This post is a part of a series on the Biblical Chronology of the Weird Parts of Scripture. This series involves an explanation of a very strange chronology that I am defending, which is here:
The thing that we are going to cover in this section is the idea that Noah and his family “leave the timeline” and then return 7,208 years later. What do I mean by this? And once I explain what I mean by that, how on earth can I claim that such a thing happened?
Well, guess what. I’m not going to hide the ball. Here is what I’m claiming:
- Noah “left the timeline” and “leaving the timeline” means that Noah went to heaven where he was not subject to the normal rules of time.
- Noah time-traveled in a forward direction by literally going to “the heavenly places,” which is a place that is separated by earth by dimension, not distance.
- Though it lasted only about a year for him, it lasted around 7,208 years for the earth.
- Noah left around 9,500 BC, at the time of the Younger Dryas climate catastrophe which killed almost every living thing on earth. That was “the Flood.”
- Noah returned to the timeline around 7, 208 years later when his ark was placed in the mountains of Ararat in modern day Armenia.
I know how crazy this sounds, but I don’t care. I’m serious, and I’m going to defend it. To defend it, I’m going to have to describe two things:
- The Cosmic “Geography” of Different Dimensions
- Actual examples of Traveling Through Time in the Bible
By the end of this post, my goal is not for you to believe this is any less “crazy,” (because there’s no hope there). Instead, it is merely my goal to show that things that we know are crazy are not as implausible as we previously thought.
So buckle up, things are about to get weird.
The Cosmic “Geography” of Different Dimensions
Dimensions are like planes in geography. You can have a line that goes on forever, and that line is infinite. Let’s call that line the X axis. There is no limit to how far you can go, and let’s say that you’re at point A on the X axis. But if there’s a point B on the Y axis (which is not on the X axis), then no matter how far you travel on the X axis, even to infinity in either direction, then you will never get to point B.
That’s because traveling from Point A to Point B is not a matter of distance. It is a matter of dimension.
The problem persists when you get up to three dimensions. If you join the X and Y axes in a plane, you can travel infinitely in four directions, and you can get from point A to point B. But now imagine there is another point — point C – on a different dimension, that we’ll call the Z axis. Even though you have two dimensions of infinity open to your travel, you still cannot travel to point Z. That’s because point Z is not only separated by distance, it is also separated by dimension.
The problem still exists if you go up to four dimensions. Four dimensions is really hard to draw on Microsoft Paint, so I had to get creative. I hope you get the point. Below is a visual representation of what I’m talking about.
How far must my mouse travel to reach point D? That’s the problem of dimensions.
This applies to the Bible for the following reason. Look at what we read about God in the Psalms:
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
(Psalm 139:7-12)
So clearly, God’s presence extends to EVERYWHERE. So, why can’t we see him? There are definitely times where he is seen (especially in Genesis. Look at Genesis 15, Genesis 18, Exodus 24, etc.) Why not by me right now? The answer to that question has to do with dimensions.
Nobody on earth can see God, because we are restricted to the dimension of Earth. But God is not so restricted. God is at Point D. We’re limited to points A, B, and C. That’s how heaven works. God is “above” everything on Earth, and that is NOT a statement about the Z axis. It’s something more. It’s a different dimension.
We actually get a lot of description of this different dimension stuff in the Bible, even though it doesn’t use the term “dimension.” Most people miss it. We get phrases like this to describe where God is located:
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights!
Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his hosts!Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars!
Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!
. . .
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his majesty is above earth and heaven.
(Psalm 148:1-4, 13)
Wait… highest heavens? Waters above the heavens? The majesty of the Lord is ABOVE both earth AND heaven? If the heavens are above the earth, then what is up above BOTH heaven and earth? Space is infinite. What is the Bible talking about?
Well, that’s not language of “space.” That’s the language of a different dimension. God is ABOVE both heaven and earth. He’s above the X, Y, and Z axis. He’s not on the infinite end of the Z axis. He’s at Point D.
The “Highest Heavens,” Where Time Doesn’t Matter
We get this language of heaven in a dimensional sense, but then we also get some mentions of time in this extra dimension. Very early on in the Bible, we see that “time” isn’t the same for God as it is for us on Earth. Look at the following passage in Exodus:
Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. (Exodus 24:15-18)
Here’s a pretty basic question. Why didn’t Moses STARVE? On top of a mountain in Saudi Arabia for forty days and forty nights? One option is that he had enough food that the Isrealites provided him. However, this is not very likely, because later, they think he is dead. That’s where the whole “golden calf” business comes from. A better explanation (as crazy as this sounds) is that Moses had a Magic Narnia Wardrobe Moment, and he went to a place where time works differently.
One of the reasons this is a “better” explanation, even though it is crazy is that it is explicitly mentioned by Moses. Look at what we read in Psalms:
A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
. . .
For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
(Psalm 90:2, 4)
Notice how time does not work the same for God. Notice also that this is a prayer OF MOSES, so it is SUPER OLD. For God, time doesn’t work like normal. That’s because God is IN HEAVEN. He is not on Earth.
And what’s crazy to realize is that this is not some quality that is inherent to beings “from heaven.” Instead, it is a quality that is inherent to the PLACE of heaven. Strangely in the Bible, time applies to beings from heaven when they come to Earth. Look at what we read in Daniel about the angel Gabriel:
On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river (that is, the Tigris) I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude. . . . And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.” And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.” (Daniel 10:4-6, 11-14)
The twenty-one days that Gabriel is delayed just happens to match up to the time period in which Daniel was “in mourning for three weeks.” Therefore, it is clearly implied that it ACTUALLY TAKES TIME for Gabriel to get to Daniel. It takes twenty-one days, in fact. As a simple mathematical time-comparison to Earth days from Psalm 90, that should be 21,000 Earth-years or a fraction of a fraction of a second (going in the other direction).
A much better understanding is that even for heavenly beings, when they arrive in the dimension of Earth, time works for them, too. This allows us to understand some very foundational things about different dimensions in the Bible. Included in the diagram below are certain verses the reference this alternate-dimension language:
One thing you will notice about the examples when God appears in the Bible is that it doesn’t involve distance. Instead, it involves CLOUDS. That’s because we can’t see the other dimension, and we can’t see God (or angels) passing through the dimensions, because it’s fuzzy… …just like a cloud.
So, do you see that overlap? That’s why heaven is always described as “up,” but the “distance” of space is never a factor. If you got on a rocket on earth and tried to travel to “the Ancient of Days,” that would be like traveling on the X axis to get to Point B. It would be like traveling on the X/Y plane to get to point C. It would be like moving your mouse to try and click on point D. It’s not going to work. You can’t get to the Heaven of Heavens by traveling “distance,” even infinite distances. Instead, you have to get there by switching dimensions.
The Bible talks about this all the time. For instance, this is why Psalm 68 says the following:
Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth;
Oh sing praises unto the Lord; Selah
To him that rideth upon the heaven of heavens, which are of old;
Lo, he uttereth his voice, a mighty voice.
Ascribe ye strength unto God:
His excellency is over Israel,
And his strength is in the skies.
(Psalm 68:32-34)
These are the dimensions of heaven and earth when it applies to the Bible, and yes, it has an influence on time-travel in the Bible, too.
The idea of traveling through time might sound ridiculous, but when you think about it, it’s not that ridiculous at all. For example, notice that you are actually traveling through time RIGHT NOW, at normal speed.
Part 2: Actual Examples of Traveling Through Time in the Bible
Now that we’ve explained the whole dimension thing, I’m now going to show how this time-traveling thing ACTUALLY HAPPENS in the Bible. Before I get started, I might as well tackle the issue of traveling through time at odd speeds right off the bat. One thing we need to realize is that this is NOT contrary to our scientific understanding of the universe.
In the movie Interstellar, the story had a very accurate depiction of what would ACTUALLY HAPPEN IN THE TANGIBLE UNIVERSE if you traveled at speeds approaching the speed of light. Matthew McConaughey traveled through time, and that wasn’t “amazing.” Instead, it was…. …well, you know.
It is this type of time travel that I’m claiming for Noah: Forward through time at a fast rate.
Biblical Time Travel
You’d be surprised how often some form of time travel is in the Bible. However, the time we see it, it involves one of two things, as well as a third thing:
- Someone’s death OR
- Someone being taken up to heaven, AND
- The Lord messing around with things.
Time Traveler 1- Moses
First, let’s look at the death of Moses. We need to know when he lived and died. We get a clue at the end of Deuteronomy, which happens 40 years after the Exodus:
Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day. (Deuteronomy 34:1-7)
While people debate about the date of the Exodus, I am quite convinced that it happened in 1446 BC. That’s because we are told the following in 1 Kings:
In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord. (1 Kings 6:1-2)
General history accepts that Solomon reigned from 970–931 BC. This means the fourth year of his reign is 966 BC. And therefore, 480 years before the fourth year of Solomon’s reign is 1446 BC. The scene where Joseph dies is at the last year of 40 years or so in the wilderness. Therefore, Moses died around 1406 BC.
We can confirm this, because Josephus in Against Apion, sraight up NAMES the pharaoh who was ruling at the time of the Exodus, based on the historical account of Manetho of Egypt, who was an Egyptian historian translating all of the Egyptian records into Greek for the Ptolemys. This is what Josephus reports:
But now I shall produce the Egyptians as witnesses to the antiquity of our nation. I shall therefore here bring in Manetho again, and what he writes as to the order of the times in this case. And thus he speaks: “When this people or shepherds were gone out of Egypt, to Jerusalem, Tethtmosis, the King of Egypt, who drove them out, reigned afterward twenty five years, and four months, and then died. (Josephus, Against Apion, 1.15)
Go to Wikipedia and look at the list of Egyptian pharaohs. Look who is the Pharaoh in 1446 BC. I dare you. Also, ever wonder who is “the daughter of pharaoh” who pulled Moses out of the water? Look who is the Pharaoh before that guy. It is Hatshepsut, who “Was the daughter of Thutmose I and the Great Wife of her brother Thutmose II.” Not only that, remember that the king at the time of the genocide against the Hebrews “did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8). And if you rewind 400 years, you see that we have a break in the 17th dynasty and the 18th dynasty which would explain such a lack of knowledge.
Time Traveler 2- Elijah
We also have the example of Elijah, who did not die. This is what we read about his “not-death”:
When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me.” And he said, “You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you, but if you do not see me, it shall not be so.” And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces. (2 Kings 2:9-12)
Yes, that was very weird, but one thing it was not was a “death.” Instead, Elijah was taken up to heaven, and he did not die.
As for the date of Elijah, we see that he lived at the same time as Ahab, and the chariots of fire scene comes around the time we see the death of Ahaz recorded. The most eminent historians say (actually, wikipedia says that, but I am too lazy to check the sources myself) that King Ahab of Israel reigned from 871 – 852 BC.
Therefore, Elijah is taking his chariot-ride around 850 BC.
When Jesus Christ Pulls the Time-Travel Card
So we see that Moses dies, and it is “the Lord” who buries him, even though we do not know where Moses is buried in 1406 BC. Additionally, we see that Elijah does not die, and he goes up to heaven in 850 BC. But look what we read in three of the gospels about what happens in “the district of Caesarea Philippi”:
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. (Matthew 17:1-3)
Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. (Luke 9:28-31)
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. (Mark 9:2-4)
While it may look like Moses and Elijah are shiny and sparkly like Jesus (because they “appeared in glory” in Luke 9), I’m not so sure this is the case. That is because the Greek “glory,” especially as it is merely transliterated from the Hebrew, can simply mean “brightness.” This would mean that Moses and Elijah aren’t any thing special themselves when they are “in glory.” Instead, they are standing “in the brightness” of Jesus, who is definitely something special at this point.
Therefore, let’s get a picture of this scene. There is a ridiculously sparkly Jesus, who was transmogrified into something super-human in front of the three disciples. Then there are two normal people talking to the transmogrified Jesus. And while it may be easy to get caught up in the whole “transfiguration” thing about Jesus (which is definitely important), let’s not forget this crazy fact:
MOSES AND ELIJAH HAVE EITHER BEEN DEAD OR MISSING-IN-ACTION FOR 1436 YEARS AND 880 YEARS, RESPECTIVELY, BUT THERE THEY ARE
What are we supposed to do with this? It seems that Moses has been resurrected. It seems Elijah was pulled down from heaven. Or maybe that whirlwind and chariot of fire first pulled Elijah to that tall mountain in Caesarea-Philippi. Maybe Moses was resurrected and transported to the same mountain. Or maybe he was time-traveled to this spot by the Lord (who was with Moses when he died, remember).
I don’t know. But here’s what I do know. No matter how you cut this, you have to include time-travel into this equation.
Not only this, let’s remember that some form of time-travel was seen as a REASONABLE EXPECTATION among many of the Jews in Jesus’s time. Look what people say about him when he is preaching and doing miracles. This happens immediately before the encounter with Moses and Elijah:
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 16:13-17)
So don’t let this fact be lost on you. We know that Jesus is “the Son of God,” and that’s just normal Christian doctrine. However, it was MORE NORMAL for a Jew in Jesus’s day to believe that Jesus was the Chariot-of-Fire-Time-Traveling appearance of Elijah than it was for them to believe that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
I know time-travel is a crazy concept to get our heads wrapped around. I know. It is. But just realize that this was a LESS-crazy concept than it was for Jews in Jesus’s day to believe that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Let that sink in.
Evidence About Noah Going to “The Highest Heavens” from Outside of the Bible
At this point, I’m going to go outside the Bible to get supporting evidence that Noah went to “heaven” when he was in his Ark. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the main character, Gilgamesh, is a demi-god of sorts. He is distraught because he is facing death, and coming to grips with his mortality. In his search for immortality, he seeks someone named “Utanapishtim” who is called “The Far-away.”
If you want to know who Utanapishtim is, then just look at Wikipedia. It will tell you who he is:
He is tasked by the god Enki (Ea) to abandon his worldly possessions and create a giant ship to be called Preserver of Life. . . . He was also tasked with bringing his wife, family, and relatives along with the craftsmen of his village, baby animals, and grains. The oncoming flood would wipe out all animals and people not on the ship
Does this story sound familiar to you? Utanapishtim is Noah, obviously. And when Gilgamesh finds Noah.. …that is… ..Utanapishtim, he asks him the following question:
Gilgamesh spoke to Utanapishtim, the Faraway:
“I have been looking at you,
but your appearance is not strange–you are like me!
You yourself are not different–you are like me!
My mind was resolved to fight with you,
(but instead?) my arm lies useless over you.
Tell me, how is it that you stand in the Assembly of the Gods,
and have found life!“
(Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI)
To put it quite simply, I will say this. Noah went very, VERY Far Away. He went to “the Assembly of the Gods.” As the Bible would say, he went to “the Heaven of Heavens.”
If you want the fuller argument on this, please look back at my post on the Weird Parts of Scripture and Arks. In that post I describe how Noah did not float on a boat. Instead, he went TO HEAVEN. In short, here is the introduction that we got of Noah in Genesis 6:
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:9)
Meanwhile, look at what we read about another WEIRD character in the Bible who is Noah’s great grandfather:
When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:21-23)
In case you’re confused about what that means, here is the commentary on this man that the New Testament gives:
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. (Hebrews 11:5)
Enoch DID NOT DIE. That’s what it means when he “walked with God.” And that is precisely the same language that is used to describe what happened to Noah. Noah is the sole survivor of what the Bible describes as a world-wide life-ending flood for EVERYTHING that was living on earth. And what is the “headline” about Noah? Sole survivor on earth? Nope:
“Noah walked with God.”
He went to heaven, and he came back down again. That’s what I believe the Bible says. The argument I’m making with my timeline is that this caused really trippy things to happen as it relates to Noah and “Time.”
The Chronological Markers of Genesis
For obvious reasons, the Bible does not date events in terms of A.D. and B.C. Instead, the only markers it gives are the ages of the patriarchs. Starting in Genesis 5, we are given the ages of Adam and his descendants. There is a firm pattern in the text that makes it difficult to fudge numbers to extend the timeline. A typical verse reads as follows:
When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died. (Genesis 5:3-5)
We get language like this of each generation in unbroken succession from Adam to Noah. Therefore, it seems we had about 1600 years between Adam’s beginning and the Flood.
Then, after the flood, we get a different genealogy and chronology of the descendants of Noah. It starts with Shem and goes all the way down to Abraham. However, notice how the genealogy starts:
These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters. (Genesis 11:10-11).
So it seems that we’ve got similar firm chronologies here. That’s how we get these rock-solid chronologies that put the creation of Adam at 4004 BC. There’s not much you can do with that, right?
Wrong. Not so fast. Do you know what “after the flood” means in Genesis 11:10-11? That’s the key.
The Proper Noun Translated into English as “the Flood”
When you read your Bible in English, you read “Flood” and think that “Flood” means “flood.” And in one sense, this is correct, but in another sense, it is not.
There’s something to remember about “the Flood” in the Bible. “The Flood” in the story of Noah is the Hebrew word mabbul (מַבּוּל). It is a word that is ONLY used to describe the world-wide cataclysm that killed everyone with water. Here are several other verses in the Bible that have the word “flood” in English:
But with an overflowing flood (sheteph) he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. (Nahum 1:8)
For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood (nahar) surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. (Jonah 2:3)
I sink in deep mire,
where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
and the flood (shibbol) sweeps over me. (Psalm 69:2)
You’ll notice that none of those are mabbul. Instead, there is only ONE PLACE in the Bible where mabbul is used outside of the Genesis flood account. That’s in Psalm 29:
Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, [Footnote: Hebrew sons of God, or sons of might]
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the Lord, over many waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
and Sirion like a young wild ox.The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth [Footnote: Revocalization yields makes the oaks to shake]
and strips the forests bare,
and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”The Lord sits enthroned over the flood (mabbul);
the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
May the Lord give strength to his people!
May the Lord bless [Footnote: Or The Lord will give… The Lord will bless] his people with peace!
This is not a scene on Earth. Instead, this is a scene IN HEAVEN. This is a scene where God is displaying his power in heaven, and he’s doing it OVER the flood (mabbul). That is the time when this scene is taking place. And note who is being addressed here: “O heavenly beings.”
This scene is in “the Assembly of the Gods,” as the Epic of Gilgamesh would say. That is part of what “the mabbul” is. Notice every single time that the word “mabbul” is used in Genesis. I’ve replaced “flood” with this word in all the following verses::
For behold, I will bring a mabbul of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. (Genesis 6:17)
Noah was six hundred years old when the mabbul of waters came upon the earth. (Genesis 7:6)
And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the mabbul. (Genesis 7:7)
And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth. (Genesis 7:10)
The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. (Genesis 7:17)
I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the mabbul, and never again shall there be a mabbul to destroy the earth.” (Genesis 9:11)
I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a mabbul to destroy all flesh. (Genesis 9:15)
After the mabbul Noah lived 350 years. (Genesis 9:28)
Here’s something to notice about that. “The waters” are not “the mabbul.” Instead, we see that we have “the waters OF the mabbul.” In fact, we see in Genesis 9:15, God says that the waters shall never again “become a mabbul.” This means that a “mabbul” is something much more than water. It is a PROPER NOUN.
Time and the “mabbul”
Whenever we realize that “mabbul” is a proper noun, it opens up a very important possibility on our timeline of biblical chronology. The currently accepted Biblical Chronology claims that there is an even an uninterrupted span of time of Noah’s life.
Noah was six hundred years old when the flood (mabbul) of waters came upon the earth. (Genesis 7:6)
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. (Genesis 7:11)
In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. (Genesis 8:13)
After the flood (mabbul) Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died. (Genesis 9:28-29)
These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. And Shem lived after he fathered Arpachshad 500 years and had other sons and daughters. (Genesis 11:10-11)
The way that biblical chronologers typically view this event is as follows:
However, if the “mabbul” is a proper noun that is MORE THAN mere water coming on Earth, and if we have two dimensions with different paces of time, we can understand the chronology of the verses above as follows:
No one with a reputation to ruin would use the word “time travel” when talking about theology. I, on the other hand, do not have a reputation to ruin, and that is why I have decided to speak plainly about the subject.
However, recognize that very reputable people have invoked the idea and possibility of time travel when it comes to God. A simple internet search can reveal a well-respected article like this:
Any theistic view of the world includes some notion of how God is related to the structures of the universe, including space and time. The question of God’s relation to time has generated a great amount of theological and philosophical reflection. The traditional view has been that God is timeless in the sense of being outside time altogether; that is, he exists but does not exist at any point in time and he does not experience temporal succession. (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
All I am claiming is that Noah went to a place that does not experience temporal succession like earth. That’s the key to my timeline.
The Odd Coincidence and Timing of The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh is estimated to have been written around 2100 BC. It is written about a king of Uruk named… …you guessed it… …”Gilgamesh.”
As many people know, the Epic of Gilgamesh has an account of the flood. As an important point, the Bible did not “borrow” from the Epic of Gilgamesh, because the Epic of Gilgamesh was written before the Bible. In the same way, the June 2012 movie Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter is not the prequel to the November 2012 “Lincoln.” Instead, both the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible talk about the REAL EVENT and the REAL PEOPLE involved in the Flood, the Great Deluge, the Mabbul, or whatever you want to call it. If some details match up, why wouldn’t you expect that?
Additionally, the Epic of Gilgamesh is “the Epic” of Gilgamesh, not “the History” of Gilgamesh. So if the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh differ in areas, would you expect the “true” account to come from the one that labels itself an “epic,” or the one that claims to be telling you the truth?
Even though I view the Epic of Gilgamesh as a work of fiction, even in works of fiction, some things must stay consistent. In Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, Lincoln is fighting vampires in Civil War times, not Revolutionary War times. Some things must stay consistent, even when you add “vampires” into the mix. (Or scorpion-beings who guard the mountains, as the Epic of Gilgamesh does.)
However, there is a STRANGE difference between the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh when it comes to Noah. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Noah is IMMORTAL. That’s significant, especially since no such thing is mentioned in the Bible. Why the difference? Well, let’s go back to our timeline.
We estimate that the Epic of Gilgamesh was written around 2100 B.C., and when it comes to the Bible, we trace back to Noah using Abraham and Terah, going all the way back to Shem. There are 290 years between the birth of Arpachshad and the birth of Abraham. Add two years, and that gives the end of “the mabbul.” That’s why I say Noah reentered the timeline around 2,292 B.C.
But look what this means about the time that the Epic of Gilgamesh was written. Noah came back to the timeline and lived 350 years after that. This means he dies around 1942 BC.
This means that NOAH WAS STILL ALIVE when the Epic of Gilgamesh was written.
Not only that, he was alive several thousand years before that time, too. The reason he was able to do this is that he “stood in the assembly of the gods.” Notice what Gilgamesh says about the reason that he is trying to reach Noah/Utanapishtim:
I have come on account of my ancestor Utanapishtim,
Who joined the Assembly of the Gods and was given eternal life.
About Death and Life I must ask him! (Epic of Gilgamesh, tablet IX)
Gilgamesh claims to be a descendant of Noah. He claims that Noah was given eternal life. He claims that Noah joined the Assembly of the Gods. The reason he did this is because (according to my chronology) Noah’s actual presence on Earth in Earth Time spreads THOUSANDS of years and Noah is STILL ALIVE when the epic was written, living two to three times longer than normal human beings live, even after living 600 years before.
That’s why Noah was seen as “immortal.”
CONCLUSION
So, I hope you see why I claim that Noah “left the timeline.” He went to a place where time doesn’t matter. Noah then comes back to Earth and normal Earth time. This means that Noah’s relationship with time is much like the normal “time slowing down” that the theory of general relativity says happens when we approach the speed of light. (See here for what that means.)
You notice that we are dating the actual flood with the Younger Dryas climate catastrophe. This brought an end to the Younger Dryas period, which lasts about 1,300 years.
Oddly enough, this is quite similar to the time period between Adam and the flood in Genesis.
Preview of the Next Post
There’s something to notice about AGE when it comes to Noah and his descendants. Much like Adam and the patriarchs, Noah lives a very, VERY long time. But notice what God says right at the beginning of the story of Noah:
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” (Genesis 6:1-3)
Strangely enough, there are several people after Noah who live much longer than 120 years. They are listed in Genesis 11, and include:
- Noah, who lived 950 years.
- Shem, who lived 600 years.
- Arpachshad who lived 438 years.
- Shelah, who lived 433 years.
- Eber, who lived 464 years.
- Peleg, who lived 239 years.
- Reu, who lived 239 years.
- Serug, who lived 230 years.
- Nahor, who lived 148 years.
- Terah, who lived 205 years. (Terah was from Haran. This is important for later).
I’d like to make a very important point about these people living a long time. Each of these long-living people were HIGHLY-REVERED. That will be the subject of the next post.