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THE EARTHLY INHERITANCE SERIES of BIBLE SUBJECTS
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Various Bible study guides in subjects pertaining to
New Earth prophecy, as taught by Paul Phelps.
For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD,
they shall inherit the earth. Psalm 37:9
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THE MOUNTAIN OF NOAH
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Bible quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version
except for my own translations or as otherwise indicated.
The Bible speaks about Noah landing his ship on Mount Ararat
but the identity of the original Mount Ararat remains a mystery.
A Bible study project by Paul Phelps.
After several years of study this writing was completed in 2000.
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The Bible
says that Noah left his ship on Mount Ararat but the identity of this
mountain is a mystery. Some say the mountain named Ararat in eastern Turkey
is the true one, but that tradition may not be true. Here we give reason to
think
that Mount Ararat of Gen. 8:4 is Qomolangma Feng (Mount Everest).
Rising to
8850 meters above sea level Qomolangma Feng is the tallest mountain of earth.
The trek
from the ark must have begun at a far distance from Babylon; it took
over a century for the migrants to reach Shinar; Gen. 11. Qomolangma Feng is
eastward of Shinar (Babylon’s ancient name). The Flood survivors
migrated to
the land of Shinar coming from the east.
Gen. 11:2,
And as they migrated from the east,
they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
The
phrase “from the east” is a translation of MI-KÈDEM in the Hebrew Text.
MI is ‘from’ or ‘coming from’ and should not be translated otherwise. KÈDEM is
‘front of the east’ or ‘the orient.’ This means that the Flood survivors came
from
someplace in the east before they came to Babylon. The mountain now known
as Mount Ararat is north of ancient Babylon so it cannot fit the
Bible description.
The tallest mountains are in the east; the Himalayas are eastward
from Babylon.
The Bible
languages began in Babylon more than four millennia ago but the
name ‘Ararat’ is pre-Flood. ‘Ararat’ is a word better understood for its
meaning
than its language form; it is not Hebrew but an adaptation of the Assyrian word
‘Urartu,’ meaning highest land. In Biblical references Armenia is called
‘Ararat’
(2 Kings 19:37; Is. 37:38; Jer. 51:27) but this was a name applied after
the Flood.
Noah’s
Flood erased all former place names but migrants from Babylon gave
old names to new places, in memory of the old world. The mountain of eastern
Turkey (Armenia), called Ararat, is the tallest mountain close to Babylon, so it
is
reasonable that it was named Ararat. Babylon’s language confusion limited the
study of historical records. The memory of place names in the pre-Flood world
would have been confused and lost with the passing of time.
The
pre-Flood world was different from this world; there is no reason to think
that Noah’s home was in Babylon or that pre-Flood humanity began in Babylon.
It is true that people spread outward from Babylon after the Flood, but
that is in
this world; we cannot assume this for the old world. And
there is no basis to say
that the Garden of Eden was in Babylon. Genesis 2:8 says the Garden of Eden
was
eastward
(Heb.
MI-KÈDEM,
from
the orient);
and later on, people settled in
territory even farther eastward (Gen. 3:23-24; 4:16). There is more on this
topic
in the study guide entitled “The Garden of Eden.”
Noah’s ark is
described in Genesis 6:14—9:18; this was a large wooden ship
designed for open seas and strong wind. It had no sail; it was designed to
drift
with the wind and water. Ocean waves usually go in a westerly direction due to
earth’s eastward rotation, therefore the
ark drifted towards the
west
from places
farther east. The drift will have been swift because there was then no
continent
or landmass above water to restrain the waves; the earth was a world ocean.
In Noah’s
Flood many ships were floating, not only Noah’s. People always try
to survive life-threatening dangers and the Flood was a life-threatening danger
of the first magnitude!
Every
available ship,
boat and raft was afloat then.
All
across the world boats are always being built so there have always been boats.
The brief instructions given Noah imply shipbuilding knowledge; Gen. 6:14-16.
We know the old world had rivers because Eden had rivers (Gen. 2:10-14); and
there were oceans; Gen. 1:9-10; Jer. 5:22; Psalm 104:5-6; Prov. 8:26-30. Oceans
and rivers have always required shipbuilding. We may be sure that more ships
other than Noah’s were afloat in the Flood.
A large
wooden ship has been seen on Mt. Ararat of eastern Turkey at some
distance down from the summit, buried in ice. It is difficult of access and has
not been studied enough to confirm an identity but if it is not Noah’s ark, then
it is another ship of that time. Many tall mountains in the world could have
ships
near their summits buried under ice. Exploration in the Himalayan Mountains is
difficult because the ice is thick; wooden vessels can be crushed under the
ice.
Another
ship ruin has been found in the high mountains of northwest Iran but
at an elevation a thousand metres lower than the one in Turkey. These findings
all prove the Bible Flood story but we are still looking for the true Mount
Ararat.
The world
Flood melted the ice on mountain peaks for they were submerged
under water, briny waters melt ice. Any mountain peak that Noah grounded on
would likely have had a temperate or tropical climate. It would then have been
an island in the ocean. But as the water level dropped, the temperature would
also have dropped. Finally all tall mountains formed ice caps as now exist; but
while the world-ocean was in Flood rise the exposed summits would have had a
temperate or tropical climate.
Gen.
7:11-12 says that “all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the
windows (ARUBÒT, floodgates) of the heavens were opened. And the
rain fell
on the earth forty days and forty nights.” This gives reason to expect that
earth
was hit by swarms of ice meteors which became rain as they fell to earth.
The
excess of Floodwater is now in the oceans and in the ice of polar regions.
The oceans now existing are deeper than the pre-Flood oceans. Gen. 7:11 says
that all the fountains of the great deep burst forth. With broken foundations,
the
ocean floors soon dropped under the weight of water in response to the sudden
world-wide increase of Floodwater. The quantity of water that fell on the earth
was enormous—enough to cover all the dry land, and all the mountains.
Gen. 7:19-20,
The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high
mountains under the whole heaven were covered; the waters
swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.
(nearly 61/2 metres)
In Noah’s time
all of earth was one vast ocean with no land visible anywhere;
even the highest land was covered. The Ararat mountain range was the highest
land of earth and was the last mountains covered in the Flood. Before the Flood
all the Himalayan mountains were called Ararat. The fifteen cubits of water
that
covered the top is a reference to the tallest mountaintop,
Qomolangma Feng.
To insure
that no one survived outside the ark, it was needful that the deluge
would overflow all the tallest mountains. In such a life threatening flood,
people
will seek refuge in the highest land—but even that was covered by water.
Gen. 7:21-23,
And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals,
wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth,
and all human beings; everything on dry land in whose nostrils
was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing
that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals
and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from
the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.
The ark
was thirty cubits tall (Gen. 6:15). The draught of a loaded cargo ship
is usually the same as the height above water. Therefore Noah’s ark had fifteen
cubits draught, the same depth below water as the top of Qomolangma Feng at
flood crest, allowing the ark to rest atop earth’s tallest peak. Gen. 7:24;
8:3-4,
7:24, And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days.
8:3-4... At the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had abated;
and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month,
the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
During
the one hundred fifty days the Floodwaters increased but later began
to subside. A great wind began to blow on the earth; Gen. 8:1-3,
... And God made a wind blow over the earth,
and the waters subsided; the fountains of the deep and the
windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens
was restrained, and the waters gradually receded from the earth.
The ark
landed on the mountain peak after one hundred fifty days but nearby
mountain peaks were not visible until seventy-four days later. Gen. 8:5,13-14,
The waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month,
on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.
In the six hundred first year, the first month, the first day of the month,
the waters were dried up from the earth… In the second month,
on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
The
horizon at sea is sixteen kilometres, beyond which nothing is visible due
to the curvature of the earth; therefore the other peaks had to be within
sixteen
kilometres of the grounded ark. But there are no tall mountains anywhere near
Mount Ararat of eastern Turkey; the nearest tall mountains are 240 km south, or
325 km north. Mount Ararat of Turkey is one single peak, not part of any
range.
But the Himalayan mountain range has several peaks within a sixteen-kilometre
distance of Qomolangma Feng. This well confirms Qomolangma Feng of Tibet
as the true mountain of Noah.
Mount Ararat
in Turkey is 5137 metres tall, much less than the Himalayas and
also less than Tibet and central Asia. Noah’s ark cannot be on any mountains of
west Asia nor indeed anyplace except the Himalayas. If the ark were in Turkey
it would mean that Noah waited at least four months after the first hundred and
fifty days for the water to drop enough that the ark could land on a lower
peak.
But the ark landed at flood crest.
All
things must be confirmed by two or three witnesses and a raven and dove
were God’s eyewitnesses! Genesis 8:6-7 says that Noah sent a raven to spy the
world. It went out and returned to and from the ark, until it found land. A
dove
also was sent, and also went out and returned to and from the ark, and only on
the third flight did not return (vv 8-12). This was intended as evidence to
prove
that the ark was then resting atop the tallest mountaintop in the world
with no
land visible anywhere on earth. This evidence brought by the birds was also to
prove that all was submerged completely and all
human life on earth had died.
If the
ark was on Mount Ararat in Turkey, the birds could have gone to many
places because by then all of central Asia would be above water and in range.
And in west Asia, Mount El’brus in the Caucasus and Mount Damavand in Iran
are taller than Mount Ararat in Turkey (5642 m and 5671 m). But if the ark were
atop Qomolangma Feng at flood crest there would be nowhere that birds could
put their feet. To us this is proof that Noah’s mountain was Qomolangma
Feng.
Research
done at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount proves the first Israeli cubit
was
42.857142 cm; therefore the ark was about 130 metres long, 22 metres wide
and
13 metres high (from the measures given in Genesis 6:15). After Jews returned
from Babylon larger cubits were used. The small cubit of 43.7
cm was used in
the second temple and a large cubit of about 44.5 cm was in
common use.
The ship
ruin on Mount Ararat in Turkey is most likely a pre-Flood ship but it
cannot be Noah’s ark for the remains are larger than the Gen. 6:15 description.
When Moses wrote the Torah, the cubit then in use was the old standard cubit of
42.857142 cm of the Exodus tabernacle and first temple (2 Chron. 3:3).
There is
no reason to think that Moses used foreign measure units in describing the ark.
Noah’s
ark was probably near a maximum size limit for wooden ships. God’s
directive was that it be Gopher wood (Gen. 6:14). This name GOPHÈR is found
in the Bible in only this instance. No tree of this name was ever identified in
the
Bible Lands region. Iron and steel were probably known, but God did not want
Noah to use metal. The ship ruin in Turkey has steel support beams built into
it,
which for us is proof that it is not Noah’s ark. Iron cannot have been included
in
the ark’s construction because Noah was told to build only from wood.
If the
ship ruin in Turkey was not Noah’s—then it belonged to someone else.
The Bible says “all flesh died that moved on the earth” (Gen. 7:21-23) but it
also
speaks of giants in Canaan that somehow survived (Numbers 13:3), “the heroes
that were of old, warriors of renown.” (Genesis 6:1-4) They somehow, survived
from the old world, and in Canaan were called Anakìm, Emìm, Rephaìm, Zuzìm,
Zamzummìm and Kadmonìm (Gen. 15:19). These
Nephilìm
(titans, giant aliens)
were the unnatural offspring of renegade angels and earth girls (Genesis 6:1-4;
2 Peter 2:4-5; Jude 1:6) and God wanted them destroyed. But some
survived.
Satan planned
to rescue some Nephilìm giants in an ark and transfer them to
this world in an attempt to abort God’s plan. That is why a proxy Mount Ararat
and an alternate ark is near the land of Canaan and why giants were in the
land.
Satan always tries to counterfeit God’s plan.
Satan’s
plan to rescue Nephilìm into the post-Flood world was an endeavour
to subvert this world as before. Satan wanted a control base in Canaan before
new people arrived, so the first settlers to arrive in Canaan were the
Nephilìm.
The Canaanites were entrapped in the very culture that God wanted destroyed,
which is why the Canaanites later fell under judgment along with the Nephilìm.
The world
population is not distributed in proportion to the earth’s land area;
two-thirds of humanity is in Asia. Earth’s population is dispersed evenly—east,
west, north, south, from the Qomolangma Feng region of Tibet. This is realistic
if in the past mankind was scattered outward from a Tibetan starting point.
The
correct identity of Noah’s mountain highlights the Asian nature of Biblical
studies, both of history and prophecy. It emphasizes the reality that a
majority
of Noah’s descendants are in lands surrounding Tibet: east Asia, southeast Asia,
south, central, and west Asia. God chose Noah’s family to perpetuate humanity,
and this renewal of human population has been fulfilled primarily in Asia.
Not all
of Noah’s descendants went to Babylon; most Asian nations have other
origins. Many centres of population throughout Asia are as ancient as Babylon.
The Bible is set amidst nations originating from Babylon but that does not mean
that all other nations in the world originated from Babylon.
Israel is from Shem, but most other Bible-land peoples are from Ham such as
Babylon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Canaanites and Hittites. All nations of west Asia
have
a Babylonian origin. But eastern
Semitic nations
are not Babylonian in origin
(see the essay entitled “Oriental Origins in the Bible”).
The Bible
focuses on the lineage that led to Abraham (Gen. 11) through whom
the Bible narrative came to us. This western branch of Semites was taken for
the
Bible narrative. The Bible Land is central in world geography but this does not
mean that Semitic nations are only found in west Asia. The Semitic
majority has
always been farther east; that is where two-thirds of humanity has always been.
Jerusalem
is the Bible centre: “Raise your eyes now, and look from the place
where you are, —northwards and southwards
and eastwards and westwards;”
(Gen. 13:14). But in ancient times Jerusalem was not a world population
centre.
Jerusalem was the western extent of human settlement, the farthest
west extent
of the Semitic world. The Semitic race spread in Asia all the way to the Far
East.
The settlement of western lands was later, mostly by Japhetic and Hamitic
races.
In
last-day prophetic symbolism Noah’s mountain is the new world Kingdom,
the final destination of God’s people. This new world Kingdom is prophetically
called Mount Zion. In typology Noah’s mountain must be the greatest
mountain,
for the kingdom of God is described as a great mountain that will
fill the earth.
Daniel 2:35, (see vv 44-45)
… became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.