Meridian Magazine :: Science and Religion ::Astronomical Witnesses of the Great Flood

Share the article on this page with a friend.
Click here.

by John P. Pratt

A precise date for Noah's Deluge is indicated by sacred astronomical calendars and confirmed by witnesses of Enoch, his father Jared, and even the Savior.

In last month's article, "Venus and the Beginning of Mortality," we saw that a precise date for the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden was indicated by a holy day alignment between the Venus calendar and the Hebrew calendar, which was verified by several other witnesses.^[1] The day Sun 9 Apr 4001 B.C. on our calendar was Passover on the Hebrew calendar and 1 Creation on the Venus calendar. That establishes the beginning date from which we can measure all of the chronology provided by the Lord for us in the Book of Genesis. This month's article will proceed using that same method to calculate dates for the birth and translation of the prophet Enoch, and for the Great Deluge of Noah. The Lord's method of using multiple witnesses will again be recognized in synchronisms with events from the life of Enoch's father Jared, as well as with the date of the baptism of Jesus Christ. These multiple testimonies should leave no doubt about the correctness of the dates proposed.

Noah building the ark at about age 600.

Enoch

The part of Genesis which most of us skip over are those long lists of "begats." Those records do, however, provide the key to the chronology of the history of the human race. The usual method for calculating dates based on those genealogies is simply to add up the ages of fathers at the births of their sons.^[2] That approach is fine for an approximation, but with the methods discussed in these articles, the exact dates of the births of some of those patriarchs are indicated on sacred astronomical calendars. Those dates may differ by a year or so from the approximation because of how the fractional parts of the years add up.

An important point to consider is that only a few of the patriarchs were born on a holy day on the Venus calendar, even though it appears at this time that all of them were born on Hebrew calendar holy days. There are indications of calendars for each of the planets (except Pluto), and many of those patriarchs may have been born on yet undiscovered holy days on other planetary calendars. Because it is only the Venus and Mercury calendars which are understood at the present time, clues will be sought to discover which patriarchs may have been born on holy days on the Venus calendar.

The Prophet Joseph Smith provided a big clue in the case of Enoch. In his inspired translation of the Bible, he made the only change in the length of the life of any patriarch in Genesis when he corrected Enoch's age from 365 years to be 430 years (Moses 8:1, compare Gen. 5:23). It turns out that 430 years is a period in which the Venus and Hebrew calendars may possibly have holy days mark both the beginning and end of the interval.^[3] Since such pairs of alignments are rare, if one can be found in the years indicated for Enoch, then it is evidence that we have found the correct dates.

Enoch's Birth Date

The search for Enoch's dates was productive indeed. The day indicated for his birthday is Fri 19 Sep 3378 B.C. pm* (where pm* means after 6 p.m.). That date is about a year after the date indicated by simply adding up the ages of the patriarchs given in Genesis, ^[4] and hence well within the range of possible dates. That evening began the Feast of Tabernacles (15 Tishri) on the Hebrew calendar sabbath day (Saturday). It was also the day 1 Eagle on the Native American Sacred Round.^[5] Both of these dates align with Adam because, as we saw last month, he apparently first breathed the breath of life on the day Sat 17 Oct 4070 B.C., which was also 1 Eagle and 15 Tishri. Enoch's proposed birth date was also most likely the Autumn Equinox (0 Autumn) on the Enoch calendar.^[6] On the Venus calendar, the day was 1 Lord, the day beginning the last 13 days of the Venus cycle, and which symbolizes becoming one with God.^[7] That seems especially appropriate for Enoch, who would be the first to be translated and even have his entire city taken up into heaven (Moses 7:69). Thus, the day was a holy day on four different sacred calendars.

Enoch's Translation

Having a proposed date for Enoch's birth and the clue that the 430-year length of his life might have been a Venus cycle, we can immediately find the day indicated for his translation. It is either Wed 12 Oct 2948 B.C. or the day following, being the days 0 Lord and 1 Lord on the Venus calendar. The first choice would mark the exact completion of 269 Venus cycles. We saw a similar symbolism with Adam, whose first day in the mortal world was on the first day of the Venus cycle (1 Creation), and who died on the last day (0 Creation). But in the case of Enoch, the following day 1 Lord would also seem appropriate, being the day on which to become one with God.

Do we have other witnesses that either of these days is correct? In particular, was either of those two days also holy on other sacred calendars? The proposed birthday was sacred on four calendars and one would expect that Enoch's translation date would be no less important. Here we are not disappointed because Wed 12 Oct 2948 B.C. was also a holy day on four sacred calendars. First, it was 13 Reed on the Sacred Round. As currently understood, Reed symbolizes the perfection of body achieved after resurrection,^[8] and 13 also symbolizes completeness. The day was 0 Resurrection on the Mercury calendar, a second witness of that symbolism. And finally, on the Hebrew calendar, the day was 17 Heshvan, a minor holy day, which will now be discussed. Thus both the birth and translation dates of Enoch form a matched set of sacred dates, which is so improbable to have occurred by chance that it constitutes a strong witness that we have these two dates correct. Now let us turn to the date of the Great Deluge.

The Flood

**The day the dove returned with the olive branch was recorded.**

It is easy to look for a date for the Great Deluge because not only is an approximate year given in the Bible, but also the very day on which the Flood began. In fact, one of the most surprising aspects of the account of the Flood is that so many precise dates are included. Until that point in Genesis, not one date is given to the very day, but only the ages of the patriarchs. Then suddenly we are told the day on which the ark was loaded, the day the flood began when the fountains of the deep erupted, the day the rain stopped, the day the water crested, the day the ark rested, the day the first mountain top was visible, the days on which Noah sent various birds out to retrieve evidence of the water abating, the day he removed the covering from the ark, and the day the earth was dry (Gen. 7:7-8:14). Now what is all that about? The day the earth was dry? What does that even mean? No puddles? Why would the Lord reveal this incredibly detailed list of dates? It must be a very important pattern.

For now, let us content ourselves with the question of simply determining at least one of these dates: the day on which the Flood began. That day is so important we shall refer to it simply as the "Flood."

The year given for the Flood is the 600th year of Noah's life (Gen. 7:11), which, according to adding up the ages of the patriarchs should be about 1,656 years after the Beginning of Mortality, or about 2,345 B.C. The day indicated is 17 Heshvan, at that time the second month, and the traditional Hebrew understanding of when the Flood began.^[9] Checking the various sacred calendars near that year leads to a date which will be shown to have overwhelmingly strong support: Sat 16 Nov 2343 B.C. Counting 17 Heshvan as a minor holy day, the day was also a holy day on only one other known sacred calendar, being the Last Day of Tabernacles on the Enoch Fixed calendar (21 Autumn). But the important alignment date on the Venus calendar was the day on which the ark was loaded, one week earlier.

Noah's Ark

**The day the ark was loaded was the Venus alignment date.**

The scripture states that the ark was loaded one week prior to the Flood (Gen. 7:7-10). Why should the detail of that date be included? It appears to be because that was the date of the Venus alignment for the Flood, which was a holy day on four calendars. The day Sat 9 Nov 2343 B.C. was 13 Reed (Sacred Round), 14 Autumn (Feast of Tabernacles, Enoch Fixed), 0 Prime (Venus), and 0 Creation (Mercury). That alignment alone, although rare, is not compelling that we have the dates correct yet. What is compelling, however, is the array of other witnesses which testify of this date. It is so important that it needs a name, so let us refer to that day as "Noah's Ark." Now let us consider its relation to the baptism date of the Savior.

Baptism of Jesus Christ

As we have seen in earlier articles, the date of the baptism of Jesus Christ was most likely Sat 6 Oct A.D. 29.^[10] That date was indicated because it was the Day of Atonement on the Hebrew calendar, the proper day to reconcile oneself with God. It is the most sacred day of the Hebrew year, and the fact that John the Baptist was preaching repentance to a large congregation who came forth to be baptized fits most perfectly with it having been on that day. Moreover, the very voice of God was heard on that day testifying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Mat. 3:17). The Savior made a point of fulfilling the law of Moses to the very letter and would have been baptized on the proper day for it. Confirmation in astronomical cycles was found in both the Enoch Fixed calendar and also the Mercury calendar.^[11]

The day Jesus was baptized was a holy day on all seven sacred calendars.
At the time that date was first proposed, not all of the seven sacred calendars being referenced in this article were even recognized. Now a further witness to the correctness of that date is found in the fact that it was a holy day on all seven of the sacred calendars. It was 10 Tishri (Atonement on Hebrew), 13 Water (Sacred Round), 14 Autumn (Tabernacles on both the Enoch and Enoch Fixed), 0 Prime (Venus), 0 Creation (Mercury) and 1 Hakkoz (Priest, provided that the baptism was in the afternoon). Such a date only occurs about once per century, so it is remarkable that the date of the Savior's Resurrection was also holy on all 7 calendars and it occurred only three and a half years later. But what does the baptism of Jesus Christ have to do with Great Flood?

Baptism of the Earth

L.D.S. Church presidents and apostles have taught that the Great Flood was the baptism of the earth by water. For example, Elder Joseph Fielding Smith summarized the idea thus:

FLOOD WAS BAPTISM OF EARTH. Now a word as to the reason for the flood. It was the baptism of the earth, and that had to be by immersion. If the water did not cover the entire earth, then it was not baptized, for the baptism of the Lord is not pouring or sprinkling.^[12] (capitalization and emphasis his)

"All the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered." (Gen. 7:19)

He went on to quote President Brigham Young, President John Taylor, and Elder Orson Pratt who also taught that the Flood was the earth's baptism. He was well aware of the line of reasoning against a universal Flood based on arguments about the current heights of mountains and current amounts of water, but he strongly testified that, notwithstanding the wisdom of man, the Flood did indeed cover every mountain top at least briefly.^[13] Now consider the following which supports this teaching.

The proposed date for Noah's Ark is on a day 14 Autumn (Enoch Fixed), 0 Prime (Venus) and 0 Creation (Mercury). The proposed date for the Savior's Baptism is also on a day 14 Autumn (Enoch Fixed), 0 Prime (Venus) and 0 Creation (Mercury). How rare is such an alignment? Using my current models for the calendars, there are only 22 dates during the 7,000 years of the earth's history which meet those criteria. That means there is only about one day every 350 years so similar to the day of the Savior's baptism. The fact that Noah's Ark day, which was determined to the very day from the Biblical account, happens to be one of those rare days should establish that the alignment is not due to blind chance.

Figure 1. The interval from Noah's Ark to Christ's Baptism was the best alignment of Venus with the Enoch Fixed calendar in 7,000 years.

But the alignment of Venus with the 364-day year of the Enoch Fixed calendar is even better than that. The two dates are separated by exactly 2,379 Enoch Fixed years of 364 days, or 865,956 days.^[14] Amazingly, that is a "realignment cycle" for Venus with the Enoch Fixed Calendar. That means that there is no shorter period which is so nearly an exact number of Venus cycles. Stated differently, 1,483 Venus cycles of 583.92166 days each = 865,955.82 days. Thus, the average position of Venus only differs by 0.18 days between the two dates. No smaller multiple of 364 days is so accurate.^[15] Of the 20 other aligning dates, there is no better match in 7,000 years to the proposed date of the Flood than is the date of the Savior's baptism. Thus, this one alignment alone is compelling evidence to establish both of the proposed dates, as well as the concept that the Flood was the baptism of the earth. The unique relationship is illustrated in Figure 1.

Let us now consider the next witness: the alignment with Enoch's translation date.

Enoch's Witness

As we saw above, Enoch's proposed translation date is on 17 Heshvan (Hebrew) and also 13 Reed (Sacred Round). Now we see that the proposed flood dates are 13 Reed for Noah's Ark, and 17 Heshvan for the Flood. Either one of these coincidences alone could be by chance, but to have Enoch's translation link to two Flood dates seems worthy of more investigation.

Why should Enoch's translation date align with the Flood? It is most likely a secondary effect. As we've seen in earlier articles, there is a pattern the Lord seems to use that parents' vital dates are linked to those of their children.^[16] Enoch's father was Jared. As we shall now see, it is really Jared who is the grand witness of the date of the Flood, and his death date is linked to his son Enoch, and so Enoch's dates are indirectly tied to the Flood. Let us now turn to our star witness.

Jared's Dates

**Jared's birth, ordination, and death dates testify of the Flood.**

The ancient patriarchs had meaningful names. The research being presented here is a work in progress, but at the current time it appears that the vital dates of the antediluvian patriarchs all relate to Jesus Christ. In Hebrew the name "Jared" means "to descend." It is the same root (has same consonants) as "Jordan," which is said to be the lowest river on earth. When the Savior was baptized in the River Jordan, in a sense he was descending into the deepest depths. Thus, it is proposed that the name Jared signals us that he is related to the baptism of Jesus Christ, and hence indirectly to the baptism of the earth.

Enoch was born when Jared was 162 years old (Gen. 5:18), which would put his birth about 3540 B.C. according to our above birth date for Enoch. His birth date may or may not have anything to do with the Venus calendar. The expectation that it might is based on the fact that the Savior's baptism was on a holy day on the Venus calendar.

Jared's Birth Date

Searching through the year 3540 B.C., an ideal date for Jared's birth is found: Mon 30 May 3540 B.C. pm*. That was 1 Sivan (Hebrew, on which the first day of every month is a minor holy day), 1 Eagle (Sacred Round), and 1 Prime (Venus). Thus we have a Venus holy day coinciding with a Hebrew holy day, and the Venus day happens to be the one corresponding to the Savior's baptism. Another witness that this date is correct is that there is a link to his son Enoch, who was also born on 1 Eagle.

Jared's Death Date

Jared lived 962 years, the second longest life listed in the Bible. Looking for his death date is also fruitful: Mon 3 Nov 2578 B.C., which was 17 Heshvan (Hebrew), 13 Jaguar (the holy day preceding 1 Eagle on the Sacred Round), and 0 Prime (Venus). Here we see another link to his son who also left earth on 17 Heshvan, two links to the Flood (17 Heshvan and 0 Prime), and one link to the Savior's baptism (0 Prime). These are all witnesses that we have found the right date and that both his birth and death dates are related to the two great baptisms of the earth and Savior. It is astounding that by simply believing the Bible enough to search the indicated year that these rare dates can be found which interlock with each other like gears in a perfectly designed timepiece.

Figure 2. The many interlocking father-son relationships between Jared and Enoch.

One startling result for the length of Jared's life is that it an exact number of Sacred Rounds (starting on 1 Eagle and ending on 13 Jaguar), and also of Venus cycles (beginning on 1 Prime and ending on 0 Prime). That is very difficult to do. Don't try this at home unless you plan on living 97.52 years. That is the first interval in which the Venus cycle comes out even in Sacred Rounds (61 x 583.92166 = 137 x 260 days). An even better realignment interval of Venus with the Sacred Round occurs at 301 x 583.92166 = 676 x 260 = 175,760 days, which is about 481 years. Arguments for creation arise spontaneously just from how organized these numbers are. For example, that interval equals 4 x 13 x 13 Sacred Rounds of 13 x 20 days each, rather than simply being some random number. Both of these intervals were known to the Mayans who used them to reset their Venus calendar.^[17] Jared lived for exactly two of those realignment intervals to the very day.^[18] Most of these amazingly rare alignments required patriarchs who lived many hundred years. Figure 2 illustrates the intricate father-son alignments between Jared and Enoch, as well as how Jared's life aligned with both the Venus calendar and the Sacred Round. It is amazing to me that so many rare father-son alignments are even possible. It is not just that we have found rare dates in the very years indicated. The interaction between the birth-death date pairs, coupled with the interaction between father-son pairs is overwhelming evidence that these dates are correct, and that an omniscient God scheduled these lives to perfectly fit his solar system timepiece.

Realignment Lifetimes

It might be worth a moment here to note how many lives of the prophets we have found so far realign astronomical cycles to the very day. Those cycles are summarized in the following table. Again it must be emphasized that the odds against any one of these pairs of dates just happening by blind chance to occur in the years indicated in the Bible are staggering. The fact that Jared's lifetime aligns two different cycles to the very day is astonishing.

Prophet Cycles Cycle Dates

Adam 582 Venus Cycles 1 Creation - 0 Creation

Jared 602 Venus Cycles 1 Prime - 0 Prime

Jared 1,352 Sacred Rounds 1 Eagle - 13 Jaguar

Enoch 269 Venus Cycles 1 Lord - 0 Lord

Jesus Christ 33 Hebrew Years 15 Nisan - 14 Nisan

Table 1. The lives of some prophets were an exact number of astronomical cycles.

Jared's Ordination Date

The Lord went to the trouble in our day to reveal all of the ordination dates of the antediluvian prophets. The date for Mahalaleel (Jared's father) was given to the very day (D&C 107:46). Why would we possibly care that he was 497 years and 7 days old when he was ordained? We are to live by every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God, but what are we supposed to do with these ordination dates?

Let us begin by considering Jared's ordination date. The Lord says he was age 200 at ordination, and that he was blessed on the same day (D&C 107:47). Some prophets were ordained and blessed on different days, such as his son Enoch, (D&C 107:48), so that may have been a very important day indeed.

The indicated day in the implied year of Jared's ordination was Sat 6 April 3340 B.C. This day was a real winner. It was 13 Water (Sacred Round), 14 Spring (Passover, Enoch), 14 Autumn (Tabernacles, Enoch Fixed), and 0 Prime (both Venus and Mercury). It was also sacred on the Priest calendar, so it was holy on 6 of the 7 known sacred calendars (all but Hebrew).

The following table summarizes all of the data so far relating to Jared, Enoch and both baptisms.

Event Hebrew S. R. Venus Merc. Enoch Enoch Fixed

Jared b. 1 Siv 1 Eagle 1 Pri — — —

Enoch b. 15 Tis 1 Eagle 1 Lrd — 0 Aut —

Jared o. — 13 Water 0 Pri 0 Pri 14 Spr 14 Aut

Enoch t. 17 Hes 13 Reed 0 Lrd 0 Res — —

Jared d. 17 Hes 13 Jaguar 0 Pri — — —

Noah's Ark — 13 Reed 0 Pri 0 Cre — 14 Aut

The Flood 17 Hes — — — — 21 Aut

Baptism of Christ 10 Tis 13 Water 0 Pri 0 Cre 14 Aut 14 Aut

Table 2. Events calendrically aligned with the Great Deluge and the baptism of Jesus Christ.

Jared's Witnesses of Two Baptisms

Now let us consider how these three dates in the life of Jared testify both of the date of the Great Deluge and of the Savior's Baptism.

Figure 3. Jared's Venus alignments with both Noah's Ark and Christ's baptism testify of those dates.

Five Venus Calendar Alignments

Jared's proposed birth date is on the day 1 Prime of the Venus cycle, and the dates of his ordination and death, of Noah's Ark, and of the baptism of Christ all occur on 0 Prime, the last day of a Venus cycle which began on 1 Prime. Thus, all of the known dates for Jared align on the Venus Calendar with both baptisms, as shown in Figure 3, which is totally beyond chance.

Jared's ordination testifies of loading the ark.

From Jared's Ordination to Noah's Ark

The interval from the ordination of Jared to Noah's Ark was 364,364 days. The principal realignment interval of the Venus cycle with the day is 7,007 days (12 Venus cycles of 583.92 days = 7,007.04 days). That number 7,007 is equal 7 x 7 x 11 x 13 days. The fact that it is such an accurate interval, and that it is divisible by 13, is what enables it to be the basis of the Venus calendar. It is also a miniature of all of history because it can be thought of as 7 periods of 1,001 days each, similar to seven millennial days of 1,000 years each. The interval of 1,001 days is very useful as a long "day" because it comes out even in both weeks and 13-day intervals and also increments by one on the 20-cycle. For example, beginning from the day Sun 1 Light, a 1,001 day interval later falls on Sun 1 Wind (Wind is the glyph following Light).

With that in mind, the interval from Jared's ordination to Noah's ark can therefore be thought of in at least three different ways. It was a) 52 Venus realignment cycles of 7,007 days each, or b) 1,001 Enoch Fixed years of 364 days each, or c) one "Grand Enoch Year" of 364 "long days" of 1,001 days each.

Figure 4. Jared's Ordination, Noah's Ark, and Christ's Baptism are separated by multiples of 13 Enoch years of 364 days, with the outer interval also even in Sacred Rounds of 260 days.

Jared's Ordination to the Baptism of Christ

Even more impressive is the relationship of Enoch's ordination date to the date of the baptism of Jesus Christ. He was baptized on a day 13 Water (Sacred Round), 14 Autumn (Enoch Fixed), and 0 Prime (Venus), all of which match the ordination date. The fact that it was the same Venus day on both the Sacred Round of 260 days and also the Enoch Fixed calendar of 364 days is rare indeed. The exact number of days between the two dates is impressive in itself. The dates of Jared's ordination and the Baptism of Christ are separated by exactly 13 x 260 x 364 days.^[19] The number 13 is foundational to both the Sacred Round (260 = 20 x 13) and the Enoch Calendar (364 = 28 x 13), so the fact that 13 times their product just happens to be an exact number of Venus cycles is yet another argument for the design of the orbit of Venus to fit these calendars, which is just what the Mayans believed.^[20] Figure 4 illustrates these numeric relationships of Jared's ordination date both to Noah's Ark and also to the Savior's baptism. Note that both of the intervals to Noah's Ark are multiples of 13 Enoch Fixed years of 364 days, but that the overall interval is also a multiple of 260 days.

Picture drawn from eye-witness accounts of the ark on Mt. Ararat.

Jared's Death and the Flood

Jared died exactly 235 years before the Flood according to the Hebrew calendar, both dates being on 17 Heshvan. That interval is not fully understood at this time, but it appears to be the best interval to align not only the sun and moon (Hebrew calenar), but also the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Saturn with the Priest cycle of 168 days. The relationships with Mars and Saturn are beyond my understanding at this point, as well as the apparent tie to the Priest cycle, but this information is included here to show the richness of the planetary interactions, and of yet undiscovered witnesses and symbolism.^[21]

Conclusion

We have found an interlocking set of eight dates for Jared, his son Enoch, the Flood, and the Baptism of Jesus Christ. Each by itself is only one thread which may not be convincing. But the many interrelations between those threads create a tapestry, forming a vivid picture that testifies of all of those events together. The probability of those interlocking alignments occurring by blind chance in the very years indicated by the Bible is so small that one is compelled to conclude that the proposed dates are correct. Moreover, it implies that the Creator scheduled the lives of those patriarchs according to an incredibly complex design, to leave a record of the great events of history, according to his foreknowledge. These results vindicate the Book of Genesis as a true historical and inspired document. There should be no doubt that there indeed was a Great Flood and that it began on Sat 16 Nov 2343 B.C.

Moreover, what began as simply a chronological exercise to determine the date of the Great Deluge resulted in much more. At first there was no thought of extending the discussion into the realm of asking whether or not the Flood was truly worldwide. The surprising result was that the Flood is so closely tied to the baptism of Jesus Christ that there seems to be no escaping the comparison of the Flood to the baptism of the earth. Thus, it may be time for us to rethink any arguments we may have entertained about a localized Flood, and also of civilizations which we assume existed without interruption in the year 2343 B.C., when the fountains of the great deep erupted, and "the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished" (2 Peter 3:6).

Notes

Pratt, John P., "Venus and the Beginning of Mortality," Meridian Magazine (9 Jul 2003). The Venus and Hebrew calendars are briefly described in that article.
See Pratt, John P., "Genealogy from Adam to the Twelve Tribes," (Salt Lake City: HandKraft, 1968).
430 years of 365.242 days = 157,054 days, and 269 Venus cycles of 583.92166 days = 157,075 days. The 21-day difference between these numbers allows an occasional coincidence between the Venus and Hebrew calendars because the Venus calendar always aligns with 13-day intervals, and the Hebrew differs from the solar year by as much as a month. Thus, the 430-year period only occasionally allows for both the beginning and end dates to be holy days on both calendars at the same season of the year.
The sum of the ages is 130+105+90+70+65+162=622 years (Gen. 5:3-18). 622 years after 4001 B.C. is 3379 B.C.
See Pratt, John P., "A Native American Easter", Meridian Magazine (28 Mar 2001), for an introduction to the Sacred Round.
See Pratt, John P., "Enoch Calendar Testifies of Christ", Meridian Magazine (11 Sep 2001) for an introduction to the Enoch Calendar. Enoch's proposed birth date is the Autumnal Equinox (0 Autumn) only if the day began at 6:00 p.m. (or sunset) which now appears to be the case. In that first article I suggested that the Enoch day probably started in the morning, and even now the evidence is not conclusive.
1 Lord is the first of the minor holy days to be mentioned in my articles and deserves a note of explanation. It currently appears that on both the Venus and Mercury calendars, in addition to the 8 major holy days (1 Creation, 1 Birth, 1 Prime, and 1 Resurrection, and the days preceding them), there are also 8 minor holy days: 1 Quickening, 1 Adult, 1 Death, and 1 Lord, and the days preceding them. Each of these has a counterpart on the Sacred Round having the same symbolic meaning of a day in the cycle of life: Creation = Light (conception), Quickening = Wind (when spirit enters the unborn), Birth = Temple (birth), Adult = Dragon (maturity), Prime = Serpent (prime), Death = Skull (death), Resurrection = Grass (resurrection), and Lord = Flower (divinity). In Mayan, Flower is called Ahau, meaning "Lord." Mayan priests explained that "On the twentieth and last day Ahau (god), he becomes one with the divinity." (Irene Nicholson, Mexican and Central American Mythology, New York, Hamlyn Publishing, 1967, p. 52).
Reed is the glyph following Grass, which symbolizes resurrection. The reed apparently represents the grass later when it is fully grown. In the resurrection, children will grow to maturity after they resurrect (See Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 200, including fn. 4), so this glyph may represent the day one receives the fully mature resurrected body. The Reed was associated with Jesus Christ because he was born on the day 1 Reed. He is "the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25), and of course, he was fully mature on the day of his resurrection. But the day on which he was presented to the priest at the temple as an infant, which was his "birthday" on the Enoch Fixed calendar, was the day 1 Grass. Perhaps that signified that even as an infant, he was "the resurrection."
Since the time of Moses, Heshvan (formerly Heshwan or Marheshwan) has been the eighth month, rather than the second, because the Lord changed the numbering at that time to begin in the spring (Ex. 12:2). The traditional Jewish date for the Flood is 17 Heshvan: "The duration of the flood was a whole year. It began on the seventeenth day of Heshwan . . . " (Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, vol. I, p. 163.)
Pratt, John P., "What Every Mormon Should Know About Astronomy," Meridian Magazine (12 May 2000), section 3.
Pratt, John P., "Enoch Calendar Testifies of Christ", Meridian Magazine (11 Sep 2001), Section 5.
Smith, Joseph Fielding, Jr., Doctrines of Salvation (Salt Lake City: BookCraft, 1955), Vol.2, p.320.
It has recently been proposed that the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the gash in the ocean floor which runs thousands of miles down the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, may be where the fountains of the deep erupted, rather than merely being a source of slow ocean-floor spreading as believed by most scientists (see, for example, Walt Brown, In The Beginning, Phoenix, 2001). We might also note that the same prophets who taught that the earth was baptized by immersion in water also foretold the baptism of the earth by fire still yet to come. Those hoping that this future baptism is also not by immersion might support their position with calculations that there is not enough fire today to engulf the entire earth. Of course, the rest of us are confident that the Lord can create whatever flames are needed.
Astronomers use "Julian Day Numbers" to facilitate such calculations. They simply assign a consecutive number to every day, beginning with Mon 1 Jan 4713 B.C. (Julian calendar) being Julian Day 0. The day Sat 9 Nov 2343 B.C. was Julian Day 865,975, and Sat 6 Oct A.D. 29 was Julian Day 1,731,931. The difference between those numbers is 865,956 days.
Such calculations can be verified on my web site at http://www.johnpratt.com/items/calendar/mathutil/realign.html. In this case choose "2" realignment cycles, with one cycle being "Enoch" and the other "Venus." The second realignment cycle is seen to be 865,956 days.
Pratt, John P., "From Martyrdom to Celebration!" Meridian Magazine (6 June 2002), section 5.
To verify the calculations at the link given in footnote 15, enter "Sacred" and "Venus" to see both realignment cycles of 35,620 and 175,760 days. See also Anthony Aveni, Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico (Austin: U. of Texas Press, 1980) for a discussion of how the 61 Venus cycles are actually used in the Mayan Dresden Codex (p. 192), and for the claim that "the Maya astronomers had succeeded in tabulating the motion of Venus to .08 part of a day in 481 years" (p. 191).
Again using Julian Days as explained in footnote 14, Jared was born on 428,617 and died on 780,136, so he lived 351,520 days (one more than their difference), which is twice the interval of 175,760 days.
The Julian Day of the ordination was 501,611 and the Julian Day of the Baptism is given in footnote 14, and the difference between them is 1,230,320 = 13 x 260 x 364 days.
Roys, Ralph, The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Norman, OK: U. of Oklahoma, 1967), p. 116: "This is a song of how the uinal came to be created before the creation of the world." Uinal is the Mayan word for what is now called the vientena, the 20-day cycle.
Moreover, including the star background shows that on both of the dates of Jared's death and the Flood, there was a close conjunction of Mercury and Saturn in the Archer, as well as Mars accompanying Venus in the Water Bearer. It may be significant that at the Flood, Venus is right at the stream that the Water Bearer is pouring out. Much more research is required to understand the rich symbolism of the "signs" in the stars of which the Lord spoke (Gen. 1:14).

Click here to sign up for Meridian's FREE email updates.

About the Author:

John P. Pratt writes a monthly column for Meridian Magazine giving one L.D.S. perspective on current science. He has a Ph.D. in astronomy and specializes in religious chronology and ancient calendars. He has authored several articles in the Ensign and professional journals, on his website at www.johnpratt.com, or in a bound volume which is now available. His lovely wife Ruth has written books on family history. They are the parents of five wonderful children.