Guest essay by Fred F. Mueller
While many people will agree that some of the stories recorded in the Old Testament might not be taken too literally, this book nevertheless deserves a lot of respect for the fact that is represents the collective wisdom and historical records of a nomad populace that roamed vast swathes of Egypt, Mesopotamia and adjacent regions before finally settling in what is now known as Israel.
These tribes were highly intelligent and had a remarkably good understanding of many basic rules governing their daily life. Given the hygienic knowledge and standards of these times, rules determining how to prepare kosher food certainly had the beneficial additional effect of preventing the spread of diseases such as trichinosis or salmonella infections.
The old Jews had a basic but efficient set of laws called the Ten Commandments and, by observing the Shabbat, also practiced a very early form of work hour limitation. And, over a time period probably spanning back thousands of years into the fogs of unrecorded early human history, they kept the collective memory of key weather events and natural disasters such as Noah’s flood or the (probably volcanic) annihilation of Gomorrah. A very remarkable exploit of the Old Testament is the description of the Ten Plagues affecting Egypt. One can view them as a line-up of the worst natural incidents these people ever had lived and recorded over a period of probably several thousand years. Which now brings me to the decisive point: the list does not include freezing temperatures and deep snow.
Hail, but neither snow nor subzero temperatures
While the Ten Plagues included hail storms, the records clearly limit their impact to the destruction of crops and the battering to death of cattle and humans alike. Such events are extremely violent but also very ephemeral. The Bible makes no mention of bitter cold or of lasting snowfall. Given the high intelligence and excellent observation skills of the ancient Jews, one might feel enticed to suggest that during hundreds if not thousands of years, weather events of this type simply did not occur in their habitat.
Which now brings me to the decisive point: while the proponents of the theory of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming (CAGW) insist that the temperatures of the planet are set to rise in an accelerating mode that we won’t be able to control least we adopt drastic climate protecting measures a.s.a.p., we just learn that in the Sinai desert, a region to the south-west of Israel, four hikers have died in a blizzard. They lost their way and sadly froze to death in deep snow at temperatures well below the freezing point. Pictures in the internet show camels knee-deep in snowdrifts.
If one pieces together this information and biblical records, one might feel entitled to draw the conclusion that such a weather event hasn’t been observed in the region for several thousand years. Not exactly an indication of runaway temperatures, at least not a rush to the northern regions of the mercury scale. And this wasn’t a singular event. Over a prolonged time period and a wide area, the Middle East might have been experiencing its worst cold snap in several hundred if not thousand years.
This certainly does not harmonize with stories about runaway temperatures sizzling our planet. If the Bible is right, the CAGW theory seems to have hit some serious snag. Maybe it would be a good suggestion to tell these people to go back to the drawing boards and proceed to an in-depth makeover of their simulation software…
[Note: some commenters questioned why this essay was posted, I simply saw it as an interesting discussion of recorded historical events, something that scholars worldwide look to document. The Roman Warm Period is well known and also much studied, and it coincides with many writings in the Bible. Wikipedia says:
Theophrastus (371 – c. 287 BC) wrote that date trees could grow in Greece if planted, but could not set fruit there. This is the same situation as today, and suggests that southern Aegean mean summer temperatures in the fourth and fifth centuries BC were within a degree of modern temperatures. This and other literary fragments from the time confirm that the Greek climate during that period was basically the same as it was around 2000 AD. Dendrochronological evidence from wood found at the Parthenon shows variability of climate in the fifth century BC resembling the modern pattern of variation.[3] Tree rings from Italy in the late third century BC indicate a period of mild conditions in the area at the time that Hannibal crossed the Alps with elephants.[4]
The phrase “Roman Warm Period” appears in a 1995 doctoral thesis.[5] It was popularized by an article published in Nature in 1999.
Anyone reading anything more into this posting, or thinking that I’m endorsing the idea that the bible “disproves global warming” should think again. – Anthony]
JohnB says:
February 25, 2014 at 6:59 am
Given the wide range of the stories it is more likely that the accounts record a comet impact.
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a comet impact would explain many of the events 10-15 K yrs ago.
Evangelical Christian here, and I use the same argument whenever someone gives me grief about evolution. Gravity. Point out to me where the Good Book mentions gravity.
I’ll wait.
(As the late great Stephen J Gould said, the Bible is not a treatise on Natural History)
@ur momisugly Gary Pearse says:
February 25, 2014 at 6:44 am
Surely on Jesus’s birthday there would have been mention of snow if the wise men had to travel through it or if it had been bitterly cold on that day.
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The wise men didn’t show up until almost two years after Jesus’ birth. The Greek word used means a young child, not an infant. They came to house where he was living with his parents and when Herod blew his cork he has all children, two years of age and younger, murdered according to the time given by the Magi. Your fun fact for the day. :o)
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If you look at the plagues critically, it is obvious that this is a description of the eruption of Thera (Santorini) in the Mediterranean (c. 1600BC). Especially this verse:
So they took ashes from a furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses threw it toward the sky, and it became boils breaking out with sores on man and beast (through all the land of Egypt). Exodus 9:10
There could be no better description of the long-range ash fallout from the eruption of Thera. Combine this with a great tsunami (the waters retreating), and you have a first-class eye-witness description of the eruption of Thera.
Ralph
I knew this post would bring out the insecure Bible haters. Yes, for them, their religion is global warming…
Does Santorini explain how a wooden ship the size of an aircraft carrier is claimed to have ended up run aground 12,000 feet up Mt Ararat?
Zaphod Beeblebrox (Part time Galactic President) says:
February 25, 2014 at 7:12 am
The non-Jews didn’t sicken and die from eating pork. If they had, there would have been no need for
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nonsense. a disease that kills for example 1-100 doesn’t significantly reduce a fighting force. But if the 1 in 100 is one of your children you will seek to prevent the disease.
but… but.. but… I got a Christmas Card that showed me a picture of Bethlehem with snow falling!!!! /SARC
Hippopotami lived in the Near East in “biblical” times. The farthest north they got in this interglacial was apparently the Orontes River in Syria, which suggests that at least prolonged periods of freezing weather must have been exceedingly rare there.
During the previous interglacial their northern limit was in Yorkshire and the Rhine valley.
Does proper cooking destroy trichinosis bacteria?
I repeat, we northern Europeans have munched our way through countless pigs over countless centuries and we are still here.
Let me see –
Zaphod Beeblebrox (Part time Galactic President) says:
February 25, 2014 at 4:23 am
Lets try and keep mythology and science separate. Attempting to use one to validate the other just serves to diminish both
Part time president, what is the problem you see here? Modern climatology IS mythology, thus what you are saying is that we shouldn’t discuss “modern climate science,” correct, when you use the term “mythology?” Not being an atheist, I tend to take exception at referring to the Bible and any religion associated with it, as mythology. Please keep your anti-religious views out of discussions, if you don’t mind. Look at the post from the point of view from which it was written.
seriously, remember that the ancient Hebrews were primarily mountain people, as the Philistines and other, stronger “people of the plains” held the low lying areas, which was where the really good farmland was. Even in the temperate regions, mountaintops will still get snow and ice in the winter.
this is also the most likely, and much more prosaic, reason for the ban on pork. There is a distinction that has happened in many places between a semi-nomadic herding culture, which generally is a “sheep and goat” culture, in terms of the animals raised (a “pastoral” lifestyle), and the “pig and cattle” culture, which is more associated with lowland settlements. People living on rocky, sparsely vegetated hillsides and mountains tend to develop a “sheep and goat” culture, because those are the domestic animals that do best in those conditions. Meanwhile, the wicked “people of the plains”, who have all the good farmland, are using it to raise beef for the rich, and pork for the poor. Banning that meat from consumption is a way of saying “don’t be one of them, be one of us!!!” Much the same thing as circumcision – a tightly focused group struggling for survival develops rituals which give them a common sense of identity, distinct from those around them. (Groups that don’t do that just blend into the general population and disappear)
a final bit of trivia – not saying much to say there’s no hard evidence of Hebrews in Egypt – what evidence would slaves lead? Egyptologists still don’t know who the Sea Peoples were, for heaven’s sake. (and I’m not saying those people were Hebrew, just that there is a lot about the past that we just don’t know) A bit of internal evidence, not “proof” of course, but it is interesting that the most important founder of Judaism was a man with an Egyptian name – Moses. Pharaoh Tutmoses, anyone? (no, they weren’t the same person, but whoever “Moses” was, he clearly had a respected Egyptian name)
Zaphod, I believe it does. IIRC meat needs to be heated to at least 55 degrees C to kill bacteria, which is why food poisoning is more common among people who like their food “rare”. The Romans, Greeks and others went for “extremely well done”.
Another point to consider is that when the agriculture isn’t really that far above subsistence levels it makes little sense to keep animals that require special preparations for eating. With the possible problems they had with pigs, it might simply have been easier to ban them and use the resources to raise sheep and goats.
Consider also the extreme changes in the region as evidenced by the 70 odd metre change in water level in the Dead Sea during the 1st C BC. The graph is from a reconstruction done in 1985.
Thanks FredMueller.
Things that make you go hmmm.
Living in the neighbourhood of the people with “200 words for snow”, if snow was common it would be part of the language, common words.
Good thing we decedents of Christians kept printing copies of the Jewish oral history, people who depend on weather to survive, have good memories.
On a similar note, those viking being exhumed in Greenland , still have to be jackhammered out or the ground thawed around them, but they were buried with a wooden spade.
wws, the occurrence of circumcision is much more closely aligned to the availability of fresh water than being a mere “ritual”. The bottom line is that sand gets in under the foreskin and the chafing leads to infection and death or incapacitation. The practice is much less common if there is plenty of water for washing. AFAIK all cultures from dry areas did it, from the Australian Aboriginals to the Bronze Age Middle East.
Zaphod & Co., here’s something to mess with your heads.
One of the first words in the first book of the ancient writings commonly known as ‘the bible’ is the Hebrew word for light (אוֹר). It is made up of three letters: aleph, waw and resh. Now Hebrew is a very versatile language with many shades and depths of meaning and nuance. One characteristic of Hebrew, like many other pictoral languages, is its ability to represent abstract conceptual ideas, even in single letters.
Looked at from this conceptual point of view, the Hebrew word for light encompasses the following ideas: aleph, which is associated with the physical world, represents matter; waw, much like the English word wave, represents energy; and resh represents time itself, again by association with and proximity to other time-related words.
So here’s a thought for you. How in the name of all that is holy could Moses have known over three thousand years ago that light is made up of particle and wave, of matter and energy? Not only that, but according to this line of thought, light even encompasses time as we know it! I mean we’re seriously into uncharted territory here. So Moses understood quantum mechanics?
Surely even the most hardened of atheists has to pause for thought here. I didn’t make this up, it’s just an observation of the evidence before me. Enjoy!
Being a logical thinker and one who does not think kindly of bias and prejudice, I find the Bible, and all such ancient texts, fascinating reads. People trying to figure out their place in the world. Trying to understand pain and triumph that seems greater than they themselves can bring about. And trying to make order out of chaos. We are, as a human race, constantly trying to do that in the here and now, either through a government or through a religion, and are constantly trying to “be present” in some way even though we are dead and gone, again through a government or through a religion. Incredibly fascinating.
I found the following website very interesting:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/archeology-hebrew-bible.html
Schitzree says: February 25, 2014 at 5:55 am
“Heck, I even respect the beliefs of Atheists and Warmists. I just wish fewer of each would stop demanding that everyone must convert or be punished.”
Hysterical! Since “convert or be punished” is the whole basis of your Christian religion.
At least Atheist don’t endorse a system in which they will be in the penthouse suite partying with the master while 90% of humanity is in the basement enduring endless torture prescribed by the host of the their party.
I give up. When they build windmills on your garden, and grind your children up for carrier bags – remember, you lot caused it with your inane religio-babble.
They didn’t have the concept of gravity. But they did have gravity. How do I know, you ask? Simple … Things fell and when they did so it was in a downward direction. QED. 😉
When people try to read too much into the Bible I’m reminded of: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5
Zaphod Beeblebrox (Part time Galactic President) says:
February 25, 2014 at 7:37 am
Does proper cooking destroy trichinosis bacteria?
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Please! If you’re arguing science versus biblical veracity, at least know your science. Trichinosis is caused by the larvae of a roundworm, not a bacterium.
Looked at from this conceptual point of view, can any one explain how a simple Hebrew “book” of stories and verbal traditions passed from ear to ear for hundreds of generations by a nomadic tribes who used no “numbers” larger than “seven times seventy” got every SEQUENCE of what we now believe is “science” exactly right? Can anyone explain how these ignorant shepherds got each sequence from the Big Bang through astrophysics through planetary development and geology to the concept of continental drift and the atmosphere and biology and and evolution right?
They spoke about life beginning on earth with plants, and only after the plants were living was the atmosphere clear enough to reveal the stars and moon above so we could navigate and wonder about other worlds to develop science itself. They taught about life itself starting in the oceans long after plants, developing on to land only later. They taught about birds (dinosaurs) coming before mammals, and they correctly spoke about snakes coming last of all other species.
Jan, you mentioned the letters, but look a bit further into the nuclear physics they described correctly: There was nothing, then everything was created, but with a great disturbance or wind. Only then, after the Creation of everything, did light appear as the energy cooled. Then, after light, matter condensed – and it had to condense because you must have matter to separate the light from the darkness by shadows. (To be technical, notice that “creation” is used only twice – first when everything was made from nothing – just as the Big Bang requires, then a second time to make man’s soul – but we digress from the scientific sequence these shepherds spoke about.)
Gravity certainly gathered the waters (well interstellar fluids, plasmas, dust, gasses, and particles certainly act like a “water’ doesn’t it?) galacticly (above) and locally (below) into a sphere with a single ocean and a single land.
Do I believe in the Big Bang and evolution and a spherical planet rotating about a moving star in a far larger galaxy? Sure! The Bible already told us about each one in amazing detail!
Praying this thread doesn’t get closed.
http://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/popcorn_seinfeld.gif
Lukewarmerist says:
February 25, 2014 at 8:29 am
I give up. When they build windmills on your garden, and grind your children up for carrier bags – remember, you lot caused it with your inane religio-babble.
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This is a remarkable leap for someone purporting to subscribe only to logic and reason.
The books in the Bible have been edited. Emperor Constantine sponsored a convention where the delegates decided which books would be included in the official Bible. However, I don’t know whether the delegates edited the books for content.