BY MICHAEL SNYDER/END OF THE AMERICAN DREAM MARCH 11, 2024
Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated in more countries than any other national festival. St. Patrick really existed, and the ripple effects of what he accomplished during his lifetime are still being felt today. Sadly, very few people know the true story of this remarkable man.
St. Patrick really existed, and the ripple effects of what he accomplished during his lifetime are still being felt today. Sadly, very few people know the true story of this remarkable man. If you have a few moments, please let me share that story with you.
Once you understand what really happened, you will never view St. Patrick’s Day the same way again.
Today, most people regard St. Patrick’s Day as an excuse to wear green and get drunk. According to Wikipedia, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated in more nations “than any other national festival”…
Saint Patrick’s Day is a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador (for provincial government employees), and the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat. It is also widely celebrated in the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, United States, Argentina, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand, especially amongst Irish diaspora.
Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated in more countries than any other national festival. Modern celebrations have been greatly influenced by those of the Irish diaspora, particularly those that developed in North America. However, there has been criticism of Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations for having become too commercialized and for fostering negative stereotypes of the Irish people.
So was there an actual historical figure that inspired this holiday?
Yes, but the truth is that the real St. Patrick wasn’t even Irish.
Maewyn Succat was born in Britain some time around AD 387 to Christian parents.
But he did not embrace the faith of his parents during his youth.
In fact, he considered himself to be “idle and callow” when he was a boy.
A turning point came when he was taken captive by Irish raiders at the age of 16…
At the age of 16, Patrick was taken prisoner by a group of Irish raiders who were attacking his family’s estate. They transported him to Ireland where he spent six years in captivity. (There is some dispute over where this captivity took place. Although many believe he was taken to live in Mount Slemish in County Antrim, it is more likely that he was held in County Mayo near Killala.)
During this time, he worked as a shepherd, outdoors and away from people. Lonely and afraid, he turned to his religion for solace, becoming a devout Christian. (It is also believed that Patrick first began to dream of converting the Irish people to Christianity during his captivity.)
He was finally able to escape after six years in Ireland, and he was reunited with his family.
But some time later he was instructed in a dream to return to Ireland as a missionary…
After more than six years as a prisoner, Patrick escaped. According to his writing, a voice–which he believed to be God’s–spoke to him in a dream, telling him it was time to leave Ireland.
To do so, Patrick walked from County Mayo, where it is believed he was held, to the Irish coast. After escaping to Britain, Patrick reported that he experienced a second revelation–an angel in a dream tells him to return to Ireland as a missionary.
Patrick’s return to Ireland was spectacularly successful.
Vast numbers of people gave their lives to Christ, and he founded hundreds of churches…
St. Patrick was tremendously effective and saw many pagans turn to put their faith in Christ. Despite how his extant writings testify to how much he missed his homeland, he chose to live and serve among the Irish he grew to love. He even suffered imprisonment and persecution at the hands of the Druids.
But his dedicated and tireless evangelistic efforts, according to tradition, resulted in his baptizing 120,000 new believers and building over 300 churches in Ireland. He served and worked among the people for 30 years before he died on March 17, 461, and was buried in Ireland.
Patrick’s preaching was accompanied by extraordinary miracles.
According to one source, Patrick actually raised 33 people from the dead during his ministry…
“For the blind and the lame, the deaf and the dumb, the palsied, the lunatic, the leprous, the epileptic, all who labored under any disease, did he in the Name of the Holy Trinity restore unto the power of their limbs and unto entire health; and in these good deeds was he daily practiced. Thirty and three dead men, some of whom had been many years buried, did this great reviver raise from the dead, as above we have more fully recorded.”
The above is quoted from The Life and Acts of St. Patrick, translated from the original Latin of Jocelin, Cistercian monk of Furnes of the 12th century, by Edmund L. Swift, Esq., Dublin, 1908.
Patrick started a fire which literally continued for hundreds of years.
The churches that he established sent out missionaries that took the gospel throughout Europe and all over the known world…
The churches and monasteries that he was responsible for establishing became some of the most influential missionary centers in all of Europe. Missionaries went out from Ireland to spread the gospel throughout the world. It was the Irish monasteries that helped preserve the Christian faith during the dark ages.
Patrick was the most influential figure in the history of Celtic Christianity, but as I stated earlier, he was not Irish.
He was born in Britain, and it turns out that his ancestors actually came to Britain from the land of Israel…
So now, back to the question: was he really Jewish? It’s a funny thing that two apparently Anglo heroes of old have origins in the Promised Land! Patron saint of England, St George, came from Lod near Tel Aviv (where Ben Gurion Airport is today) with a Greek father and Palestinian mother, although George probably wasn’t Jewish. Early writings, however, suggest that St Patrick was. Moreover, that he was from the tribe of Judah:
“Of the sons of Israel Patrick was verily. But when the children of Israel were scattered by Titus and Vesapian in bondage throughout the four quarters of the world, then did Patrick’s stock come to Brittany because St Patrick’s stock is of the sons of Israel.”
At the time that Patrick was born, there was a large number of people of Jewish descent living in Britain, and many of them “believed in Jesus as Messiah”…
Many Jewish people fled the land of Israel as Roman oppression stepped up, and were effectively forced from the country in 135 AD after a Jewish revolt. Jewish communities developed in the surrounding nations, including Jewish families who believed in Jesus as Messiah while maintaining Jewish customs and lifestyle.
Patrick was from an aristocratic background, and many names of the nobility in Brittany at that time were Jewish. As the Roman Empire waned in the fourth century, a family known as the Merovingian Dynasty, revered for being related to Jesus, became more visible. They still kept many Jewish traditions such as laws related to ritual purity, keeping the Sabbath, and celebrating Passover rather than Easter. There are numerous ridiculous legends surrounding this bloodline, but suffice to say, they had come to live in the area of Brittany and early records indicate he was part of this family.
“When Miliuc [Patrick’s slave master] saw that he was a faithful man, he bought him from the other three, that he might serve him alone. And Patrick served after the custom of the Hebrews”.
“After our Lord had died on the cross for the sins of the human race, the Roman army, laid waste Judea, and Jews taken captive were dispersed among all the nations of the earth. Some of them settled among the Amoric Britons, and it is stated that it was from them that St Patrick traced his origin.”
Today, we would refer to Patrick as a “Messianic Christian”.
Even though he is now considered to be a saint by the Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church, the Church of Ireland and the Eastern Orthodox Church, Patrick did not believe what they believe.
In fact, in Patrick’s original writings he “never mentions either Rome or the pope”…
“He (Patrick) never mentions either Rome or the pope or hints that he was in any way connected with the ecclesiastical capital of Italy. He recognizes no other authority but that of the word of God. …When Palladius arrived in the country, it was not to be expected that he would receive a very hearty welcome from the Irish apostle. If he was sent by [pope] Celestine to the native Christians to be their primate or archbishop, no wonder that stout-hearted Patrick refused to bow his neck to any such yoke of bondage.” (Dr. Killen, Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, vol.1, pp.12-15)
During Patrick’s time and in the centuries that followed, the Celtic Church did things very differently than the Catholic Church did…
Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, the Celtic church did not believe in purgatory. They did not pray to Mary and did not honor the Pope. Their clergy married and reared children. They baptized believers, not infants, by immersion. And… are you ready for this? They celebrated Passover. They did not celebrate Rome’s Easter, and they kept God’s 7th day Sabbath. They shunned unclean meats and decried the Roman Church’s hierarchy.
Their burning desire was to keep the faith of the original apostles alive.
This faith had been transported from the land of Israel to the land of Britain, and under St. Patrick a revival began that swept across the entire known world.
Sadly, hardly anyone knows about any of the things that I have just shared with you.
Instead, in our time St. Patrick’s Day is considered to be a time for drinking and partying.
So please share this article as widely as you can, because the amazing true story of St. Patrick deserves to be known all over the globe.
Today is All Saints’ Day, a day when Roman Catholics around the world pay homage to their canonized saints. But let’s shatter the usual narrative and cast the spotlight where it’s often deliberately avoided—on the indomitable Protestant martyrs who were gruesomely executed by the Roman Catholic Church. These were not mere dissenters or reformers—these were defenders of the gospel who chose excruciating death over compromising their convictions. And while the Roman Catholic Church would love for their stories to be discounted, wiped out, made into mere footnotes in religious history, the reality is that they are monumental testimonies to the enduring power of the Holy Spirit through faith in the face of relentless persecution.
Over the centuries, countless men and women have faced unspeakable horrors and brutal executions, most often at the hands of Roman Catholics, all because they dared to challenge a religious system they believed was corrupt and contrary to the teachings of Scripture. These certainly were not rabble-rousers or anarchists, these were men and women rooted in the Word of God, who held to their convictions with an unyielding resolve that should stir every believing heart.
The bloody era of the Reformation encapsulates the severity of what was at stake. Men like William Tyndale, who was strangled and burned at the stake, gave their lives so that the Bible could be read in the vernacular. Tyndale’s crime? Translating the Scriptures into English so that even the common plowboy could have access to God’s Word. He wasn’t doing this to try to undermine civil order. Rather, his mission was to ensure that the true gospel could be understood by the people, free from the convoluted doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church.
Then there was Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, burned alive in Oxford for their belief in the authority of Scripture over church traditions, the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and the rejection of papal authority. These were educated men who had much to lose in terms of earthly goods and reputation. Yet, when they were given the choice to recant these specific beliefs or die, they chose the latter. Why? Because they understood that allegiance to these core tenets of the gospel was far more important than sparing their earthly lives. Their deaths were not in vain but served as a roaring declaration that such foundational truths could not be suppressed.
John Huss, a predecessor to Martin Luther, met a similar fate. He was burned at the stake for heresy, a charge leveraged against him for his criticisms of the moral failings and theological errors within the Roman Catholic Church.
Jerome of Prague was not merely a close associate of John Huss but a compelling theologian and philosopher in his own right. He was a master of multiple languages and well-versed in both the Scriptures and the early church fathers. Having studied at the universities of Prague, Oxford, Paris, and Heidelberg, Jerome was an intellectual force to be reckoned with. He was deeply influenced by the teachings of John Wycliffe and his fellow countryman John Huss. Together with Huss, Jerome sought to reform the Roman Catholic Church, challenging its excesses, doctrinal errors, and unbiblical practices.
But Jerome’s brilliance and commitment to the gospel would put him on a collision course with the Roman Catholic hierarchy. He was arrested and charged with heresy, much like his friend Huss. Jerome initially recanted his views under the threat of execution but later revoked his recantation, unable to betray his conscience and the truths he found in the Scriptures. In 1416, about a year after the execution of John Huss, Jerome too was burned at the stake. But even as the flames rose around him, he did not waver. Jerome displayed remarkable courage and composure, reportedly singing a hymn—specifically, the liturgical Latin hymn known as the “Te Deum,” a hymn of praise to God—as he met his gruesome end…
Jesus transforms lives. One of the most radical transformations in the Bible was that of the apostle Paul, who went from an enemy of the faith to its great defender. This transformation intrigued New Testament scholar, musician, and author Con Campbell so much that he decided to trace Paul’s life and missionary journeys. Each of the seven parts of this visually stunning series is approximately 22 minutes in length and highlights an aspect of Paul’s life—all while exploring different locations such as Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, Malta, and Italy. Join Con on this travelogue-style adventure so you can better know Paul and the profound effect he had on Christianity.
Important Note: Carbon 14 methodology has been found to often be inaccurate and unreliable involving the dating of artifacts, rocks, etc. This adds yet more credence to the possible authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. In His Service, Pastor Steve <><
Summary: The preponderance of evidence in favor of the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin becomes part of a still larger pattern of evidence that speaks to the truth of the entire Bible.
When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. – Matthew 27:57-60(ESV)
Patterns…
Common to all definitions of “pattern” is the idea of repetition. A seamstress pins a paper pattern on cloth so she can repeat that pattern on the material she will make into a dress. A foundry worker packs a wooden pattern of a gear into special sand so the cavity left by the pattern can be filled with molten metal, thus repeating the pattern.
A pattern like the one pictured below uses repeated colored dots to form something larger which can be recognized, a “W” in this case. With patterns of this kind, the more dots there are, the clearer the “W” will be for those who can distinguish colors. The existence of the “W” becomes undeniable.
This pattern of colored dots is used to determine color vision. If you can recognize the green dots, you can also recognize the pattern they form, a large “W”. In a similar way, individual items of evidence can form a larger message when taken together and recognized. (credit: Dan-yell, Ishihara-Test.svg. CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons)
As archaeological discoveries which affirm biblical accounts happen repeatedly, along with textual and even astronomy-related discoveries, these form something larger, just as the repeated dots become the “W”. The pattern formed by the repetition of text-affirming discoveries tells a larger truth, that the Bible is true by its nature.
In this Thinker Update we take up what has been called the single-most-studied object in the world, The Shroud of Turin. Millions continue to believe it is the burial shroud of Jesus Christ.
The matter of patterns is most relevant to a discussion of the Shroud. Patterns of evidence discovered and undeniably present within the Shroud weigh heavily in favor of the claim that it is Jesus’ burial cloth.
Absolute proof that the Shroud is genuine will never be established, because no chain of custody exists for the Shroud before the Middle Ages. But we live our lives without absolute proof of many things. We rely on the preponderance of evidence, and we make our decisions.
Researchers have discovered many individual patterns of evidence within the Shroud itself, and these form a larger pattern when taken together. Space considerations allow us to speak to some, though not all of them, here.
He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. – Acts 1:3(ESV)
The Shroud of Turin, kept in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy. The Shroud presents an image of a crucified man in great detail. Millions believe that this is the cloth which wrapped Jesus Christ in his tomb, and that the image is his. (public domain)
The Patterns in Cloth
The Shroud of Turin is made of fine linen, woven in a three-to-one herringbone pattern. The direction of the twist of the strands rules out Egypt as the country of origin and affirms Palestine. The Shroud’s length and width are in even cubits, a unit of measurement not used in medieval Europe where critics say the Shroud was faked, but in ancient Israel. The unusual weave reflects a wealthy owner, and Joseph of Arimathea was certainly that. (Matthew 27:57)
In 2002, conservation measures were taken secretly for the Shroud in Italy. With the 16th Century backing cloth removed from the Shroud for the first time, textile expert Mechthilde Flury-Lemberg discovered a rare type stitch on the back side of the Shroud which was known from only one other place, the Masada Fortress in Israel, which fell to the Romans in the Jewish revolt less than a generation from Jesus’ time.
Masada, the fortress overlooking the Dead Sea which became the last stand for Jews in the First Jewish Revolt. Only here, from the time and place of Jesus, has another example been found of a rare stitch discovered on the back of the Shroud in 2002. (credit: Andrew Shiva, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikipedia)
The Pattern in the Image
The image on the Shroud of a man crucified is its greatest mystery. To this day, after exhaustive scientific study and numerous attempts to duplicate the figure of the man shown on it, no one has been able to do this at the microscopic level of the linen fibers. The image is on the outermost layers of those fibers as discolorations. They are microscopic pixels. The image is not painted, despite the continued claims of people who simply repeat this explanation over and against the verdict of the experts from the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP), and others before and since.
The only traces of paint are from duplicates of the Shroud that were pressed against the Shroud to sanctify the duplicates in earlier centuries. These are tiny flakes of paint. The linen fibers themselves show no trace of brush strokes, binder or pigment. Nothing has soaked in; nothing is present to soak in.
Only in very recent times have scientists found a way to discolor linen strands as they are found in the Shroud of Turin, discolorations penetrating only to a tiny fraction of the width of a human hair. It was done with microbursts from high energy lasers. A burst of high energy! This carries suggestions of its own about the man of the Shroud, because if it is Jesus, he is proclaimed to be raised from the dead. Is the Shroud a “snapshot of the resurrection?”
Visitors to St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Galena, Illinois, inspect a full-size replica of the Shroud of Turin during Holy Week. Parents and grandparents explain to their children what happened to Jesus as together they study the cloth. (credit: Dr. Fred Baltz)
Anyone who has seen the actual Shroud, or a full-size, high detail reproduction of it, knows that the image of the crucified man is a negative, rather than a positive, image. How or why an alleged forger did that has no answers. But to recognize the image, one must be six or eight feet back from the Shroud. Any closer and the image on the cloth is lost. This fact further argues against a forger. How could such an image be created by someone working up close?
The Pattern of the Body and the Wounds
The proportions of the body are perfect according to artists like Dame Isabel Piczek. Wounds appear on the image which science has established to have been present on the cloth prior to the presence of the body image itself. If you will imagine hand-writing a message on a sheet of paper, but dotting the “i’s”, crossing the “t’s”, and inserting all the commas and periods before you wrote any words on the paper, you have an analogy to what an alleged forger must have done, putting blood on all the wounds before the wounds were located on the cloth. And the blood has been shown to be actual human blood, type AB.
Normally, blood becomes brown as it ages. The blood of the Shroud is red, which seems impossible if it is two thousand years old. This has been advanced as evidence of fakery. But blood chemists know of changes in the blood of persons under great stress or suffering, like a crucifixion victim. Bilirubin is a pigment that enters the blood with the breakdown of red cells. It causes blood to hold a red color. Did a forger use actual human blood, and torture his donor so the blood would remain red for centuries, then paint the blood on the linen cloth before there was an image, all in order to fool people centuries later?
Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. – Isaiah 53:4-5 (NIV)
Left: a reproduction of a Roman spear point. John’s Gospel says a soldier drove his spear into Jesus’ side to insure that he was dead on the cross. Blood and water exited from the wound (19:35). A corresponding chest wound with blood and clear fluid appears on the Shroud of Turin. The blood and water point to red cells separated from clear fluid within a chamber of the heart, meaning the heart had stopped beating. Right: an example of the scourge used on victims before they were crucified. The image on the Shroud of Turin shows marks corresponding to the lead balls of a scourge. They run the length of the body, front and back. (credit: photos by Dr. Fred Baltz)
Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. – John 20:6-7(ESV)
The Patterns of Soil Content and Pollen
When soil traces from the foot region of the Shroud were analyzed for their composition with a scanning ion microprobe at Chicago’s Enrico Fermi Institute, the graph of the results almost completely matched the graph read-out for the aragonite soil of Jerusalem. This was literally pattern matching pattern.
Pollen grains adhering to tape samples pressed against the Shroud indicated that the Shroud had been present in the Jerusalem area, then northern Syria, Anatolia, Constantinople, and Europe. This matched the pattern of travel hypothesized by Shroud students, based on ancient references to an Edessa Cloth which found its way to Constantinople, and then as a result of the Fourth Crusade, came to France. If the Shroud were just a fake, the presence of all the non-European pollens is inexplicable.
An Israeli botanist, Dr. Avinoam Danin of Hebrew University, Jerusalem, asserted that he had found patterns of flowers on the cloth—flowers that bloom in Jerusalem in the Spring. Professor Danin had no religious motivation to authenticate the Shroud.
The Pattern of the “Poker Holes”
In four places an “L”-shaped set of burns appears on the Shroud. These are damage from before the first known fire of 1532. The burns are often called the poker holes.
An illustrated book called the Hungarian Pray Manuscript is kept in Budapest. A painting of Jesus’ burial that certainly seems to portray the Shroud is contained in that manuscript. Not only does the figure of Jesus match the Shroud’s crucified man (hair, beard, arms crossed), but the herringbone weave is shown on the cloth. And there, too, are the poker holes.
The Pray Manuscript is dated to 1192. This poses a great problem for those who would dismiss the Shroud as a fake because of the Carbon 14 dating of the Shroud that happened in 1988. Many people stopped paying attention to the Shroud of Turin when they learned that the Carbon 14 determined possible dates for the Shroud were from 1260-1390.
Newspaper headlines said the Shroud was proved a fake. But the Hungarian Pray Manuscript testifies to the Shroud, already in existence at least seventy years before the earliest possible Carbon 14 date.
There’s more to be said about the Carbon 14 dating of the Shroud of Turin, much more than we can cover here. But the samples tested all came from an edge. One of the STURP scientists, Raymond Rogers, wrote in a peer-reviewed article before his death that the weave of the edge from which the sample was taken showed anomalies. The material there was cotton, not linen, and it had been colored with agents to match the rest of the Shroud.
The conclusion drawn by many since that time is: the Shroud was repaired on its frayed edge. To restore the pattern of the cloth, colored cotton threads were invisibly woven into the cloth. Since these were younger than the rest of the Shroud, they gave a reading from the Middle Ages. Now three other tests for the age of ancient textiles all indicate that the Shroud of Turin is not a product of the Middle Ages, but much older.
From the Hungarian Pray Manuscript. The image of Jesus in the upper illustration corresponds to the appearance of the man on the Shroud. In the lower illustration the herringbone pattern of the cloth is clearly apparent, and something matching the poker holes seen on the Shroud are present within the red circle. The Pray Manuscript is securely dated to seventy years before the earliest possible date for the Shroud given by the Carbon 14 dating done in 1988. That is one of several indicators that the Carbon 14 dates are incorrect. (credit: public domain)
The Evidence Against
Shroud skeptics bring forth what evidence they can muster against the Shroud, and there isn’t much. Basically, only two challenges merit consideration.
One of these is the D’Arcis Memoranda, written in the Middle Ages by Bishop Pierre D’Arcis, who claimed the Shroud being displayed then was a “cunningly painted” fraud.
The other is the Carbon 14 testing from 1988. We have only introduced the problems with those C14 tests; there are more. As for the Bishop, he was either wrong or dishonest. There is no trace of paint on the Shroud forming the image.
Returning to Patterns
When I once photographed a copy of the Shroud of Turin, my camera recognized the face, and imposed a red square around it in the viewfinder. The face stands out, and not only to the camera. The man on the Shroud has had the life beaten out of him, the blood drained away from him, and the breath suffocated from him.
But despite all that, his face manifests a serenity. The man of the Shroud seems to have been in charge, unconquered throughout the torture he endured. He looks like a person who has faithfully completed a most difficult and deadly mission. He looks like a man who knows his story isn’t over. He looks like Jesus Christ. Jesus, after all, is the one whom Christians have claimed for centuries to have fit the patterns of the prophetic words of the Old Testament.
After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. – Isaiah 53:11 (NIV)
Conclusion
There are so many “dots” arising from the study of the Shroud of Turin. That they form a pattern is difficult to deny. No one should place all their faith in the Resurrection of Jesus on this cloth alone. But as Norm Geisler said when he titled his book: I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist. It takes a dogmatic faith in skepticism, against the great preponderance of evidence, to dismiss the Shroud of Turin.
The Shroud of Turin becomes one “dot” in a still-larger set of “dots” which form a pattern telling us the entire Bible is to be trusted, Old Testament and New Testament. Believing is not foolish, but reasonable. Believers do not sin against common sense. Multiple patterns of evidence direct us to the truth and that’s more reason to keep thinking.
TOP PHOTO: Left: This is the face from the Shroud. This photograph was taken in 1931 by Giuseppe Enrie. In 1898, Secondo Pia had become the first to photograph the Shroud. Both men discovered that their negative plate produced an image which was a positive (Right). Notice that there is no outline to the image. (public domain)
NOTE: Not every view expressed by scholars contributing Thinker articles necessarily reflects the views of Patterns of Evidence. We include perspectives from various sides of debates on biblical matters so that readers can become familiar with the different arguments involved. – Keep Thinking!
Summary: UPDATE – The ancient lead amulet recently found by the ABR team on Mount Ebal has been deciphered, revealing a Hebrew curse mentioning YHWH twice! …More
Summary: Dozens of clay seals dating back 2,600 years, during the First Temple period, have been found near the Temple Mount, some inscribed with Biblical names. …More
Here is yet additional absolute proof of the historicity and archaeological integrity of the Bible. Apologetics at its’ finest. In His Service, Pastor Steve <><
Breaking News Updates – April 08, 2022
BY JOHN STONESTREET/BREAKPOINT.ORG APRIL 08, 2022
At the end of March, the Associates for Biblical Research published a curse. While that may seem a strange thing to do, it wasn’t their curse. The curse was written in Hebrew, inscribed on a small leaden amulet found among materials previously excavated on Israel’s Mt. Ebal.
At the end of March, the Associates for Biblical Research published a curse. While that may seem a strange thing to do, it wasn’t their curse. The curse was written in Hebrew, inscribed on a small leaden amulet (or tablet). It was found in 2019 among materials previously excavated on Israel’s Mt. Ebal.
It’s a short curse, just 40 letters in Hebrew and only 23 words when translated to English: “Cursed, cursed, cursed–cursed by the God YHW. You will die cursed. Cursed you will surely die. Cursed by YHW–cursed, cursed, cursed.”
As recorded near the end of Deuteronomy, God called the newly freed Israelites to assemble on Mt. Ebal and to declare there, to God and to one another, the promises of obedience and disobedience. Put another way, they were to announce the blessings and curses that came with their role as God’s people.
So, what we have in the discovery of this amulet is either a remarkable coincidence–a written curse left at the very location the Bible associates with curses–or yet another confirmation of something the Bible says happened. Even better, either of these options is the least important aspect of what makes this discovery interesting. The more important aspect is potentially earth-shattering for biblical studies.
According to a professor at the University of Haifa, this discovery is “the earliest Hebrew inscription found so far.” Scholars investigating the find place the date of the inscription to around 3,200 years ago. That puts it, biblically speaking, in the time of the Judges.
The common perception among biblical scholars, however, has been that the bulk of the Bible wasn’t written when it says it was. It’s long been assumed that the early, and supposedly primitive, Israelites simply lacked the skill to come up with the written grandeur of books like Genesis and Deuteronomy.
This tiny curse reveals that the right people at the right time in the right place were writing about God just as the Bible describes. Despite the confidence of the scholarly consensus, this provides proof of the Israelites’ literary ability, hundreds of years before skeptics thought it possible.
And this kind of thing keeps happening. Four years ago, a then-recent discovery of an exploding meteor wiping out a series of cities at the south end of the Dead Sea corresponded to about the time the Bible says that Sodom and Gomorrah met their fiery fate. Three years ago, an unearthed signet-seal affirmed the identity of someone mentioned in the biblical text. Two years ago, new DNA studies confirmed aspects of the biblical description of the Philistines’ origin. How many times will the Bible have to be proved right before we accept it as true?
There’s a scene in the 1990 Shakespeare spoof Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead where Gary Oldman’s character starts flipping a coin. Again and again and again, it comes up heads, over 70 times in a row! At first, he finds it strange, even amusing.
As heads keep coming up, his partner in crime, played by Tim Roth, starts contriving explanations as to why the laws of probability have been suspended. They must, he concludes, be encountering a moment where the ordinary rules just don’t apply. The repeated pattern of extraordinary events meant that something special was going on.
This is what the Bible claims for itself. The Bible doesn’t claim to be true in some watered-down “spiritual” sense. It claims to be the true record of God’s intervention into human affairs. It does not describe a faraway fairy world built on wishes and dreams, but this world, the real one.
It is here that Lazarus and Jesus were truly dead but raised to life again. It is in this world that actual Israelites escaped from actual slavery in Egypt. If what Scripture claims to have happened didn’t, then we may as well “eat and drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” Its reality confirms its truth.
As the Apostle Peter claimed, Christianity is not rooted in “cleverly devised myths,” but in the real account of actions in the real world. Bits of lead and clay in the dirt will never ultimately prove the Bible’s claims to the satisfaction of all skeptics, but day after day, more evidence emerges that its claims should be taken seriously by not only archeologists and historians, but all of us. In Holy Scripture, something special is indeed going on.
Originally published at Breakpoint.org – reposted with permission.
The account in Acts 19 of seven Jewish exorcists who used the names Jesus and Paul in an exorcism, only to be attacked by the possessed man, leaves unanswered questions for biblical scholars. Who was the High Priest Sceva, the father of these seven? What would sons of a High Priest of Israel be doing in Ephesus? With some historical context from Josephus, with some additional information from rabbinic sources, and with some linguistic comparisons, the answers and the actual people involved may now have been found in this week’s Thinker Update……
THE SONS OF SCEVA’S BOTCHED EXORCISM – HAS SCEVA BEEN FOUND?
Summary: The account in Acts 19 of seven Jewish exorcists in Ephesus who used the names Jesus and Paul in an exorcism, only to be attacked by the possessed man, leaves some unanswered questions. Now, patterns of evidence point toward a real event with actual people who may at last be identified.
(Adapted from The Mystery of the Beloved Disciple, by Frederick Baltz)
And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. – Acts 19:17 (ESV)
Paul’s Powerful Ministry
Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, ministered in such a powerful way to the people of Ephesus in Asia Minor that his opponents started a massive riot to get it stopped. In those two years the local silversmiths were hurt economically as the demand for their idols of the goddess Artemis dried up. Magical books were publicly burned by the people who once used them, and now renounced them. Miraculous healings abounded. All this took place while Paul proclaimed “Christ crucified.”
And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. – Acts 19:11-12 (ESV)
Next, in Acts 19:13—20, Luke relates the account of seven men who were sons of a High Priest named Sceva. They seem to have wanted to match Paul’s miracles with powers of their own.
Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered allof them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. – Acts 19:13-16 (ESV)
Eustache Le Sueur – The Preaching of St. Paul at Ephesus. (public domain)
Who Was The High Priest Sceva?
A survey of modern commentaries soon shows that few consider the existence of an Israelite High Priest named Sceva likely. No High Priest by that name is known to us. Further, the Latin scaeva (scaevola) means left-handed, and no satisfactory explanation has been offered for why this should designate any particular known High Priest. Scholars have reached various conclusions: (1) Luke or his source is mistaken, and the person Sceva has no basis in fact; (2) Sceva was a Jewish priest of a high, but different, rank; (3) Sceva was a priest, but of a different religion; or (4) Sceva was a charlatan, lying about whom he in fact was.
The story of Sceva’s sons does not fall within the “we” passages of Acts. That suggests Luke wasn’t there when it happened. The story came to Luke, told and retold, before he committed it to writing. We might wonder whether Luke himself would vouch for every detail of the story, since there were no guarantees against embellishment or inaccuracy. Still, Luke the historiographer included this story because he believed it to be sound as well as important.
A petalon (plate of gold) was worn on the High Priest’s turban with the inscription ‘Holy to the Lord’ – Exodus 28:36. Josephus wrote that during the first century it was the only item still in use that was the original to the time of Moses. Recreation with Old Hebrew lettering by Fred Baltz. (credit: Fred Baltz)
But what would a Jewish High Priest or his sons be doing in the city of Ephesus, far from the Temple in Jerusalem? Even in Judea there were multiple risks of contracting ritual defilement. How much more in the world of the Gentiles? And what business would any High Priest have there? On this point we have an item of information that deserves notice. It is a quite relevant report of High Priests traveling far from home. Josephus relates it in Antiquities XX 118-136, and War II 232-246. (See evidence that may have come from a High Priest on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.)
An Account of Traveling High Priests
Severe hostilities erupted between the Samaritans and the Jews in Judea in the year AD 50, requiring Roman military action to restore order. The Roman legate in Syria, Quadratus, sent a group of Jewish leaders, a group of Samaritan leaders, a tribune named Celer, and the former Governor, Cumanus, to Rome. There they would all stand trial before the Emperor, who would determine whom to punish and how. King Agrippa, last ruler of the Herodian dynasty and vassal of Rome, took the Jews’ side as the trial proceeded. Emperor Claudius fixed the blame on the Samaritans. The Samaritan representatives lost their lives, Celer was sent back to be killed publicly in Jerusalem, and Cumanus was exiled. The Jews were set free to return home. (Herod’s dance floor that doomed John the Baptist has been found)
Josephus reports in War II that Quadratus “…sent up to Caesar, along with two other persons of the highest eminence, the high priests Jonathan and Ananias, Ananus, the son of the latter, and some other Jewish notables, together with the most distinguished of the Samaritans.” Who were these two persons of the highest eminence, and the other notables? They were surely of the Jerusalem aristocracy, and were likely from high priestly families themselves, families other than Jonathan’s. All these people bore responsibility as some of the leading decision-makers in Jerusalem. That’s why they had to stand trial.
The parallel account in Antiquities names only Ananias and Ananus, but also includes “their followers.” So it was this unspecified number of additional Jewish leaders, along with Jonathan, Ananias, and Ananus who stood before Claudius in Rome in the year AD 50 or 51.
It is quite likely that the exonerated party of Jewish leaders returned to Jerusalem through Ephesus. A large Jewish colony existed there. Ephesus was one of the world’s greatest cities, and shipping lanes connected Rome to Ephesus. From Ephesus one could travel to Judea by water or by land.
Luke says there were “traveling-around” (perierchomenōn) Jews who were exorcists. This has often been translated: “itinerant.” Perierchomai is a rare word in the New Testament. Of the four instances, two come from Luke, both in Acts. Besides 19:13 which we are considering now, 28:13 employs the word to describe purposeful travel to Sicily by ship—a far different thing from itinerant wandering about.
We must ask whether perierchomai in 19:13 might have originally reflected the purposeful travel of Sceva’s sons returning to Jerusalem from Rome among that party of Jewish leaders Josephus tells us about. At any rate, the presence of a party of High Priests in Rome is documented by Josephus immediately before Paul’s extraordinary Ephesian ministry which began in AD 52. Remarkably, their return to Jerusalem would most likely have taken them through Ephesus, placing them in that city while Paul was there.
Adventures – Rope and Rigging
The names of the actual High Priests are known to us from Josephus’ history, and helpfully presented with their years in office by E. Schürer and J. Jeremias. Four families in Jerusalem constituted the aristocracy from whom all the High Priests came during Herodian and Roman times. They were each powerful and wealthy. One of these was the House of Kamit, or Kamithos. The Talmud relates in multiple places that the House of Kamithos produced seven sons, each of whom at some time served as High Priest. (b. Yoma 47a; T.Yom iv.20; 189; Lev. R. 20.7 on 16.1—2 (Son. 20.11, 263); j.Yom. i., 38d.6; j.Meg. i.12, 72a 49; Tanhuma ahare mot 7, 117a.24.) The Talmud does not give their names, but it nevertheless stands in Jewish tradition that Kamithos had seven sons, and this can be said of no other person in any of the four families.
It is clear that names varied in spelling and pronunciation. Kamithos is a Greek form of the name Kamit. Schürer gives the following variations of the name found in extant literature: Kamithos, Kathimos, Kathāmos, Kamathei, Kamei, Kamā, Kamudos, Kamoidi, Kemidi, Kemedā. The High Priest Joseph Cabi’s name may also be derived from Kamit. So, there are ten or eleven variants of the name that we know of, maybe more.
The meanings of Skeua and Kamilos are similar: ship’s rigging. (credit: Joe Mabel, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Kamithos as a word was not recognizable as any particular thing. However, kamilos was an actual word with a particular and peculiar referent: ship’s cable. Note how similar kamilos is in pronunciation to Kamithos, listed above. Skeuā, different from Skeua (Sceva) by only the length of the final vowel, means “equipment, household furnishings, especially of a ship’s gear…the tackle or rigging of a ship.” (Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich Lexicon) The meanings of kamilos and skeuā are essentially the same.
Simply put, skeua is a synonym for kamilos, and a homonym for skeuā. One can see how the name Kamithos might have become Skeua with the retelling of the story across languages and time. Then, the seven sons of Sceva were actually the seven attested sons of Kamithos, the only High Priest who had seven sons. They were returning from Rome to Jerusalem through Ephesus after standing before Caesar’s tribunal.
Casting Out Demons
But would a High Priest or his sons resort to using Jesus’ name in exorcising demons? One surviving incantation for exorcising demons includes the name Jesu among many others to be pronounced over the possessed person, though that incantation is from later than the First Century, and comes from circles far distant from Jerusalem’s High Priesthood. Still, Luke and Mark relate that even during Jesus’ ministry there were persons who used Jesus’ name without being his followers. We must remember that the use of Jesus’ name did not necessarily constitute faith in Jesus, or acceptance of his teaching. It was all about the power of the name itself. (The possible site of Jesus’ trial has been discovered in Jerusalem.)
One of the many representations of a demon from the ancient world. Neo-Assyrian head of Pazuzu c.600-700 BCE. (Eltringham Collection. Antiquarius2012, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.)
All three Synoptic Gospels tell of a charge brought against Jesus by some Pharisees: he casts out demons by the prince of demons, Beelzebul (Matt. 12:24//Mark 3:22//Luke 11:15.) If, in their thinking, Jesus could be a false prophet, yet have power over demons, we must acknowledge the possibility that a priest might pronounce the name for its power’s sake, while rejecting any allegiance or devotion to Jesus himself.
Conclusion
So, we have found patterns of historical and linguistic evidence that affirm the unusual account in Acts 19, a story that has seemed to many people just a fable about no actual persons. Here is additional reason for confidence in the factual integrity of the Acts of the Apostles. Keep thinking.
TOP PHOTO: The theater at Ephesus, scene of the riot over Paul. (credit: Omar hoftun, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
NOTE: Not every view expressed by scholars contributing Thinker articles necessarily reflects the views of Patterns of Evidence. We include perspectives from various sides of debates on biblical matters so that readers can become familiar with the different arguments involved. – Keep Thinking!
Summary: Rare inscription, found on a jug fragment discovered in the Judean foothills, connects a name used for the biblical judge Gideon with historical reality. …More
Summary: Despite the mystique of recently discovered Gnostic documents, said by some to represent the real Jesus, the evidence shows that our New Testament documents were recognized through a slow, careful process as inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Muratorian Canon furnishes corroborating evidence that the list of New Testament writings is faithful to Christ. …More
Summary: New physical evidence recently discovered in Jerusalem, of a disastrous earthquake at the time of King Uzziah of Judah from 2,800 years ago, matches the biblical accounts from Old Testament prophets, Amos and Zechariah. …More
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, is executed
March 21, 1556. By Jesús Vico and Beatriz Camino.
On this day in 1556, Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), was burned at the stake after being accused of heresy by Queen Mary I. He was the first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury and an advisor to King Henry VIII and Edward VI. He also played a major role during the English Reformation by establishing the basic structures of the Church of England.
Early years and entry into royal service
Thomas Cranmer was born in 1489 in Nottinghamshire into a family who was minor gentry. As his parents didn’t own enough land to give to all their children, Thomas joined the clergy. He then went on to Cambridge and joined a fellowship at Jesus College in 1510. However, he lost it after he married the daughter of the keeper of a local tavern. After his wife passed away in childbirth he was reaccepted by the college and focused on his studies. He entered the church in 1523 and became an outstanding theologian.
Cranmer’s entry into royal services took place in 1529 when King Henry VIII ordered him to write a propaganda treatise in order to facilitate his divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. After it was finished, Cranmer travelled to Italy to defend its argument before the Pope in 1530. Even though the discussion did not lead to any resolution on the matter, he was appointed grand penitentiary of England. Two years later, he served as an ambassador to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in Germany with the aim of becoming closer to the Lutheran princes. During this time, he made his first contact with Continental Reformers in Switzerland and married the niece of one of their leaders in spite of his priest’s orders.
Archbishop of Canterbury
In 1533, Cranmer was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by King Henry VIII. Right after it, he proceeded to declare the King’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon void and married him to Anne Boleyn, who was already pregnant. During these first years, he started to introduce small reforms in the Church of England. He began to drift slowly in the direction of Protestantism and abandoned the traditional Roman Catholic belief in transubstantiation. Moreover, he showed his support for the translation of theBible into English, which was made compulsory in the parishes in 1538, and published the firstofficially authorised vernacular service, the Exhortation and Litany.
After King Edward VI ascended to the throne following King Henry’s death, Cranmer was able to take full control of the Reformation of the Church. He wrote a complete liturgy, the Book of Common Prayer, and introduced several changes in the areas regarding the Eucharist, clerical celibacy and the use of images in places of worship.
Trial for heresy and execution
When King Edward passed away, the Archbishop showed his support for Lady Jane Grey as successor following the King’s wishes. Even though Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen of England and Ireland, she was deposed nine days later and succeeded by the Roman Catholic Mary I. Cranmer was then accused of treason and imprisoned, thus putting a stop to the Reformation. He was then forced to sign a recantation several times to discourage his followers. Despite this, he was sentenced to be burnt at the stake in 1556. Before he died, he disavowed his recantation and stuck first his right hand, with which he had signed the document, into the fire. The Archbishop was later declared a martyr and his death is narrated in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Throughout the centuries, his legacy has lived on within the English Church through the Book of Common Prayer, which is still considered one of the most important works of the Anglican Church.
Of all the displays in the ICR Discovery Center for Science & Earth History in Dallas, the Dragon Encounters exhibit has become some visitors’ favorite. It shows ancient art depicting what look like extinct reptiles. This suggests our readers may also appreciate the ways these artifacts confirm the biblical creation position of world history.
Of all the displays in the 30,000 square feet of the ICR Discovery Center for Science & Earth History in Dallas, the Dragon Encounters exhibit has become some visitors’ favorite. It shows ancient art depicting what look like extinct reptiles. This suggests our readers may also appreciate the ways these artifacts confirm the biblical creation position of world history.
The trustworthiness of the Bible’s history—and thus the very character of the Savior who its pages claim to be responsible for its words—lies at the heart of our faith and how we interpret Earth’s past.1 If the Bible’s account of an originally very good creation that began without death only thousands of years ago really happened, then evolution’s death for billions of years never happened. Dragon art has something to say about which version of history should stand.
What do we mean by “dragon art”? Our distant ancestors from around the world wrote descriptions; carved statues, figurines, and bas-reliefs; and drew and painted all kinds of terrifying reptiles. Just like modern dragon depictions, most of the historical material resembles no known creature and thus belongs to fiction. But rare instances do match known fossils.
Creation speaker and author Vance Nelson has vetted many dragon artifacts. One of the steps he uses to verify ancient art is to compare it with digital renders (an artist’s computer-generated images) based solely on fossil anatomy. Vance employs an evolutionary paleoartist who unwittingly ends up painting images that match the ancient art. I relied on Vance’s book Dire Dragons when helping design our Dragon Encounters wall.2 His book shows ancient images of dinosaur look-alikes, plus extinct reptiles that weren’t dinosaurs but whose remains were found in Triassic and even Permian settings.
Rock strata from four sedimentary systems—conventionally named, from bottom to top, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous—all contain fossils of extinct reptiles. The standard evolutionary timeline assigns 235 million years to those four systems combined, an idea that dragon artwork shown in this article challenges.
Secular researchers use specific animals found in a given rock to “date” that rock. What would it mean to find evidence of those same animals supposed to represent separate times alive together with our forefathers?
Several “dragons” in ancient art resemble extinct reptiles known from Cretaceous fossils. Dire Dragons shows evidence of the ceratopsian Graciliceratops and the theropod Deinonychus as examples from this rock system. Nigersaurus sauropod fossils from Cretaceous system rocks of Africa match specific body characteristics, most notably a short neck and wide snout, of a 13th-century wood carving in St David’s Cathedral, Wales.3 That erases over 65 million “years.”
Ancient art shows other sauropods, or long-necked dinosaurs, which most often come from Jurassic layers. Another cathedral in the United Kingdom, this one in Carlisle far north of St Davids, has a small brass etching made in 1496 for Bishop Richard Bell’s tomb that shows what look like two sauropods. One of them has four tail spikes at the end of its long tail just like in fossils of Shunosaurus, which wasn’t found until 1989.4 This erases over 140 million “years.”
So far, this art shows dinosaurs, but the four Flood rock systems also have fossils of other extinct reptiles. The various nothosaurs (order Nothosauroidea) comprise one such category found in Triassic system strata. Their features suggest an amphibious lifestyle. Their teeth extended past their jaws, probably effective for catching fish. A medieval altarpiece in Barcelona shows a dragon with teeth, head shape, and body size and proportions that match Nothosaurus. How did these ancient artists depict such striking similarities? This erases over 210 million total “years.”
Even Permian system fossil look-alikes appear in ancient art. One French book crafted no later than 1409 titled Belles Heures (Beautiful Hours) contains prayers often directed to Mary among images of memorable scenes.
One scene shows a dragon that secular text analysts refer to as wholly fictitious. However, both the lizard-like European fossils of Protorosaurus and the book’s illumination look like a large dragon with slender toes of varying lengths. What are the odds that these details plus the jaw shapes and body sizes would match this closely just by chance? Mainstream scientists assign 256 million years to Protorosaurus fossils and its Permian strata. If it really went extinct that far back, then how is it possible for a medieval artist to have pictured it so accurately? Fossils of these reptiles were not described until the 18th century.
Taken together, these old depictions join others that threaten to collapse evolutionary age assignments. If Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous reptiles lived at the same time, then they shouldn’t be used to represent separate ages. We need a different historical framework.
In Scripture’s account of Earth history, nothosaurs, sauropods, horses, and humans lived at the same time but likely in separate environments before the Flood of Noah. Two of every land-dwelling, air-breathing beast went into the Ark. Unless nothosaurs survived outside the Ark with the ancestors of today’s fishes, sea turtles, and other aquatic creatures, then two of them would have been on board, along with two young specimens of each sauropod kind.
If dinosaur and horse representatives both survived the Flood on the Ark, then why do horses still live today while the dragons went extinct? The ancient art itself offers a clue. Dragons became famous for being slain, possibly even with the Creator’s approval.5 Vance Nelson’s book Amazon Expedition details research conducted on an ancient Peruvian pictograph made thousands of years ago showing another sauropod look-alike.6
This scene includes armed natives surrounding this large, threatening dragon. Even to this day, humans who pioneer a new region often quickly remove the most threatening animals. A Bible-based history accommodates all the major observations, including rock strata with fossils from the Flood and later man-made artifacts that show some representatives of those fossilized creatures still alive after the Flood.
By affirming the history in the Bible through their dragon art and writings, our own ancestors perhaps unwittingly have pointed out the trustworthy character of the God who inspired the Bible.
References
Hebrews 1:1.
Nelson, V. 2018. Dire Dragons. Red Deer, AB: Untold Secrets of Planet Earth Publishing Company, Inc.
The standard evolutionary theory is that humans evolved from a chimp-like ancestor about 3 to 6 million years then migrated out of Africa about 100,000…
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore lies a few miles east of the town of Munising, Michigan, along one of the most scenic shorelines in the United States….
NEWSCREATION SCIENCE UPDATEFOSSILS SHOW RAPID AND CATASTROPHIC BURIALSupersaurus-Sized Dinosaur No Match for the FloodBY TIM CLAREY, PH.D. * | MONDAY, DECEMBER 06, 2021ShareEmailFacebookTwitterPinterestScientists are still trying to out-do each another by finding the biggest dinosaur. Brian Curtice, from the Arizona Museum of Natural History, recently threw his name in the hat with a new analysis of the long-necked dinosaur Supersaurus.1 His findings were presented virtually at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology’s Annual meeting.
Supersaurus was originally discovered in 1972 by Jim Jensen in Dry Mesa Quarry, Colorado.1 Scientists knew it was a large sauropod, but with a fairly incomplete skeleton, nobody knew exactly how large. So, how did this dinosaur suddenly become so much larger?
After naming Supersaurus, Jensen found what he believed were two other large long-necked (sauropod) dinosaurs buried together. The bone bed at the quarry was so well mixed that Curtice called it a “bone salad.”1
Curtice studied the other bones from the quarry and realized that two of the other dinosaurs, Ultrasaurus and Dystylosaurus, were actually composed of bones from Supersaurus. The three different dinosaurs were in fact all part of one species.
He also found some new neck and tail bones from some unopened jacketed bones at the quarry. Piecing these all together, he estimated that the neck of Supersaurus was longer than 50 feet and the tail longer than 60 feet.1 Altogether, he determined that the sauropod specimen was between 128 and 137 feet in total length.1 By comparison, other diplodocids (such as Seismosaurus) were only about 110 feet long.2
“That is a crazy length—longer than three yellow school buses nose to tail,” Curtice said. “And considering we never find the largest individual in the fossil record, how much longer could these animals have gotten?”1
Although Supersaurus may be the longest dinosaur, the heaviest seems to be Argentinosaurus, another sauropod dinosaur weighing in at an estimated 90 tons, nearly double that of Supersaurus.1 By comparison, ICR scientists have determined that the average dinosaur was about 1,400 pounds, about the weight of an American bison.3
What was the purpose of the large sizes for sauropod dinosaurs like Supersaurus? Large size may have offered protection from predators, similar to large elephants today. And it’s possible that dinosaurs, like pre-Flood humans lived to be many hundreds of years old, continuing to grow year after year.4 Many cold-blooded reptiles today continue to grow throughout their lifetime.
Regardless of the reason for their large sizes, the engineered design of dinosaurs is unmistakable. God had a plan and a purpose for these creatures.
But even the largest of the dinosaurs was no match for the massive tsunami-like waves of the global Flood. Rapid and catastrophic burial about 4,400 years ago is what preserved their bones for us to find today.
Dinosaur exhibits at every major natural history museum in the world give strong evidence for the Flood. The truth of the words of Jesus is right before our eyes.
References 1. Geggel, L. 2021. Supersaurus might be the longest dinosaur that ever lived. LiveScience. Posted on livescience.com November 15, 2021, accessed November 17, 2021. 2. Herne, M. C. and S. G. Lucas. 2006. Seismosaurus hallorum: Osteological reconstruction from the holotype. In Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Morrison Formation. Foster, J. R. and S. G. Lucas, eds. Albuquerque, NM: New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, 139-148. 3. Clarey, T. L. and J. P. Tomkins. 2015. Determining average dinosaur size using the most recent comprehensive body mass data set. Answers Research Journal. 8: 85-91. 4. Clarey, T. 2015. Dinosaurs: Marvels of God’s Design. Green Forest, AR: Master Books.
*Dr. Clarey is Research Scientist at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his doctorate in geology from Western Michigan University.
*Dr. Clarey is Research Scientist at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his doctorate in geology from Western Michigan University.The LatestNEWSACTS & FACTSPODCASTS
Demolishing the Sethite Theory with Historical Facts
Rob Skiba studies the Bible and the ancients in reference to Genesis 6:1-4, and on Facebook presents a beautiful refutation of the silly “Sethite Theory” which NONE of the ancients believed in. (It seems the ancients were thousands of years closer to the events, and would have a much better understanding than you or me. Duuuuh.) Look at the voluminous collection of proof that the Sons of God were fallen angels who had illicit relations with women and together produced an ungodly and unnatural offspring – the Nephilim. By the way, Rob’s material is NOT comprehensive (He encourages further study), and one can go on and on and on, further validating what the ancients already knew. Blessings, Pastor Steve <><
1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
From time to time, various people will write to me, attempting to refute the angelic view of the above Scripture. The alternate view is often referred to as the Sethite Theory. That thesis suggests that the “sons of God” is a reference to the good sons of Seth and the “daughters of men” is a reference to the bad daughters of Cain. This is the dominant view taught in seminaries today and now many in the Torah/Messianic community are beginning to teach the same bogus nonsense.
The simple fact of that matter is, the angelic view of the “sons of God” is a Biblical and historical fact, the understanding of which was held by virtually everyone until the 3rd Century AD. You have to literally ignore massive amounts of data to believe otherwise. Furthermore, you’d have to employ eisegesis in your interpretation of Scripture, which leads to all sorts of gross error. There is absolutely nothing in Genesis 6, which in any way refers to Seth or Cain or their offspring. Rather the phrase “sons of God” is a reference applied to angels, just as it was in the book of Job (which actually predates Genesis):
Job 38:1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Were the alleged “good sons of Seth” there at the time of Creation? No. They were not. However, the angels were – as various Biblical commentaries also agree:
Barnes’ Notes on the Bible on Job 38:7…
When the morning-stars – There can be little doubt that angelic beings are intended here, though some have thought that the stars literally are referred to, and that they seemed to unite in a chorus of praise when another world was added to their number. The Vulgate renders it, astra matutina, morning-stars; the Septuagint, ὅτε ἐγενήθηναι ἄστρα hote egenēthēnai astra – ” when the stars were made:” the Chaldee, “the stars of the zephyr,” or “morning” – צפר כוכבי. The comparison of a prince, a monarch, or an angel, with a star, is not uncommon; compare the notes at Isaiah 14. The expression “the morning-stars” is used on account of the beauty of the principal star which, at certain seasons of the year, leads on the morning. It is applied naturally to those angelic beings that are of distinguished glory and rank in heaven. That it refers to the angels, seems to be evident from the connection; and this interpretation is demanded in order to correspond with the phrase “sons of God” in the other member of the verse.Sang together – United in a grand chorus or concert of praise. It was usual to celebrate the laying of a cornerstone, or the completion of an edifice, by rejoicing; see Zechariah 4:7; Ezra 3:10.And all the sons of God – Angels – called the sons of God from their resemblance to him, or their being created by him.Shouted for joy – That is, they joined in praise for so glorious a work as the creation of a new world. They saw that it was an event which was fitted to honor God.Pulpit Commentary on Job 38:7…And all the sons of God shouted for joy. “The sons of God” here must necessarily be the angels (see Job 1:6; Job 2:1), since there were no men as yet in existence. They too joined in the chorus of sympathy and admiration, perhaps lifting up their voices (Revelation 5:11, 12), perhaps their hearts only, praising the Creator, who had done such marvellous things.Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible on Job 38:7 (NOTE: this one actually plays into your Hebrew breakdown of the term “sons of God”)……and all the sons of God shouted for joy; which are usually understood of angels also, so the Targum; who are the sons of God, not by birth, as Christ, nor by adoption, as saints; but by creation, as Adam, Luke 3:38. And because they bear some likeness to God, as holy spirits, and honour and obey him in doing his will; though the character of sons of God, as distinct from the children of men, given to professors of religion, obtained before the times of Job; see Genesis 6:2; and who might be said to sing together, and shout for joy, when they met for social worship; see Job 1:6; and especially when any fresh discoveries were made to them of the Messiah, and salvation by him.Jamieson-Faussett-Brown Bible Commentary on Job 38:7……morning stars—especially beautiful. The creation morn is appropriately associated with these, it being the commencement of this world’s day. The stars are figuratively said to sing God’s praises, as in Ps 19:1; 148:3. They are symbols of the angels, bearing the same relation to our earth, as angels do to us. Therefore they answer to “sons of God,” or angels, in the parallel. See on [549]Job 25:5.Matthew Poole’s Commentary on Job 38:7…The sons of God, as it here follows, the latter clause of the verse being explicatory of the former, as is most frequent in this and some other books of Scripture, to wit, the angels, who may well be called stars, as even men of eminent note, and particularly ministers of God’s word, are called, Daniel 8:10 12:3 Revelation 1:16,20; and morning stars, because of their excellent lustre and glory, for which they are called angels of light, 2 Corinthians 11:14, and Christ for the same reason is called the Morning Star, Revelation 22:16. The sons of God; the blessed angels; for man not being yet made, God had then no other sons; and these are called the sons of God, partly because they had their whole being from him, and partly because they were made partakers of his Divine and glorious image. And all these are said to join in this work of praising God, probably because none of the angels were as yet fallen from their first estate, though they did fall within a very little time after.
I could go on, but hopefully, you get the point. Job predates Genesis. The term “sons of God” in Job was understood to be angels. Thus, it is also understood exactly the same way in Genesis 6. This is not confirmed by just “two or three witnesses” either. It is confirmed by the entire Ancient Near Eastern historical record (including in the canonized and non-canonized Hebrew texts)!
Here’s the issue: If you toss out the well documented historical, Hebraic understanding of the Nephilim as the offspring of angels (and genetic tampering), you basically turn YHWH into a schizophrenic, prejudice God who is into random acts of genocide. Why? Because with the Sethite view, you have no plausible explanation for why YHWH would allow the Israelites to take women, children and animals as spoils of war in some military campaigns, while in others, they are commanded to “utterly destroy” everything – including the women, children and animals. A careful reading of the Scriptures in the Torah and elsewhere, wherein the Israelites are commanded to utterly destroy everything is consistently found to be within the context of the Nephilim. Without the hybrid understanding, you also have no explanation for the descriptions of the Canaanites given all through the Scriptures either. For instance, you’d be hard-pressed to find a reasonable answer as to why proud parents would name their newborn children things like “terror” (Heth – Genesis 10:15) and “enclosure of wrath” (Hamathite – Genesis 10:18). And I’m sorry, but kissing cousins simply do not produce “cedar tree” sized Amorite giants (Amos 2:9) who are of “great stature” (Numbers 13:28-33).
And to top it all off, Sethite theorists have no reasonable explanation for the numerous accounts of giants found all over the world (both pre-and post-Flood). They can ignore the “DNA tampering issues” too if they’d like, but then they’ll have no explanation for characters like this either:
And no. Cranial head-boarding does not account for 25-40% larger brains and the totally different suture patterns, as well as the other anomalies often associated with these skulls. Those people were born that way and skulls like this have been found all over the world. Recent DNA testing has shown that they are “not quite human” either. Yes, they have human DNA, but they also have “other DNA” as well. This of course – at least in my mind – perfectly conforms with the Nephilim thesis as laid out in the ancient texts, which you must ignore to hold to the Sethite views. Furthermore, you must also deny the fact of animal-human hybridization taking place (as reported in mainstream news) in our days, just as it was “in the days of Noah.”
The canonized texts alone provide ample reason to accept the angelic view, but if you include the testimonies of Enoch and Jubilees, that view is absolutely unmistakable. Some claim that Enoch has been “grossly mistranslated and misinterpreted,” but the burden is on them to prove it. You can’t just make that claim, based on opinion. And not only would you have to prove there were errors in translation, but also that entire chapters, which clearly describe the issue of the “angels that sinned” in great detail, have to be completely cut out of the text.
As I said above, today, unfortunately the so-called “Sethite view” is what is taught in seminaries and now many Messianic and “Torah Teachers” are perpetuating the same entirely unsubstantiated nonsense. But to accept this view is to deny the massive weight of an enormous amount of ancient testimony – first and foremost the Biblical text, then the Biblically-endorsed texts (such as Enoch and Jubilees) and finally, the testimonies of historians and so-called, “Church Fathers” and other early and recent Christian apologetic authors – just a handful of which are quoted below. I don’t want to do your homework for you, but this is surely enough to get you started on your own…
Writing at some point prior to 50 AD (at the same time as the Apostles), the Hellenistic Jewish philosopher, Philo wrote:
On what principle it was that giants were born of angels and women? (Gen. 6:4). The poets call those men who were born out of the earth giants, that is to say, sons of the Earth {the Greek name Gigas is said to be derived from geμ and gennaoμ, “to bring forth.”} But Moses here uses this appellation improperly, and he uses it too very often merely to denote the vast personal size of the principal men, equal to that of Hajk {hajk is an addition of the Armenian translator; it is the name of a fabulous patriarch of the Armenian nation} or Hercules. But he relates that these giants were sprung from a combined procreation of two natures, namely, from angels and mortal women; for the substance of angels is spiritual; but it occurs every now and then that on emergencies occurring they have imitated the appearance of men, and transformed themselves so as to assume the human shape; as they did on this occasion, when forming connections with women for the production of giants. But if the children turn out imitators of the wickedness of their mothers, departing from the virtue of their fathers, let them depart, according to the determination of the will of a depraved race, and because of their proud contempt for the supreme Deity, and so be condemned as guilty of voluntary and deliberate wickedness. But sometimes Moses styles the angels the sons of God, inasmuch as they were not produced by any mortal, but are incorporeal, as being spirits destitute of any body; or rather that exhorter and teacher of virtue, namely Moses, calls those men who are very excellent and endowed with great virtue the sons of God; and the wicked and depraved men he calls bodies, or flesh.
– Philo, Questions and Answers on Genesis, Book 1, Point # 92
He thus describes the Israelite encounter with the Post-Flood giants when they spied out the land of Canaan…
They also surveyed all the strongest cities, looking upon them in two points of view; first, with reference to their advantages of situation, and also to the strength of their fortification; also, when they inquired respecting the inhabitants, they saw that they were very numerous indeed, and giants of exceeding tallness with absolutely gigantic bodies, both as to their magnitude and their strength.
– Philo On The Life of Moses, 1, Chapter XLI
Clement of Rome is said to have been a disciple of Peter, who lived at the close of the first century. The following is attributed to his writings…
“All things therefore being completed which are in heaven, and in earth, and in the waters, and the human race also having multiplied, in the eighth generation, righteous men, who had lived the life of angels, being allured by the beauty of women, fell into promiscuous and illicit connections with these; and thenceforth acting in all things without discretion, and disorderly, they changed the state of human affairs and the divinely prescribed order of life, so that either by persuasion or force they compelled all men to sin against God their Creator.In the ninth generation are born the giants, so called from of old,not dragon-footed, as the fables of the Greeks relate, but men of immense bodies, whose bones, of enormous size, are still shown in some places for confirmation. But against these the righteous providence of God brought a flood upon the world, that the earth might be purified from their pollution, and every place might be turned into a sea by the destruction of the wicked. Yet there was then found one righteous man, by name Noah, who, being delivered in an ark with his three sons and their wives, became the colonizer of the world after the subsiding of the waters, with those animals and seeds which he had shut up with him.”
– Recognitions of Clement, Book 1, Chapter XXIX, The Giants: The Flood
“The ten pairs of which we have spoken have therefore been assigned to this world from the beginning of time. Cain and Abel were one pair. The second was the giants and Noah; the third, Pharaoh and Abraham; the fourth, the Philistines and Isaac; the fifth, Esau and Jacob; the sixth, the magicians and Moses the lawgiver; the seventh, the tempter and the Son of man; the eighth, Simon and I, Peter; the ninth, all nations, and he who shall be sent to sow the word among the nations; the tenth, Antichrist and Christ. Concerning these pairs we shall give you fuller information at another time.” When Peter spoke thus, Aquila said: “Truly there is need of constant teaching, that one may learn what is true about everything.”
– Recognitions of Clement, Book III, Chapter LXI,Ten Pairs
From the Clementine Homilies:
Chapter XIII.-The Fall of the Angels.
But when, having assumed these forms, they convicted as covetous those who stole them, and changed themselves into the nature of men, in order that, living holily, and showing the possibility of so living, they might subject the ungrateful to punishment, yet having become in all respects men, they also partook of human lust, and being brought tinder its subjection they fell into cohabitation with women; and being involved with them, and sunk in defilement and altogether emptied of their first power, were unable to turn back to the first purity of their proper nature, their members turned away from their fiery substance: for the fire itself, being extinguished by the weight of lust, and changed into flesh, they trode the impious path downward. For they themselves, being fettered with the bonds of flesh, were constrained and strongly bound; wherefore they have no more been able to ascend into the heavens.
Chapter XV.-The Giants.
But from their unhallowed intercourse spurious men sprang, ranch greater in stature than ordinary men, whom they afterwards called giants; not those dragon-footed giants who waged war against God, as those blasphemous myths of the Greeks do sing, but wild in manners, and greater than men in size, inasmuch as they were sprung of angels; yet less than angels, as they were born of women. Therefore God, knowing that they were barbarized to brutality, and that the world was not sufficient to satisfy them (for it was created according to the proportion of men and human use), that they might not through want of food turn, contrary to nature, to the eating of animals, and yet seem to be blameless, as having ventured upon this through necessity, the Almighty God rained manna upon them, suited to their various tastes; and they enjoyed all that they would. But they, on account of their bastard nature, not being pleased with purity of food, longed only after the taste of blood. Wherefore they first tasted flesh.
Chapter XVIII.-The Law to the Survivors.
Since, therefore, the souls of the deceased giants were greater than human souls, inasmuch as they also excelled their bodies, they, as being a new race, were called also by a new name {demons}. And to those who survived in the world a law was prescribed of God through an angel, how they should live. For being bastards in race, of the fire of angels and the blood of women, and therefore liable to desire a certain race of their own, they were anticipated by a certain righteous law.
– Clement, Homily VIII, Chapters XIII; XV; XVIII
At about the same time, or not long after, the Jewish/Roman historian Josephus wrote:
Now this posterity of Seth continued to esteem God as the Lord of the universe, and to have an entire regard to virtue, for seven generations; but in process of time they were perverted, and forsook the practices of their forefathers; and did neither pay those honors to God which were appointed them, nor had they any concern to do justice towards men. But for what degree of zeal they had formerly shown for virtue, they now showed by their actions a double degree of wickedness, whereby they made God to be their enemy. For many angels of God accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the confidence they had in their own strength; for the tradition is, that these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants.
– Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 1, Chapter 3
Then, when describing the events of Genesis 14, Josephus says…
At this time, when the Assyrians had the dominion over Asia, the people of Sodom were in a flourishing condition, both as to riches and the number of their youth. There were five kings that managed the affairs of this county: Ballas, Barsas, Senabar, and Sumobor, with the king of Bela; and each king led on his own troops: and the Assyrians made war upon them; and, dividing their army into four parts, fought against them. Now every part of the army had its own commander; and when the battle was joined, the Assyrians were conquerors, and imposed a tribute on the kings of the Sodomites, who submitted to this slavery twelve years; and so long they continued to pay their tribute: but on the thirteenth year they rebelled, and then the army of the Assyrians came upon them, under their commanders Amraphel, Arioch, Chodorlaomer, and Tidal. These kings had laid waste all Syria, and overthrown the offspring of the giants.
– Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 1, Chapter 9
Regarding the later conquests of Israel, the historian goes on to say…
For which reason they removed their camp to Hebron; and when they had taken it, they slew all the inhabitants. There were till then left the race of giants, who had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight, and terrible to the hearing. The bones of these men are still shown to this very day, unlike to any credible relations of other men.
– Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 5, Chapter 2.3
Writing sometime prior to 190 AD, Athenagoras of Athens said…
For this is the office of the angels,-to exercise providence for God over the things created and ordered by Him; so that God may have the universal and general providence of the whole, while the particular parts are provided for by the angels appointed over them.90 Just as with men, who have freedom of choice as to both virtue and vice (for you would not either honour the good or punish the bad, unless vice and virtue were in their own power; and some are diligent in the matters entrusted to them by you, and others faithless), so is it among the angels. Some, free agents, you will observe, such as they were created by God, continued in those things for which God had made and over which He had ordained them; but some outraged both the constitution of their nature and the government entrusted to them: namely, this ruler of matter and its various forms, and others of those who were placed about this first firmament (you know that we say nothing without witnesses, but state the things which have been declared by the prophets); these fell into impure love of virgins, and were subjugated by the flesh, and he became negligent and wicked in the management of the things entrusted to him. Of these lovers of virgins, therefore, were begotten those who are called giants. And if something has been said by the poets, too, about the giants, be not surprised at this: worldly Wisdom and divine differ as much from each other as truth and plausibility: the one is of heaven and the other of earth; and indeed, according to the prince of matter, “We know we oft speak lies that look like truths.”
– Athenagoras, A Plea For The Christians, Chapter XXIV.-Concerning the Angels and Giants
These angels, then, who have fallen from heaven, and haunt the air and the earth, and are no longer able to rise to heavenly things, and the souls of the giants, which are the demons who wander about the world, perform actions similar, the one (that is, the demons) to the natures they have received, the other (that is, the angels) to the appetites they have indulged. But the prince of matter, as may be seen merely from what transpires, exercises a control and management contrary to the good that is in God.
– Athenagoras, A Plea For The Christians, Chapter XXV.-The Poets and Philosophers Have Denied a Divine Providence
Writing some time prior to 220AD, Tertullian wrote:
But, you say, in the case of the dead, mortality is already swallowed up of life. No, not in all cases, certainly. For how many will most probably be found of men who had just died-so recently put into their graves, that nothing in them would seem to be decayed? For you do not of course deem a thing to be decayed unless it be cut off, abolished, and withdrawn from our perception, as having in every possible way ceased to be apparent. There are the carcases of the giants of old time; it will be obvious enough that they are not absolutely decayed, for their bony frames are still extant. We have already spoken of this elsewhere. For instance, even lately in this very city, when they were sacrilegiously laying the foundations of the Odeum on a good many ancient graves, people were horror-stricken to discover, after some five hundred years, bones, which still retained their moisture, and hair which had not lost its perfume. It is certain not only that bones remain indurated, but also that teeth continue undecayed for ages-both of them the lasting germs of that body which is to sprout into life again in the resurrection.
– Tertullian, On The Resurrection of the Flesh,
Chapter XLII.-Death Changes, Without Destroying, Our Mortal Bodies. Remains of the Giants
Contemporarily, Marcus Minucius Felix writing sometime before 250AD, wrote:
III. -The Worship of Demons
When Almighty God, to beautify the nature of the world, willed that that earth should be visited by angels, when they were sent down they despised His laws. Such was the beauty of women, that it turned them aside; so that, being contaminated, they could not return to heaven. Rebels from God, they uttered words against Him. Then the Highest uttered His judgment against them; and from their seed giants are said to have been born. By them arts were made known in the earth, and they taught the dyeing of wool, and everything which is done; and to them, when they died, men erected images. But the Almighty, because they were of an evil seed, did not approve that, when dead, they should be brought back from death. Whence wandering they now subvert many bodies, and it is such as these especially that ye this day worship and pray to as gods.
Marcus Minucius Felix, The Instructions of Commodianus in Favour of Christian Discipline. Chapter III
Likewise, at about this same time Julius Africanus, while appearing a bit conflicted about this issue wrote the following – being the first to propose what would later become known as the “Sethite theory” of Genesis 6:1-4…
When men multiplied on the earth, the angels of heaven came together with the daughters of men. In some copies I found “the sons of God.” What is meant by the Spirit, in my opinion, is that the descendants of Seth are called the sons of God on account of the righteous men and patriarchs who have sprung from him, even down to the Saviour Himself; but that the descendants of Cain are named the seed of men, as having nothing divine in them, on account of the wickedness of their race and the inequality of their nature, being a mixed people, and having stirred the indignation of God. But if it is thought that these refer to angels, we must take them to be those who deal with magic and jugglery, who taught the women the motions of the stars and the knowledge of things celestial, by whose power they conceived the giants as their children, by whom wickedness came to its height on the earth, until God decreed that the whole race of the living should perish in their impiety by the deluge.
Again, during this same time period, Bishop Alexander of Cappadocia acknowledged the Jewish historical account (of Genesis) as pertaining to angels…
Jewish history relates that angels came down to hold intercourse with the daughters of men; for this saying signifies that the nutritive powers of the soul descended from heaven to earth.
– Alexander, Of the Manichaeans, Chapter XXV
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs is a constituent of the apocryphalscriptures connected with the Bible. It is a pseudepigraphical workcomprising the dying commands of the twelve sons of acob. It is part of the Oskan Armenian Orthodox Bible of 1666. Fragments of similar writings were found at Qumran, but opinions are divided as to whether these are the same texts. The Testaments were written in Hebrew or Greek, and reached their final form in the 2nd century CE. Regarding the events of Genesis 6, we find…
Therefore flee fornication, my children, and command your wives and your daughters that they adorn not their heads and their faces; because every woman who acteth deceitfully in these things hath been reserved to everlasting punishment. For thus they allured the Watchers before the flood; and as these continually beheld them, they fell into desire each of the other, and they conceived the act in their mind, and changed themselves into the shape of men, and appeared to them in their congress with their husbands; and the women, having in their minds desire toward their apparitions, gave birth to giants, for the Watchers appeared to them as reaching even unto heaven.
– The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, 1 – The Testiment of Reuben Concerning Thoughts
The Kebra Nagast, orThe Glory of the Kings, is a 14th-centuryaccount written inGe’ezof the origins of the Solomonic lineof the Emperorsof Ethiopia. The text, in its existing form, is at least 700 years old and is considered by many Ethiopian Christiansand Rastafarito be an inspired and a reliable work. This is what it had to say about the events of Genesis 6…
And straightway God was wroth with them, and He bound them in the terror of SHEÔL until the day of redemption, as the Apostle saith, “He treated His angels with severity. He spared them not, but made them to dwell in a state of judgement, and they were fettered until the Great Day.” The word of God conquered, Who had fashioned ADAM in His likeness (or, form), and those who had reviled and made a laughingstock of ADAM were conquered. And the daughters of CAIN with whom the angels had companied conceived, but they were unable to bring forth their children, and they died. And of the children who were in their wombs some died, and some came forth; having split open the bellies of their mothers they came forth by their navels. And when they were grown up and reached man’s estate they became giants, whose height reached unto the clouds; and for their sakes and the sakes of sinners the wrath of God became quiet, and He said, “My spirit shall only rest on them for one hundred and twenty years, and I will destroy them with the waters of the Flood,” them and all sinners who have not believed the word of God. And to those who believed the word of their fathers, and did His Will, no injury came from the waters of the Flood, but He delivered them, saying, “If thou believest My word thou canst save thyself from the Flood.”
The Kebra Nagast, Chapter 100: Concerning the Angels Who Rebelled
This (proper) angelic view of Genesis 6 was the dominant view of antiquity. You simply cannot ignore this fact. It only began to lose ground in the 3rd Century with Julius Africanus, then later with Augustine. Then much later, Calvin came along and really made the bogus “Sethite Theory” view popular. For a great article on this, please read Douglas Hamp’s blog:
Again, in short, you have to literally ignore HUGE AMOUNTS of literary and historical data, as well as the countless reports of giants and the subsequent discoveries of their remains, which have been recorded by numerous cultures all around the world in order to believe and teach the completely bogus Sethite Theory. In my view, anyone who teaches that theory is being exceptionally dishonest with the ancient record as well as with their listeners, proving only an agenda that is absolutely contrary to the facts. As a researcher, I cannot do that. If you subscribe to this Sethite doctrine, I would hope you will now seriously reconsider your wholly unsubstantiated position in this regard.
Sincerely,
– Rob Skiba
********************************
Addendum below by James Sundquist. Note the clear unequivocal exegesis that tells us once again, that “The Sons of God” were angels and their progeny the Nephilim:
If angels are just spirits and not physical beings then why does Jude state that they were bound in chains? Doesn’t this require being a physical being? Please tell me how you put a spirit in chains? And note that both Peter and Jude describe them as being bound in chains. Both Peter and Jude told all Christians that the account of Nephilim judgment was already known to all of them, meaning it was common knowledge in the First Century. It was not unknown or concealed or a mystery that needed to be revealed or explained. Both Apostles were simply reminding them and warning them of how seriously God took it. In fact all of the revered church fathers held this view until St. John of Chrysostom (born 347 AD), and Augustine (born 354 AD), such as Clement of Rome (35 AD), and contemporary of the Apostle John), Justin Martyr (2nd Century), Irenaeus (202 AD), Ambrose (4th Century), and myriads other Saints. Conclusion: There is no good biblical motivation to change. There are no dead wicked humans in Tartarus. So it would have to be empty if no fallen angels are in it, so there would be no reason even for its existence! The motivation in the Roman Catholic Church to propagate that the Nephilim as humans vs. fallen angel offspring was nefarious, which was antisemitism and Replacement Theology, with John Calvin taking the baton pass from Augustine. From the Book of Genesis on, you have a only two choices: Stand with Israel or Abandon Israel!: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:1-3 So why should we be so shocked? And yet to this day, most Christian Denominations do not take Genesis 6 and 12 literally.
Of all the displays in the 30,000 square feet of the 
If dinosaur and horse representatives both survived the Flood on the Ark, then why do horses still live today while the dragons went extinct? The ancient art itself offers a clue. Dragons became famous for being slain, possibly even with the Creator’s approval.5 Vance Nelson’s book Amazon Expedition details research conducted on an ancient Peruvian pictograph made thousands of years ago showing another sauropod look-alike.6
Even Steven 