Could the patriarchs, Adam and Enoch and Methuselah have prophesied concerning the cross of Christ and buried their message in a neolithic temple designed to survive the great flood? Archeologists are not likely to admit it, but it seems that may be the case. In this blog I'll consider that question.
When not working my full time job, I have spent the better part of the last seven weeks creating maps of an area known as the "fertile crescent" in search of Eden. In drawing these maps I have accounted for everything from archeological evidence to a multitude of Biblical texts, as well as possible fault lines. My reason, as always, is prophecy. Zechariah speaks of "Living Waters" proceeding from the sanctuary at the Lord's return at the Mount of Olives. Zion then becomes the well spring for two rivers that seem more than allegorical, because he is specific about various landmarks and it all involves a very great earthquake probably accompanied by tsunamis. See Zechariah 14 for a start on this.
The restoration of this river, which is of "Living Waters" has had me considering whether the restoration of Paradise, and of the Garden of Eden may be involved because of the missing Pishon and Gihon Rivers which surround Havilah and Cush, a land the Lord promised to the descendants of Ishmael. And, yes, indeed, that means the Arab nations are sitting on what the Jewish and Christian Bibles say is Paradise. It is not all about Israel. But I'll save that discussion for another time.
One of my favorite early church fathers, Hippolytus, insisted that Paradise was a part of creation proper, and did not belong to another world, heavenly though it is. Hippolytus was a student of Ireneus, who held similar opinions. And Ireneus was a student of Polycarp and of Papias, both of whom knew John and some of those who knew the other apostles personally. Papias described Paradise graphically and later church fathers criticized him for this as they rejected PreMillennialism. But my studies have shown that the reaction against PreMillennialism may have been a deterioration in the apostolic deposit. The earliest opinion given against the idea is Victorinus, who does not appear to be so tightly connected to the apostles.
Before dismissing any of this as fanciful 1st and 2nd century Christian imagination, let us consider the power of prophecy and of our hope in the resurrection. Scientists say the world is billions of years old. And we can't prove that Eden ever existed literally. Archeologists agree that there was never a great flood. Their methods of interpretation must follow the various "lithic" periods which have become conventional, with their corresponding system of dating. It is the new dogma.
Prophecy is another matter. We can interpret this literally as well as allegorically without necessarily raising brows. For all those Christians who are evolutionists, etc., yet believe that Jesus Christ died in fulfillment of the Scriptures and rose from the dead, there's still a place for the miraculous somewhere. And the prophets are not dismissed, even if they are often accused of retrofitting history, as is commonly thought with Daniel 9-11.
Me, I'm simpler than that. And that is why I would like to have full access to the things that only scholars seem to be permitted to examine. A case in point is the Gobekli Tepe archeological dig in SouthEast Turkey. I didn't even have to go there and I can see from my own living room what the pictographs left behind mean because one of the wall paintings that survived tells the story. The photo above was taken from a frame of the YouTube documentary below. And to my eye, it looks like a prophecy foretelling Calvary. But of course, prophecy is not something that archeologists, being scientists, can consider.
First discovered in 1964 and thought to have been a buried Byzantine monastery, in 1994 it was found out that Gobekli Tepe (pronounced "Gobeeklee Tipay") was a place of worship for a peoples archeologists are calling neolithic, which up until now would have been an anachronism. The neolithic period (the stone age) is supposed to be characterized by nomadic hunter gatherers. Building temples requires a community organization, especially when it means carrying huge stones up mountains prior to the domestication of animals and the invention of the wheel. But at Gobekli Tepe none of the signs of agriculture exist.
I actually found out about this quite by accident. I had been investigating the origins of the place called Beth Eden, along the Euphrates. The increasingly famous dig is just a few miles north of Beth Eden. And indeed, many people are referring to the site as a possible location of the original Eden, though usually tongue in cheek.
The team, headed up by German archeologist Klaus Schmidt, says they do not know how to read the pictographs painted or carved into the stones as reliefs. The site is remarkably well preserved. And although only 5% of the site has been excavated so far, many conclusions have already been made - one of the first of which is that it was deliberately buried.
The early conclusion of the team is that based on a lack of signs of agriculture and carbon dating, the site was built around 10,000 BCE, over 6000 years earlier than Stone Henge and the earliest pyramids. This has young earth creationists on the defense, who say that carbon dating methods are unreliable for dates previous to the oldest trees and previous to the flood, and who argue that the assumptions of anthropologists that man evolved from a nomadic to an agricultural way of life are largely untrue. So to them the finding of a place of worship like this is no surprise.
I have not been in the creation science circle. I am more interested in prophecy and patristics. But I do wonder whether the creationists will maintain that this site is post or antediluvian. At a time when I'm considering every conceivable possibility concerning Eden, if I were to venture a guess, I'd be primed to speculate that there really was a flood and the site was created by the ancestors of Noah just prior to the flood. These, I suppose based on their overlapping ages in Genesis 5, all knew the prophecies through Adam and Enoch. Then, knowing that the flood was coming, the antediluvian patriarchs buried the site in the hope that it would one day be uncovered. Methuselah apparently died the very year of the flood. In this way, they could point to the one true faith - Christianity.
It points to Christianity? Did I say that?
Well, the Bible says that where the corpse/body is there the vultures/eagles will gather. What is there, mostly, is pictures of vultures feeding on corpses. Or as one might interpret it, on the body of Christ, those who have fallen asleep in Him, rising from the dead on the wings of eagles. The ambiguity between vultures and eagles, and the corpse and the body is a reference to the return of the Lord, where some die, and others are given life by death. It was an expression of the hope of the resurrection despite the coming destruction. Here's a video link showing some of these vulture/eagles so you can get the idea -
More prominent than the eagles, every worship location is characterized by circular walls supporting multi-ton T-shaped decorative cross-like stones. And the complex is very large. It is impossible for the unbelieving archeologists to interpret this as predictive of Christ. Instead they must find some other meaning, some other culture, something that is not Biblical. Convention requires it.
Thus they will fail to notice that the depictions of scorpions and spiders and every unclean animal that is posted on every cross, (along with the clean, even lambs) at this clearly pre-Christian site declares that all things are made clean in Christ, in whom is all glory. And they will not understand the significance of the fact that the site itself was buried only to be found again in these last days. So that even if the people fail to give the Lord praise in these last days, the rocks and the hills will cry out. It has been resurrected. And it lifts high one thing - the cross.
Did the patriarchs foresee that nothing except giant stones would last the flood of time? The Book of Enoch, though many copies were found in Qumran, may yet be pseudepigraphal. But I'm not so sure about the writings of this ancient mound. In this case, we have an actual autograph, not just a copy.
Now for my pitch ...
Would you like to examine with me the remains of the Book of Enoch found in the caves of Qumran, by the shore of the Dead Sea? So sorry. We can't do that because I haven't yet raised the money I need to open up the first 24/7 Scrolls Reference Hall. I was thinking that someone would pass the word on for me that I was looking to form a board of directors for this so that I wouldn't have to do it myself. I have maps to complete so I can write my books. I can't be spending my time raising funds.
Meantime, I've got to drive down to Miami to access Discoveries in the Judean Dessert (DJD) and my other passion, Migne's PG and PL. That's a three hour trip - well worth it. But we'll have to get an early start because the library closes at 4pm.
Just in case you missed it, the reason I blog here is to bring attention to the fact that I have very limited access to the materials I need to write my books. I am willing to open up a library 24 hours a day, seven days a week, that would make these materials available to everyone, so that I could devote myself full time to writing and making such a facility available to others who would like to do the same. I need to raise about $200,000 for the purpose. If you can help, or if you know of anyone else who can help, please send them a link to this blog.
Also, just to clarify about my last blog, no - it does not need to be located next to a 7-11 or BP gas station. The idea there is that I'm open to suggestions. Whatever works. Hello? Is anybody out there?
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