"Brit-Am Now"-929
Contents:
1. John Hulley:
Comets and Velikovsky
2. Sonja Durski:
Time Shift. Effects of an Earthquake?
3. Charlotte Mecklenburg: Hezekiah, the Sun Dial, and Calendar Change?
4. Pictures of the "Sun Dial" of King Hezekiah
5. King Hezekiah: The event
6. King Hezekiah and the Sun-dial: The Solar Calendar Implications
7. Sally: Likes Site Design
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1. John
Hulley:
Comets and Velikovsky
From: "J. Hulley" <jonhully@netvision.net.il>
In 1950 when Velikovsky's book came out on the theory of a dangerous
disturbance in the orbit of Mars, it ran smack up against the uniformitarian
view then prevailing that the heavens are perfectly orderly and orbits, etc.
change only gradually, if at all.
In the last half century however it has been generally recognized
that: the dinosaurs were wiped out by a collision with an asteroid; that
long before that there had been an even more devastating collision with
another asteroid; that our Moon probably originated in a collision of a planet
with
the Earth; that most galaxies have collided four or five times with other
galaxies (though our galaxy has not yet done so). Now we have this new
theory of a cometary disaster 12,900 years ago.
Scientists have not yet arrived at acceptance of the theory that the
orbits of one or more planets could recently have been different. But the
uniformitarian counter-argument that no such accidents could occur in the
heavens is getting pretty weak.
John
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2. Sonja
Durski:
Time Shift. Effects of an Earthquake?
Subject: From 360 to 365 days
Dear Yair,
The findings of Immanuel Velikovsky about the change of the calender confirm the
BRIT-AM believe about the Megalith path of the Ten Tribes.
Quote of Velikovsky:
"Then something happened. A series of catastrophes occurred that changed both
the axis and orbit of both the Earth and the moon as well as the length of the
ancient year. As a result of repeated disturbances, the Earth changed from an
orbit of 360 days to one of 365.3 days and the month changed from thirty days to
twenty-nine and one-half" (Velikovsky, pp. 338, 332, 342).
Quote from "Brit-Am Now 927", point 2:
"From our perspective, there are two aspects to the arguments of Velikovsky:
a. The change in the length of the year around 700 BCE.
b. What caused this change and the events accompanying it?.
We are interested in whether the change in the length of year (i.e. no.a) took
place."
Perhaps the great earthquake in the days of King Uzziah, King of Judah may have
caused the change of the calender from 360 to 356 days per year? Several time
ago I have read about this claim, but don't know where anymore. After the
earthquake took place, so the claim, the ancient nations had problems for
decades to count the year properly. My questions now are:
A: In what time BCE took this earthquake place?
B: Are there records of the ancient nations about this earthquake?
C: Are there also records of the difficulties of the nations to count the year
after this earthquake, because the seasons shifted when counting the year with
the common calender which was valid until then (360 days per year)?
If there exist evidence for this great earthquake being the cause of the shift,
it will be another strong argument for Brit-Am dating of the Megalith path.
Zec 14:5
And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the
mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before
the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah:
Amo 1:1
The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning
Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son
of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
H'Shem bless you
Sonja Durski
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3. Charlotte
Mecklenburg: Hezekiah, the Sun Dial, and Calendar Change?
Subject: Re: "Brit-Am Now"-927
Dear Yair,
That was very interesting information about the calendar change. When Hezekiah
received the sign of the sun going back ten steps, would this have occurred
about the time the calendar was changed? If so perhaps it was the cause of the
change in time. I can't remember how many years it was after the northern
kingdom was deported that Hezekiah was on the throne in Judah.
Charlotte Mecklenburg
Reply:
We also think the sun shadow going backward is a proof
concerning a change in the length of the year.
See:
Brit-Am Answers to Queries: Archaeology
http://www.britam.org/Questions/QuesArchaeology.html
Q6. What Can We Learn From Immanuel Velikovsky?
Q7. What is the Significance of King Hezekiah and the Sun Dial?
See also the notes below:
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4. Pictures of the
"Sun Dial" of King Hezekiah
Brit-Am Picture at:
http://www.britam.org/Questions/QuesArchaeology.html#Hezekiah
Also:
Three Very Interesting Pictures of Reconstructed "Step" type sun-dial at Neot
Kedumim
http://www.n-k.org.il/public/english/what/newsletter/2005_ye/ahaz.htm
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5. King Hezekiah:
The event
King Hezekiah reigned over Judah after most of the Ten Tribes had
been exiled
with a remnant being taken away during his reign.
The conventional dates given for the reign of King Hezekiah
are 726-697 BCE.
The Bible tells us how King Hezekiah was sick, prayed and was promised an extra
fifteen years of life.
As a sign that the Almighty would intervene to lengthen his life the shadow on
the "ma-alot" (steps
translated as "sun dial") went backwards ten degrees.
2-Kings 20:8-11
Isaiah 38:4-9
http://britam.org/isaiah/chap-thirty-eight.html
[Isaiah 38:4] THEN CAME THE WORD OF THE LORD TO ISAIAH, SAYING,
[Isaiah 38:5] GO, AND SAY TO HEZEKIAH, THUS SAITH THE LORD, THE GOD OF DAVID
THY FATHER, I HAVE HEARD THY PRAYER, I HAVE SEEN THY TEARS: BEHOLD, I WILL ADD
UNTO THY DAYS FIFTEEN YEARS.
[Isaiah 38:6] AND I WILL DELIVER THEE AND THIS CITY OUT OF THE HAND OF THE KING
OF ASSYRIA: AND I WILL DEFEND THIS CITY.
[Isaiah 38:7] AND THIS SHALL BE A SIGN UNTO THEE FROM THE LORD, THAT THE LORD
WILL DO THIS THING THAT HE HATH SPOKEN;
[Isaiah 38:8] BEHOLD, I WILL BRING AGAIN THE SHADOW OF THE DEGREES, WHICH IS
GONE DOWN IN THE SUN DIAL OF AHAZ, TEN DEGREES BACKWARD. SO THE SUN RETURNED TEN
DEGREES, BY WHICH DEGREES IT WAS GONE DOWN.
From: "John Geiger"
solar aberrations and late 8th century BC history
<<Thank you for posting your 16 Jun 2001 Orientalia 70:1 contribution
including the URL for Jeremy Goldberg's Biblica 80 (1999) 360-390 extensive
article: Two Assyrian Campaigns Against Hezekiah and Later Eigth Century
Biblical Chronology. I backed into this area several years ago pursuing
what could have made the shadows go backward for Hezekiah as reported in 2
Kings 20:8-11 and 2 Chronicles 32:24 and the possibility that it was related
to the third event Herodotus reported in book 2-142 wherein the Egyptian
priests had told him that in their history of human kings that the sun had
risen in the east twice and in the west twice.
<<A friend of mine in a book proposed a mechanism for this almost
incredible Herodotus reference which made sense and could explain the
backward moving shadow of Hezekiah and contended he that it occured in 701
BC and that this was the fifteenth reignal year of Hezekiah.
Quoting from his book:
"Assyro-Babylonian records recall that during the reign of Sargon
(722-705) there came into being a new world order, and then another one in
the days of Sennacherib (705-681) Winchler, Forschungen, III:300."
<<And evidently from the TRACTATE SANHEDRIN (96a) on the day King
Ahaz of Judah was buried in 714BC, the day was quickened.
This friend also thinks there was another change to the sun's
passage in 687 BC which he also links to the final battle of Troy because of
a quote in the Odyssey of Homer which seems to indicate that Odysseus was
confussed by an unpredictable sun. Quoting from THE ODYSSEY OF HOMER
(Harvard Classics vol 22 p 141 1909)
"Hear my words, my fellows, despite your evil case. My friends, lo,
now we know not where is the place of darkness or of dawning, nor where the
Sun, that gives light to men, goes beneath the earth, nor where he (it)
rises; therefore let us advise us speedily if any counsel yet may be: as for
me, I deem there is none."
John Geiger, Oklahoma, USA
And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten
degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.
2 Kings 20:11
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6. King Hezekiah
and the Sun-dial: The Solar Calendar Implications
I understand that the sun comes up (and begins to cast a long
shadow) and goes down.
It comes up in the morning casts a long shadow and as it keeps coming up the
shadow gets shorter. It reaches a peak at noon where it casts little or no
shadow and then goes steadily down casting a longer shadow from minute to
minute.
The longest shadows are cast at dawn or towards evening.
We also have the following tradition of a "rectification'" with the sun fist
sppeding up forwards then going "backwards".
This tradition is worth noting, but we can disregard it for the moment:
The Babylonian Talmud; Sanhedrin 96a
R. Johanan says:
<<The day on which Ahaz died consisted of but two hours; and when Hezekiah
sickened and recovered, the Holy One, blessed be He, restored those ten hours,
as it is written, Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is
gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten
degrees, by which degrees it was gone down. Thereupon he [Merodach-Baladan]
inquired of them [his courtiers], 'What is this?' They replied, 'Hezekiah has
sickened and recovered.' 'there is such a [great] man,' exclaimed he, 'and shall
I not send him a greeting!'
Brit-Am Understanding:
For the moment we are disregarding the tradition concerning Ahaz
and concentrating only on Hezekiah and the implications of the degrees going
backwards.
I understand that the day from dawn to dusk was divided into 12.
This is regardless of shadow lengthening or shortening.
When the tenth hour arrived it went back to being dawn,
e.g. if the sun rises at 0600 and sets at 1800, the time was 1400
but the dial went backwards and showed it as being 0600.
Others [i.e. not us] seem to say that the day was divided into 24 units (of ca.
1/2 hour each),
the sun had passed noon and reached the equivalent 1700 (10/24ths) and went
back to
1200 (noon).
The usual rational explanation for this event in the time of King Hezekiah is
some time of eclipse
but this does not really convince anybody.
At all events it is consistent with some sudden event that resulted in the solar
year being lengthened, i.e. time was added onto it.
according to our understanding 10/24 ths of a day [Others would say it was only
5/24ths] were added onto that day, i.e. almost 42 per cent.
If the year was previously 360 and then became ca.365.25
or for simplicity say 366 it would mean it was lengthened by 4 per cent.
or by one fortieth.
There may be something of significance to note here,
or there may not.
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7. Sally: Likes
Site Design
Subject: Re: "Brit-Am Now"-928
Shalom Yair, regarding the rather odd complaint about your site design, I happen
to like the site design. It's easy to navigate, and pleasing to the eye ....
maybe the reason is my 'mind' design is very poor too?!?! You just gotta laugh
sometimes. Shalom and keep up the good work. Sally