Thursday, December 27, 2012

Jesus was born years earlier than thought, claims Pope

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The entire Christian calendar is based on a miscalculation, the Pope has declared, as he claims in a new book that Jesus was born several years earlier than commonly believed.

The Pope also weighs in on the debate over Christ's birthplace Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

By Nick Squires, Rome

4:02PM GMT 21 Nov 2012

The 'mistake' was made by a sixth century monk known as Dionysius Exiguus or in English Dennis the Small, the 85-year-old pontiff claims in the book 'Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives', published on Wednesday.

"The calculation of the beginning of our calendar – based on the birth of Jesus – was made by Dionysius Exiguus, who made a mistake in his calculations by several years," the Pope writes in the book, which went on sale around the world with an initial print run of a million copies.

"The actual date of Jesus's birth was several years before."

The assertion that the Christian calendar is based on a false premise is not new – many historians believe that Christ was born sometime between 7BC and 2BC.

But the fact that doubts over one of the keystones of Christian tradition have been raised by the leader of the world's one billion Catholics is striking.
Dennis the Small, who was born in Eastern Europe, is credited with being the "inventor" of the modern calendar and the concept of the Anno Domini era.

He drew up the new system in part to distance it from the calendar in use at the time, which was based on the years since the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian.

The emperor had persecuted Christians, so there was good reason to expunge him from the new dating system in favour of one inspired by the birth of Christ.

The monk's calendar became widely accepted in Europe after it was adopted by the Venerable Bede, the historian-monk, to date the events that he recounted in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which he completed in AD 731.

But exactly how Dennis calculated the year of Christ's birth is not clear and the Pope's claim that he made a mistake is a view shared by many scholars.

The Bible does not specify a date for the birth of Christ. The monk instead appears to have based his calculations on vague references to Jesus's age at the start of his ministry and the fact that he was baptised in the reign of the emperor Tiberius.

Christ's birth date is not the only controversy raised by the Pope in his new book – he also said that contrary to the traditional Nativity scene, there were no oxen, donkeys or other animals at Jesus's birth.

He also weighs in on the debate over Christ's birthplace, rejecting arguments by some scholars that he was born in Nazareth rather than Bethlehem.

John Barton, Professor of the Interpretation of the Holy Scripture at Oriel College, Oxford University, said most academics agreed with the Pope that the Christian calendar was wrong and that Jesus was born several years earlier than commonly thought, probably between 6BC and 4BC.

"There is no reference to when he was born in the Bible - all we know is that he was born in the reign of Herod the Great, who died before 1AD," he told The Daily Telegraph. "It's been surmised for a very long time that Jesus was born before 1AD - no one knows for sure."

The idea that Christ was born on Dec 25 also has no basis in historical fact. "We don't even know which season he was born in. The whole idea of celebrating his birth during the darkest part of the year is probably linked to pagan traditions and the winter solstice."

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Taken from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/9693576/Jesus-was-born-years-earlier-than-thought-claims-Pope.html

Sunday, December 16, 2012

The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse

A query from France:

Dear Damien,

Do you know “The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse” by Patrick Heron (Kensington Publishing Corp., 2004).? It offers many interesting views on mythologies and Egypt. I read it because I am writing an article on “the days of Noah” (Mt24:36-38 or Lc17:26) . Transhumanism looks terribly similar, if not much worse, to the deeds of the Nephilim before and after the Flood. So I am just curious to know if you, perchance, have any opinion on this author and his theses.

I wish you a holy and merry Christmas !

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Damien Mackey replies:

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I once went to a lecture where it was even suggested that the Egyptians may originally have come from the Moon. As I see it, the Nephilim came into being when the originally good Sethite line (the children of God) began to mingle with the corrupt Cain-ites. Their progeny were the Nephilim hybrids. This was all pre-Flood (c. 2300 BC), of course, well before the Pyramids of Giza were built. There were also giants after the Flood. Children of Ham, perhaps. Some think that Naamah was Noah's second wife, a Cain-ite, and that Ham procreated with her - the cursed Caanan being the outcome. Surely the giants are archaeologically available to us still in the Neanderthal 'brutes', who could nonetheless be highly intelligent and capable of great deeds. In any case, none of this has anything to do with fallen angels copulating with earth women, I believe. That is a ridiculous notion. Almost a millennium later than the Flood, when Moses was young, the Hebrew slaves (amongst others) were the labour for the pyramids to be built (according to Josephus). This was Egypt's 4th dynasty. Khufu, in my opinion, was the father of the Egyptian foster-mother of Moses, Merris (= Meresankh). Chephren (Greek Chenephres), Khufu's successor, was the husband of Merris. The Hebrews did far more than that, they also laboured in mighty agricultural and irrigation works. Obviously the overseers of all this labour were highly skilled men. But they were not non-humans, or demi-gods, or even UFO people.

Have a very happy and blessed Christmas yourself.

Damien M.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Amazing New Satellite Archaeology

Egypt's lost pyramids: Spied from space by satellite, 17 tombs buried by sands of time

By Fiona Macrae

UPDATED:23:49 GMT, 25 May 2011

More than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements found
Findings are a major boost to relatively new science of space archaeology

Indiana Jones found success with little more than a bullwhip and a fedora. These days however, if you want to make your mark as an archaeologist, a bit of space technology works wonders.
Satellites have helped locate 17 pyramids and 3,000 ancient settlements hidden underground in Egypt.
More than 1,000 burial sites were also discovered thanks to infra-red technology capable of probing beneath the desert sands from 450 miles above the Earth.

Pyramid of Djoser: Many more are thought to be buried underground. The cameras on the satellites are so powerful that they can precisely image objects on Earth that are less than one metre in diameter

Astounded researchers on the ground have already confirmed that two of the pyramids exist - and they believe there are thousands more unknown sites in the region.
NASA-funded archaeologist Sarah Parcak said: ‘I couldn’t believe we could locate so many sites. To excavate a pyramid is the dream of every archaeologist.’
The finds are hugely significant. Until the latest discoveries there were thought to have been almost 140 pyramids across Egypt.
But experts have long argued that there must be many more that remain undiscovered, buried by the sands of time. Dr Parcak, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, analysed images from satellites equipped with cameras so powerful they can zoom in on objects less than three feet in diameter on the Earth’s surface.

Saqqara satellite shot

The amazing satellite images have revealed pyramids and ancient homes

A satellite image of an area of Tanis that shows the city to be littered with underground tombs.

Ancient streetmap: A satellite image shows Tanis to be a city littered with underground tombs. Buildings in ancient Egypt were constructed out of mud brick - the material is dense, allowing satellites orbiting above Earth to photograph the outlines of structures invisible to the human eye

Hidden history: This image of Tanis shows the difference between what the naked eye can see and the underground details that the high-powered satellite camera can pick up

THE LOST ARK IN A LOST CITY?

In Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tanis is named as the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant.
The film chronicles the archaeologist adventurer's race against the Nazis to recover the Ark - which they want as they believe it will make them invincible.

With the help of his dead mentor's daughter Marion - an old girlfriend of his - tracks down the Well of Souls, the secret chamber in which the Ark is buried, before they do.

From the Well of Souls he recovers the Ark, but the Nazis steal it off them.

But when they open it to unleash its power, it releases a stream of demonic apparitions which destroy those who look at them.

Dr Parcak told the BBC: 'I could see the data as it was emerging, but for me the "a-ha" moment was when I could step back and look at everything that we'd found.'
The mud bricks used by ancient Egyptians are much denser than the sand and soil that surrounds them, allowing the shapes of homes, temples, tombs and other structures built thousands of years ago to be seen by satellites orbiting 435miles above Earth to photograph the outlines of structures invisible to the human eye.

The cameras on the satellites are so powerful that they can precisely image objects on Earth that are less than one metre in diameter.

The researchers' findings are a major boost to the relatively new science of space archaeology.
Their most promising excavations are taking place in Tanis, the hiding place of the Ark of the Covenant in the 1981 Indiana Jones blockbuster Raiders of the Lost Ark, where they are uncovering a 3,000-year-old house.
Excitingly, the outline of the house exactly matches the shape seen on the satellite images.
Two pyramids at Saqqara – the burial ground for the ancient capital of Memphis – have already been confirmed by excavations and the site is being hailed as one of the most important in Egyptian archaeology. The oldest pyramids ever discovered were built in Saqqara around 2,600BC.

Only the beginning: Archaeologist Dr Sarah Parcak points out the site of a buried pyramid on a satellite image

The camera's high level of accuracy has impressed the Egyptian government, which now plans to use the technology to identify and protect its colossal heritage in the future.
Dr Parcak, whose work will feature in the BBC documentary Egypt’s Lost Cities on Monday, believes that there are many more buildings buried deeper than those already spotted, the most likely location being under the banks of the River Nile.
She said: 'These are just the sites close to the surface. There are many thousands of additional sites that the Nile has covered over with silt.
'This is just the beginning of this kind of work.'

Digging deep: The archaeologists' most promising excavations are taking place in the ancient city of Tanis

She told the BBC: ‘It just shows us how easy it is to underestimate both the size and scale of past human settlements.
‘These are just the sites [close to] the surface. There are many thousands of additional sites that the Nile has covered over with silt. This is just the beginning of this kind of work.’
She said the technology could be used to monitor the looting of antiquities, as well as to engage young people around the world in science and help archaeologists in their quest to uncover the secrets of the past.
The archaeologist said, ‘We have to think bigger and that’s what the satellites allow us to do. Indiana Jones is old school. We’ve moved on from Indy, sorry Harrison Ford.’

• A hidden chamber unseen for 4,500 years may have been discovered inside the Great Pyramid of Giza. A robotic probe designed by British engineers found hieroglyphs inside a tunnel that leads from the pyramid’s Queen’s chamber, New Scientist magazine reports. Cameras have also sent back images of a stone door which it is thought could lead to a hidden chamber.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Russia acts as countdown to doomsday prophecy sparks unrest

Date December 4, 2012

The end is near ... bouts of psychosis in Russia are being attributed to the Mayan's New Age prophecy. El Castillo situated in Chichen Itza is believed to be an ideal representation of the Mayan calendar.

MOSCOW: There are reports of unusual behaviour from across Russia's nine time zones.
Inmates in a women's prison near the Chinese border are said to have experienced a ''collective mass psychosis'' so intense that their wardens summoned a priest to calm them. In a factory town east of Moscow, panicked citizens stripped shelves of matches, kerosene, sugar and candles. A huge Mayan-style archway is being built - out of ice - on Karl Marx Street in Chelyabinsk in the south.
For those not schooled in New Age prophecy, there are rumours the world will end on December 21, 2012, when a 5125-year cycle known as the Long Count in the Mayan calendar supposedly comes to a close. Russia, a nation with a penchant for mystical thinking, has taken notice.
Last week, Russia's government decided to put an end to the doomsday talk. Its minister of emergency situations said on Friday that he had access to ''methods of monitoring what is occurring on the planet Earth,'' and that he could say with confidence that the world was not going to end in December. He acknowledged, however, that Russians were still vulnerable to ''blizzards, ice storms, tornadoes, floods, trouble with transportation and food supply, breakdowns in heat, electricity and water supply.''

''You cannot endlessly speak about the end of the world, and I say this as a doctor,'' said Leonid Ogul, a member of Parliament's environment committee. ''Everyone has a different nervous system, and this kind of information affects them differently. Information acts subconsciously. Some people are provoked to laughter, some to heart attacks, and some - to some negative actions.''

Russia is not the only country to face this problem. In France, the authorities plan to bar access to Bugarach mountain in the south to keep out a flood of visitors who believe it is a sacred place that will protect a lucky few from the end of the world. The patriarch of Ukraine's Orthodox Church recently issued a statement assuring the faithful that ''doomsday is sure to come,'' but that it will be provoked by the moral decline of mankind.''
In Yucatan state in Mexico, which has a large Mayan population, most place little stock in end-of-days talk. Officials are planning a Mayan cultural festival on December 21 and, to show that all will be well after that, a follow-up in 2013.
Last week, lawmakers took up the matter, addressing a letter to Russia's main television stations asking them to stop airing material about the prophecy.
Russians are approaching the deadline with their characteristic mordant humour. An entrepreneur in the city of Tomsk has sold several thousand emergency kits, a $29 package including sprats, vodka, matches, candles, a string and a piece of soap.
The motto on the package is a classic refrain of the Russian optimist: ''It can't be worse.''