| 
Divine
calendars indicate precise birth dates for Abraham, Ishmael, Issaac,
Rebekah, and Jacob, as well as for the destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah, resolving the long-standing question of whether or not
Noah and Abraham were contemporaries.
In the previous
two articles in this series,[1]
we have seen that divine calendars witness to the precise dates
of historical events from Adam through Noah. In this article we
will see that precise dates for the births of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob are also indicated, which resolve the confusion about when
Abraham lived. The close relationship of family birth dates will
be discussed, including between Isaac and his wife Rebekah and also
his brother Ishmael. These remarkably rare interlocking birth dates
provide a strong witness to their correctness.
Eber
and his son Peleg
Before
seeking Abraham's birth date, let us note an important pair of dates
in the genealogy lists of Genesis which help define the very period
in question. The principal tool we have discovered to determine
an astronomically anchored chronology is the occurrence of rare
alignments between the Hebrew and Venus calendars.[2]
We saw in last month's article that 430 years is an interval in
which those two calendars can align at the same season of the year.
Perusing the lists of "begats" in Genesis, we see that the number
430 pops up again as the interval between the birth of Peleg and
the death of his father Eber (Gen. 11:17). That number alone is
an indication that those two dates may well both be holy days on
both the Venus and Hebrew calendars.
Checking
those calendars produces very likely candidates because there are
excellent alignments in those very years. The indicated birth date
for Peleg is Mon 22 Sep 2241 BC which was 10 Tishri (Atonement,
Hebrew), and 1 Birth (Venus). The day 1 Birth is the ideal day for
birth on the Venus calendar and it only occurs on one of the 10
major Hebrew holy days about once in 58 years. Looking 430 years
later at the day 1 Birth on the Venus Calendar we note that there
is only about a one in seven chance that it will also coincide with
a Hebrew holy day. So it is statistically significant that the day
indicated for Eber's death, Mon 4 Oct 1811 BC, falls precisely on
1 Tishri (Trumpets, Hebrew). Moreover, that day is also the day
1 Skull on the Sacred Round, the day representing death. Thus, this
pair of dates fits the pattern we have seen so far in Hebrew-Venus
alignments, which is that they are supported by other witnesses
to remove any doubt. Those additional testimonies can be either
the appropriateness of the particular holy day (such as 1 Birth
for Peleg's birth), or from another sacred calendar (such as 1 Skull
for Eber's death). This evidence seems compelling enough to propose
that these two dates are indeed correct.
 |
The
Tower of Babel during Peleg's lifetime. |
So who was Eber?
Heber is another spelling of Eber, and is the origin of the word
"Hebrew" (Gen. 14:13, 39:14). In the lineage from Noah to Abraham,
the two most important men are Shem, Noah's son who was the Great
High Priest (D&C 138:41), and Shem's great-grandson Eber. According
to the Book of Jasher, which appears to be an authentic source,[3]
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all well acquainted with both Shem
and Eber. In fact, it says Jacob was taught by Shem and Eber for
32 years, from when Jacob was age 18 until Shem's death (Jasher
28:17-25). Is that possible? Shem was Noah's son. Did he live long
enough for that to have occurred? One reason it is important to
understand chronology correctly is to see how the lives overlapped
and just who were contemporaries. Eber lived 464 years, which was
so long that he was born only 67 years after the Great Flood and
yet he outlived his great-great-great-great grandson Abraham. Eber's
life spans the entire period of this article.
While Eber is
an illustrious figure, we know almost nothing about his son Peleg.
We are told the meaning of his name ("division") refers to the time
when the earth was divided (Gen. 10:25). The account of the tower
of Babel is found in Genesis shortly after the birth of Peleg (Gen.
11:1-9). On the other hand, the Book of Jasher places the confounding
of the languages at Babel toward the end of Peleg's life (Jasher
9:20-10:1), so it seems safe to conclude that the tower of Babel
occurred sometime during the life of Peleg. Now let us turn to the
birth date of someone we all know much better, Father Abraham.
Abraham
Abraham
emerges from the pages of Genesis as the first patriarch whom we
are allowed to know well. Enoch, Shem and Eber, great as they were,
are allotted only a few verses, whereas the story of Abraham requires
14 chapters to tell (Gen. 12-25). Abraham was promised that he would
be the father of many nations (Gen. 17:4) and that through him all
the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:3). So Abraham
is a key figure indeed, but just when did he live?
60-year
Uncertainty
There has been
a long-standing dilemma concerning the birth date of Abraham. There
are two choices which have seemed almost equally viable. Up until
Abraham, the Book of Genesis records the ages of the fathers at the
births of their sons, so that one can add up the ages to get a clear
indication of the year of the birth of each. At Abraham, that unbroken
chain seems ambiguous for the following reasons. First,
the verse which we expect to be definitive seems unclear: "And Terah
lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran" (Gen. 11:26).
Was Terah age 70 when he begat Abram (whose named was later changed
to Abraham)? Were the three brothers triplets? For all of the preceding
patriarchs, the year of the principal son's birth was listed, followed
by the statement that the father also begat other sons and daughters.
This appears to be the same pattern, except that the other two sons
are named. The clear intent seems to be that Terah was age 70 at
Abraham's birth, and that he had two other sons named Nahor and
Haran.
An alternate
interpretation arises because immediately after the statement that
Abraham's father died in Haran at age 205, it says that Abraham
departed from Haran at age 75 (Gen. 11:32-12:4). If one assumes
that Abraham left immediately after Haran died, then Terah was 130
( = 205 - 75 ) at Abraham's birth. So was Terah age 70 or 130 at
Abraham's birth? And does it really matter?
Are 60 Years
Important?
Does it matter
that we know Abraham's birth date to better than 60-year accuracy?
To me, it is important to know which of the two alternatives is correct
in order to know how the lives of the patriarchs overlap. The Book
of Jasher explicitly states that Terah was age 70 at Abraham's birth
(Jasher 7:51) and that Noah didn't die until Abraham was 58 years
old (Jasher 13:9), which agrees with the first interpretation of the
Genesis account. Why was Abraham so righteous when his father worshipped
idols? Jasher explains that Abraham was raised and taught by Noah
for 39 years, from age 11 to 49 (Jasher 8:36, 9:6, 11:13). Is that
true? Could it have been true? Counting
years from the Flood in 2343 BC, Noah died in about 1993 BC. Similarly,
the two choices for Abraham are either that he was born about 2051
BC or about 1991 BC. Thus, if Abraham was born when Terah was 130,
then Noah could not have known Abraham because Abraham would have
been born two years after he died.
A similar question
arises concerning the Tower of Babel. According to Genesis, Peleg
died about a decade before Noah. Jasher says the Tower of Babel
occurred nearly at the end of Peleg's life (Jasher 10:1). If so,
then the confusion of tongues occurred when Abraham was about 48.
If we knew with certainty when Abraham lived, we might be able to
resolve that question, which would help us to know Abraham better.
For example, might Abraham have been acquainted with Jared and his
group who left Babel to be led to a promised land in the Americas?
If so, that might help us understand the context in which the Lord
later told Abraham that he would (also) be led to a promised land
and father many nations.
The chronology
found in Bibles published during the last three centuries generally
follows that of Bishop Ussher, who decided that Terah was age 130
at Abraham's birth. L.D.S. Bibles used to list those dates, but
then they were dropped when the new L.D.S. edition was published.
Even so, our current L.D.S. Bible Dictionary still lists Abraham's
birth as occurring after Noah's death. But that is just a hold-over
from Ussher, which is not supported by modern revelation as we shall
now see.
Modern Revelation
Modern revelation
makes it clear that Bishop Ussher made the wrong choice. The Book
of Abraham fills in many details of the account. While Abraham was
still living in Ur of the Chaldees (in modern Iraq), he was saved
by an angel from being sacrificed to a pagan god. At that time he
was told that the Lord would lead him away from his father's house
into a strange land (Abr. 1:16). Sometime later there was a famine
in Ur and it was then that the Lord commanded Abraham to begin his
journey. Abraham states, "Therefore I left the land of Ur, of the
Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan" (Abr. 2:4). That statement
indicates that from Abraham's point of view, the journey was from
Ur to Canaan (modern Israel & Palestine). He mentions that his
father "followed after" him, but that when they arrived in Haran (modern
Syria), the "famine abated; and my father tarried in Haran and dwelt
there" . . . "and my father turned again unto his idolatry, therefore
he continued in Haran" (Abr. 2:4-5). Thus, it sounds like Terah's
devotion to Abraham's God was motivated mostly by hunger, and that
he stopped en route. Abraham and the others apparently stayed with
him for some time in Haran, but finally Abraham prayed for guidance.
The Lord appeared to him and commanded him and his nephew Lot to continue
on, adding that Abraham would become a great nation (Abr. 2:6,9).
The record states that he left Haran at age 62 (Abr. 2:14).[4]
The main point
for this article is that Abraham makes it clear that he left his
father and many others in Haran, and he definitely did not wait
until Terah's death to depart. That removes all of the support for
the interpretation that Terah was age 130 at Abraham's birth.
Now let us see
how sacred calendars verify that Abraham's birth did indeed occur
about 2051 BC (when Terah was 70).
Sacred Calendars
Checking the
sacred calendars for alignments in all of the possible years for
Abraham's birth yields one very promising candidate: Wed 5 Oct 2052
BC. That day was the Day of Atonement on the Hebrew calendar, a
day for making covenants with God, for which Abraham is so well-known.
Moreover, the day was also 1 Temple, the one day of 260 on the Sacred
Round best representing birth. Even though such an alignment only
occurs about once in 260 years, this coincidence alone is not compelling
that we have found the right date. There are no other strong witnesses
from the sacred calendars, such as the Venus calendar. We have noted
that there are probably other calendars for other planets which
are as yet undiscovered. Not having such calendars yet, let us actually
look at those planetary positions to see if other witnesses appear.
|
Double
conjunction at Abraham's birth? |
Four
stars at Abraham's Birth
The Book of Jasher
claims that something unusual in the skies occurred at the time of
Abraham's birth. It states that on that night "one very large star
came from the east and ran in the heavens, and he swallowed up the
four stars from the four sides of the heavens" (Jasher 8:2). We cannot
expect an astronomical observation from 4,000 years ago to have survived
intact, and that makes little sense to me as it stands. But if we
allow for a broad interpretation, it might have originally meant "a
comet was seen in the east among four planets, which subsequently
traversed the sky." We are told that there were many signs at the
birth of Christ, including the Star of Bethlehem. Given that the Lord
said he created the stars and planets for "signs" (Gen. 1:14), it
seems possible that there might have been an astronomical sign at
the birth of Abraham.
Plotting the
position of the planets in the sky on the proposed date of Abraham's
birth yields something very much like Jasher describes. Four of
the five planets visible to the unaided eye were in a double conjunction
which was visible just before dawn. "Conjunction" means that the
planets appeared near each other in the sky. It is very unusual
to have two conjunctions occur at the same time in the same area
of the sky. If there had been a comet there also at that time (which
is virtually impossible to verify now), it would have been a remarkable
sign indeed. Thus, this double conjunction, coupled with what might
be its description in Jasher, adds another witness of this date.
The illustration, created with professional astronomy software,
shows that the four planets are still visible in the predawn sky
near Babylon even after most stars have disappeared.[5]
Not Astrology
The suggestion
that a planetary conjunction might be a "sign" of a prophet's birth
might sound like astrology, but there is a vast difference. Astrology,
unlike astronomy, claims that the stars and planets influence
our lives. It must be emphasized that my only claim is that the planets
moving around the 12 constellations of the zodiac are like the hands
of a clock moving through the 12 numbers on the clock's face. It is
only a clock. Scientists know of no measurable "influence" of stars
or planets on people. Our lives are not governed by the stars any
more than our lives are governed by our wristwatches. We might be
observed to do certain things when the clock hands are in certain
positions, such as eating dinner at 6 p.m., but that doesn't mean
the clock is controlling us in any way. God created a wonderful clock
which he apparently uses for timing the birth of his prophets, and
other religious events, but not to control our destinies. Thus, a
conjunction is nothing more than two hands of the clock pointing in
the same direction, like usual clock hands do at noon and midnight.
Now let us turn
to finding the birth dates of Abraham's children. Only if they can
be found with sufficient testimonies of their accuracy can we really
we sure we have Abraham's date correct.
|
The
lands of Abraham's inheritance. The Arab nations mostly descend
from Ishmael. |
Ishmael
Let us continue
with the story of Abraham. After he left Haran he dwelt in Canaan
after having also visited Egypt. More than twenty years after he had
left Haran, he was still without child and wondering how the Lord's
promise would be fulfilled that he would father many nations, because
he was then in his eighties. The Lord appeared to him again, assured
him his descendants would be numberless as the stars, and covenanted
to give him all the land from the Nile to the Euphrates (Gen. 15:4-18).
That is a lot of real estate, centered on the Arabian Peninsula.
Sarah remained
barren. Finally, she gave her handmaid Hagar to Abraham, which led
to the birth of his first son, Ishmael, when Abraham was 86 years
old (Gen. 16:16). Abraham loved Ishmael and was delighted that finally
the covenant could be fulfilled to have numberless descendants.
Searching for
a likely date for Ishmael's birth leads to an excellent candidate
which was a holy day on four sacred calendars. The day Thu 6 Sep
1966 BC was 1 Tishri (Trumpets, Hebrew), 1 Serpent (Sacred Round),
1 Birth (Venus) and 1 Resurrection (Mercury). Only about once in
58 years does 1 Birth (Venus) coincide with one of the 10 principal
Hebrew holy days, and this date has the added bonus of being 1 Resurrection
on Mercury. While it is very encouraging that there is such a perfect
birth date for Ishmael almost exactly 86 years after the proposed
birth date for Abraham, still we must be cautious before declaring
victory. What about Isaac? If there is not an equally good date
for Isaac, then that would be problem because the Lord tends to
treat children equally (D&C 38:26).
 |
Three angels
visit Abraham and Sarah.
Isaac
Abraham, at age
99 and having only one child Ishmael, who was then 13 years old, must
have been content that he had secured the covenant he had sought with
the Lord (Abr. 1:2). He probably wasn't expecting much else to happen.
Then the Lord surprised him in his old age with an extremely eventful
week.
First, the Lord
made a new covenant with Abraham. The Lord changed his name from
Abram to Abraham, meaning "father of a multitude" because he would
be the father of many nations. The Lord also changed his wife Sarai's
name to be Sarah, meaning "Princess" and declared that she would
have a son, and that through him many nations and kings would come.
The token of this covenant would be circumcision (Gen. 17:1-16).
Abraham feared that something might be taken from his beloved son
Ishmael, but the Lord assured him that Ishmael would still become
a great nation as promised. That has certainly been fulfilled, because
to this day the Arab nations are located on and around the Arabian
Peninsula, comprising many of the descendants of Ishmael. Then the
Lord added what to me as a researcher in calendars is a unique and
very strange statement. The Lord then prophesied that Isaac would
be born "at this set time in the next year" (Gen. 17:21). We'll
come back to that, but first, let's see what else happened that
week.
|
The
Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
(by John Martin, © BBC) |
Sodom
and Gomorrah
Abraham fulfilled
the commandment to circumcise all of his household on the same day
it was given (Gen. 17:23). The next important event was the visit
of three angels to Abraham on the plains of Mamre, which, according
to the Book of Jasher, occurred two days later (Jasher 18:3). They
announced the birth of Isaac to Sarah, which came as a complete surprise
to her, so Abraham had not yet told her (Gen. 18:9-15). As
the angels departed, the Lord told Abraham that they were on their
way to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. When the angels
arrived at Sodom, Abraham's nephew Lot prepared for them a "feast"
of "unleavened bread" (Gen. 19:3). Why did the Lord include that
detail of what was served for supper? To me it is meant to indicate
that it was the night of Passover, which would later be designated
in the law of Moses as the time to begin the feast of unleavened
bread. Passover is the traditional time to flee into the wilderness,
as Lot's family did. The cities of the plain were destroyed the
next day, on Passover (15 Nisan), when burning sulfur rained down
from heaven on them (Gen. 19:24).
|
| Burning
balls of pure sulfur melted into the rock, found at Gomorrah
site. |
Traditionally
the cities were located near the Dead Sea, and recently strong evidence
has been found supporting those locations. Perhaps the most compelling
evidence is that sulfur balls have been found intact both in the
remaining ash and also where they melted into the rock and were
extinguished.[6]
The Lord is providing strong evidence that his word is true.
Three Important
Days in one Week
The fact that these
three events all occurred so near to each other gives us big calendrical
clues which we can use to determine the exact dates of all three events.
Those events were 1) the Covenant of Circumcision, 2) the visit of
the angels, and 3) the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. So far,
we postulate that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed on Passover (15
Nisan) in Abraham's 99th year. That would have been Thu 2 Apr 1953
BC. Then we have from Jasher that the angels visit occurred two days
after the covenant, and that was only a few days at most before the
destruction. There
are two days on the Hebrew calendar which are best for making covenants
with God. The foremost such day is the Day of Atonement, 10 Tishri
in the fall, which is the most sacred day of the year. The second
choice is the counterpart of that day in the spring, 10 Nisan, which
I have named "Consecration" because it had no other formal name.
It was the day on which the Passover lamb was chosen (Ex. 12:3)
for the Passover feast five days later. It was also the day on which
the Israelites who crossed the river Jordan were circumcised, being
the day they entered the promised land (Josh. 4:6, 5:2). Thus, it
appears to have been the ideal day for the law of circumcision to
have been given because the Israelites would have been following
that same pattern. If so, then the new covenant with Abraham was
made on Sat 28 Mar 1953 BC (10 Nisan), which seems appropriate because
it was the sabbath and also a holy day on the Enoch Fixed calendar
(summer solstice).
Are these two
dates correct? We get a strong confirmation by considering the day
on which the angels came, Mon 30 Mar 1953 BC. That day was 1 Creation
(or Conception, Venus) and 1 Birth (Mercury), an ideally symbolic
date to announce the birth of Isaac to Sarah. For that alignment
to occur on the very day of the angels' visit as recorded in Jasher
is compelling evidence that these three dates are correct and that
Jasher was compiled from some very ancient authentic sources. Now
let us see how knowing these dates leads directly to knowing Isaac's
birth date.
Born at this
"Set Time"
Let's return to
the prophesy that Isaac would be born "at this set time in the next
year," which was revealed on the day of the Circumcision covenant
(Gen. 17:21), being 10 Nisan according to the above reasoning. What
is the meaning of the word translated as "set time" in the King James
Version?
The Hebrew word
mow'ed is translated many ways other than "set time." Perhaps
the best translation is "appointed time" because the root word means
"appointment." In fact, the same word in the same context (referring
to Isaac's birth) is indeed translated "time appointed" (Gen. 18:14).
It also is the very word translated as "seasons" in the verse which
is so often quoted in my work when the Lord told Moses that the
lights in the firmament were "for signs, and for seasons" (Gen.
1:14). At the time of the Exodus, the Lord uses the same word when
he stated that he had appointed a "set time" for the Passover, and
Israel was commanded to keep that feast in its proper "season" (Ex.
13:10) or "time appointed" (Ex. 23:15 ) every year. In all of these
cases the meaning seems to be what my articles refer to as a "holy
day."[7]
|
"Lot
and His Daughters" (Albrecht Dόrer, 1496) |
Thus, it appears
that the Lord was saying both that the day of their covenant was a
holy day, and that Isaac would be born on that very day exactly one
year later. I am not aware of any other case in history where the
Lord predicted in the scriptures the exact day on which someone would
be born. And the record is clear that his word was fulfilled (Gen.
21:2). It is important to remember that Abraham predates Moses by
some five centuries, and that we are not aware of just how much Abraham
knew about the "holy days" which would be clearly defined on the calendar
the Lord revealed to Moses. The Lord may have used events such as
the dates of the covenants he made, or the births of his children,
to define some of the holy days for Abraham. In this case, the "set
time" holy day clearly appears to be Consecration, 10 Nisan.
Isaac born
on Consecration
The power of having
followed all of these calendrical clues is that now we have a precise
day indicated for the birth of Isaac. It is not simply an approximate
year as in the all of the other cases so far. The Lord said that Isaac
would be born one year from the day which we have deduced to have
been 10 Nisan in Abraham's 99th year. So
what is the indicated day for Isaac's birth? The day 10 Nisan in
the following year was Tue 16 Mar 1952 BC. This is the first precise
day which has been predicted by my theory of sacred calendar alignments,
and a lot rides on whether or not there are other witnesses that
this date is correct. Is this day as impressive a birth date as
was Ishmael's? His was sacred on four calendars. This time we don't
have the luxury of searching through an entire year for an alignment.
If this day is not right, then we may need to re-examine either
the theory or this entire set of dates. If the Lord is indeed using
these calendars to schedule birth dates, then a consistent pattern
should emerge (D&C 52:14).
Checking out
that date on the sacred calendars produces such an amazing result
as to lock in all of the dates proposed so far as being correct.
The day 10 Nisan was also 1 Serpent (Sacred Round), the same as
Ishmael's birthday. Moreover, it was also 1 Resurrection (Venus)
and 1 Birth (Mercury), which is exactly the reverse of Ishmael's
on those calendars. Thus, it is also sacred on the same four calendars
as was Ishmael's, with Venus and Mercury being mirror images of
each other. To show how unusual that is, in the 200 years from 1800
BC to 2000 BC there are only two days which meet those three criteria
and those are the proposed birthdates of Ishmael and Isaac. And
those two dates both also happen to be holy days on the Hebrew calendar
and within 14 years of each other! No wonder the Lord made a point
of foretelling the exact day of Isaac's birth because now
we are allowed to discover just what a finely crafted precision
heavenly clock he created.
Another confirmation
of the appropriateness of Isaac being born on the day that the Passover
lamb is chosen is that Isaac would indeed be in the position of
a Passover lamb, to be sacrificed by his own father, Abraham. Thus,
this date for Isaac's birth is so ideal that it confirms both Abraham's
and Ishmael's proposed birth dates. Now let us turn to the birth
date of Rebekah.
RebekahThe
Bible tells us that Abraham's wife Sarah was ninety when her son Isaac
was born (Gen. 17:17), but I have not yet been successful in discovering
her birth date. Fortunately, the Book of Jasher indicates the birth
year for Isaac's wife Rebekah (Jasher 24:40), and that clue leads
to a date which is ideally matched to her husband and children. It
was only possible to find it because it was also prominent on the
Venus calendar, as is her husband Isaac's. The proposed birth date
for Rebekah is Tue 8 Nov 1923 BC pm* (pm* meaning from 6 pm to midnight).
That six-hour interval was 1 Kislev (Hebrew, a minor holy day), 1
Jaguar (Sacred Round), 1 Birth (Venus) and 1 Resurrection (Mercury).
The reason it only lasted six hours is that the Hebrew day begins
at 6 p.m. and the Venus day ends at midnight. Thus, the Venus and
Mercury calendars are reversed from Isaac's, the same as Ishmael's,
so she fits perfectly into the family pattern. This is another extremely
unusual alignment, which testifies that this date is correct. Now
let us consider the birth dates of Rebekah and Isaac's children.
Jacob
(Israel)
Isaac was sixty
years old when Rebekah gave birth to their twins Esau and Jacob (Gen.
25:26). Searching the indicated year of 1892 BC leads to another date
that is so impressive that it is unique in history: the six-hour period
of Wed 20 Mar 1892 pm*. That time is ideal for the birth of Jacob
and Esau for the following reasons. That
six-hour interval was Passover, 15 Nisan (Hebrew), 1 Temple (Sacred
Round) and 1 Birth (Venus). Here we see a link to their mother,
who was born on 1 Birth (Venus), and also to their grandfather Abraham,
who was born on 1 Temple. Those are both indications that we have
the right date because similar links were found between parents
and children in the earliers papers of this series.
But whereas
Abraham, Isaac and Rebekah each were born on an "ideal" date representing
birth on only one of the sacred calendars, this proposed
date represents birth on both the Sacred Round and the Venus
calendar. Just how often do both of those coincide with a major
Hebrew Holy Day?
The day 1 Birth
(Venus) aligns with any given day on the Hebrew calendar only once
in about 584 years. To require it also to be 1 Temple drops the
expectancy by a factor of 20 to be once in 11,680 years! The ideal
day to be born on the Hebrew calendar is 15 Tishri, the Feast of
Tabernacles. We saw in the first article in this series about Adam,
that there is not even one date during the 7,000 years from 4000
BC to AD 3000 which has that coincidence occur, even for six hours.
The second best birth date on the Hebrew calendar is Passover, which
represents "passing over" through a life transition, such as birth
or death.[8]
The Savior was born at Passover and died at Passover, and the nation
of Israel was "born" at Passover at the Exodus. Because both the
Savior and the nation of Israel were born at Passover, that day
would be most meaningful to be the birthday of Jacob, whose name
was later changed to Israel. Such was apparently the case, with
the indicated time being so precise as to be in the evening, just
as when the Savior was born, and the Passover meal occurs.
Given that Passover
is the best day for Jacob to have been born on the Hebrew calendar,
just how often does it occur on 1 Birth (Venus) and 1 Temple (Sacred
Round)? As with the above calculation for Tabernacles, we only expect
one occurrence in 11,680 years. Exhaustively checking every date
in history against my current models of the calendars, shows that
the proposed 6-hour period proposed for Jacob's birth is the
only time in history when Passover coincides with 1 Birth (Venus)
and 1 Temple (Sacred Round).
It was a rare
date indeed! If the Lord was concerned with giving Jacob and Esau
equally significant birth dates, as he apparently was with Ishmael
and Isaac, then there may have been no other way than to have them
be twins! There is no other day like it in history, much less within
a few years. Thus, this alignment testifies not only that this one
date is correct, but also that all of the interlocking dates for
Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac and Rebekah are also correct.
The dates proposed
in this article are summarized in the following table. There is
also a table of all of the dates I have published so far on all
seven sacred calendars available on my web site.[9]
| Event |
Gregorian
(BC) |
Heb. |
Sacred
Round |
Ven. |
Merc. |
| Peleg
b. |
Mon 22
Sep 2241 |
10 Tis |
1 Flower |
1 Bir |
|
| Abraham
b. |
Wed 5
Oct 2052 |
10 Tis |
1 Temple |
|
|
| Ishmael
b. |
Thu 6
Sep 1966 |
1 Tis |
1 Serpent |
1 Bir |
1 Res |
| Circumcision |
Sat 28
Mar 1953 |
10 Nis |
|
|
|
| Angels
visit |
Mon 30
Mar 1953 |
|
1 Jaguar |
1 Cre |
1 Bir |
| Sodom/Gomorrah |
Thu 2
Apr 1953 |
15 Nis |
|
|
|
| Isaac
b. |
Tue 16
Mar 1952 |
10 Nis |
1 Serpent |
1 Res |
1 Bir |
| Rebekah
b. |
Tue 8
Nov 1923 pm* |
1 Kis |
1 Jaguar |
1 Bir |
1 Res |
| Jacob/Esau
b. |
Wed 20
Mar 1892 pm* |
15 Nis |
1 Temple |
1 Bir |
|
| Eber
d. |
Mon 4
Oct 1811 |
1 Tis |
1 Skull |
1 Bir |
|
Table 1.
Proposed dates, with holy days indicated. Non-holy days are indicated
by dashes.
 |
Timeline showing
Abraham and Noah as contemporaries, and also Jacob and Eber.
Conclusion
The interlocking
dates which have been discovered for the births of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, as well as for Ishmael and Rebekah are so rare and symbolic,
occurring in the very years indicated by the Bible, that there is
no doubt that they are indeed the correct dates. Those dates also
constitute a strong testimony that the Book of Genesis is authentic
history. If any of those ages for the patriarchs had been fabricated
or mistaken, there is no chance that such rare alignments could have
been found. Jacob's birth date is a once-in-history alignment, which
occurs the right number of years after the amazing "twin" dates of
Ishmael and Isaac, which in turn are the right number of years after
Abraham's double conjunction. These alignments on multiple sacred
calendars, complete with links from parents to children and each other,
leave no doubt of the accuracy of these dates. Moreover,
this work is also a testimony of the authenticity of at least some
of the chronological data in the Book of Jasher. It confirms that
Abraham and Noah's lives overlapped by 58 years, as did Jacob and
Eber's for 81 years, both of which Jasher states. Moreover, not
only did the age given for Rebekah yield a birth date which fits
perfectly with Isaac, that record also stated the exact day on which
the three angels appeared to Abraham, which was seen to be an ideal
day symbolically to announce to Sarah the birth of her promised
son.
The Lord has
provided ample witnesses of the divine authenticity of the Book
of Genesis, and of the existence of the Creator who crafted the
solar system to be an incredibly accurate time piece which he uses
to perform his great work.
Notes
- Pratt,
John P., "Venus
and the Beginning of Mortality," Meridian Magazine
(9 Jul 2003) and "Astronomical
Witnesses of the Great Flood," Meridian Magazine (13
Aug 2003).
- The
version of the Hebrew calendar used is the Perpetual Hebrew Calendar,
which differs slightly from the traditionally Hebrew calendar
by correcting some inaccuracies. The Venus calendar was introduced
in Venus
Resurrects This Easter Sunday," Meridian Magazine (27
Feb 2001).
- Pratt,
John P. "How
Did the Book of Jasher Know?," Meridian Magazine (7
Jan 2002).
- Genesis
states that Abraham was age 75 when he left Haran (Gen. 12:4),
rather than 62. The Book of Jasher may shed light on this discrepancy.
It claims that Abraham was age 52 when he fled Ur (Jasher 12:45),
that he spent three years in Haran (Jasher 13:3) and entered Canaan
at age 55. It adds that after 15 years in Canaan, when he was
age 70, the Lord appeared to him as described in Gen. 15 (Jasher
13:17-18). Then it says he went back to tell his father and convert
his relatives, and stayed in Haran 5 more years. He induced another
72 men to journey with him, and then left Haran at age 75 as stated
in the Bible (Jasher 13:26). Whether or not Jasher has all the
years correct remains to be discovered, but perhaps his main contribution
is that Abraham left Haran more than once. With the new light
from the Book of Abraham, it appears most likely that he left
the first time at age 62 and the second time at age 75. In my
research I have not yet attempted to resolve this issue.
- The
illustration was created using the Freeman edition of Starry Night,
with Baghdad as the location (very near ancient Babylon), 5:35
a.m. (Time Zone = +3), for the date 22 Oct 2052 BC (Julian calendar),
which corresponds to 5 Oct 2052 BC (Gregorian). I replaced the
"E" marker with the word "East" and added the names of the planets.
- The
illustration is from the excellent summary found in Lennart Mφller's
The Exodus Case (Copenhagen: Scandinavia Publishing House,
2002).
- To
emphasize how diversely this root is translated, it is "congregation"
in the "tabernacle of the congregation" mentioned all through
the book of Exodus. My suggested meaning would be the "tabernacle
of the holy days," referring to when the people were commanded
to congregate there. Another entirely different meaning of "set
time" seems to be the revolutionary or rotational period of a
planet or star, such as the "set time" of the earth, moon, and
stars (Abr. 3:6, 10).
- Pratt,
John P. "Passover:
Was it Symbolic of His Coming?" The Ensign 24,
1 (Jan, 1994), pp 38-45, section 3.
- A
complete list of all the significant events which have occurred
on holy days which I have published are found on my website at
http://www.johnpratt.com/items/docs/lds/dates.html.
Click
here to sign up for Meridian's FREE email updates.
© 2003 Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
|
