, see for example Revelation 21:15-21.)
IF WE BY MODERN TECHNIQUE take an even closer look at the Pleiades, the accuracy of Enoch's description becomes even more striking.
In this close up, there are traces in the matter around the stars, that look just like what you would expect from some unhappy spirits floating around endlessly, bound by an invisible force. This is astonishing!
Or, you could describe it like Enoch: "And there I saw a terrible thing: seven stars, like great burning mountains and like spirits.."
And look here: They are even called "Ghostly Reflections in the Pleiades", in this Hubble Telescope presentation. Those scientists didn't know that Enoch wrote about spirits being bound to that place, and yet they are using a similar language to describe them!
Here is another astonishing image. Look at those traces! The scientists have a hard time explaining them.
"The angel said: 'This is the place of the consummation of heaven and earth; it is a prison for the stars of heaven, and for the host of heaven. And the stars that roll over the fire are they who have transgressed the command of God before their rising, because they did not come forth in their time. And he was enraged at them, and bound them till the time of the consummation of their sins in the year of the mystery." (Enoch 18:13-15) See also note 8.
The Pleiades are seen as only seven stars with the naked eye (or as six since ancient times). Yet Enoch says this place is a prison for the stars of heaven and for the host of heaven. This tells us there are more than just those seven stars bound together in that place. And the Pleiades actually is a star cluster, consisting of more than 1000 stars! And it is one of the closest clusters to Earth. So, again a surprisingly accurate description, no doubt not given by human knowledge.
To further strengthen the Enoch/Pleiades relation, compare Enoch 18:15, where he is speaking of the seven stars: "And he was enraged at them, and bound them..." with Job 38:31: "Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades...?"
"The Pleiades were seven mountain nymph daughters of the Titan Atlas. Their leader was Maia, the mother of Hermes by Zeus. Five of the others were also loved by gods, becoming ancestresses of various royal families including those of Troy and Sparta. When they were pursued by the lustful giant Orion, Zeus set them amongst the stars as the seven-starred constellation Pleiades."
"And Uriel said to me: 'Here
will stand the souls of those angels who have united themselves
with women, and having assumed many different forms, have contaminated
mankind, and have led them astray so that they brought offerings
to the demons as to gods, namely on the day when the great judgment,
on which they will be judged, shall be consummated.
And their women having led astray the angels of heaven, will
be like their friends." (Enoch 19:1-2)
Same story, just a different perspective.
"In the ancient Near East, the Pleiades were associated with the binding of the Sibettu demons of which there are seven. The Sibettu-Pleiades were designated sons of the underworld god Enmesarra, who, when defeated by Marduk, were bound and placed in jail. Enmesarra and his sons remain under permanent guard, and at night the demon sons are the Pleiades in the eastern sky, seven stars bound."
A Study of the Geography of 1 Enoch 17-19, by Kelley Coblentz Bautch, p 148.
AROUND 3000 BC was the last time it was possible to see the whole constellation of the Pleiades from the South Pole position. This is the exact time when Enoch lived on earth, and the only time in history when the Pleiades were hovering just above the horizon at the South Pole, just as he describes them.* (622 - 977 after the creation of Adam, which is 3382 - 3017 BC if we assume that the flood happened 2348 BC - the year set by most Bible scholars).
* And the only place in the world where this could have taken place, besides the North Pole area.
This is so accurate that you must wonder if God left this mark in the Book of Enoch, for us in our computer age, that we should know that this book is a work of the Almighty.
You
might also be interested in the new book
Enoch and the Pleiades - Astronomy Confirms the Book of Enoch
Chapters:
Enoch’s Journey to Antarctica – And
Beyond
The Location of Tartarus
The Dividing in Peleg’s Days
Gilgal Refaim – The Tomb of Azazel
The Key to the Abyss – And a Viking Age Parallel
The Art of Writing was Given by Angels
The Transitions Between the Ages, and the Book of Enoch
Update: Stop the Presses!
___
Available on Amazon.com:
Enoch and the Pleiades: Astronomy Confirms the
Book of Enoch
