maklelan wrote:Daheshist wrote:The story fo Noah comes from Armenia, or ancient Urartu. The ancient Hebrew had no vowels, so that land is callred RRT.
Actually the Hebrew is אררט, or 'rrt. The aleph generally indicates an /a/ quality vowel.
Daheshist wrote:When Hebrew got vowels, about 600 A.D., the scribes had to "en-vowel" every word in the Hebrew text.
Hebrew didn't "get vowels" around 600 CE. The language itself uses vowels, but the script could only express a few of them (yod, aleph, ayin, he, waw). Down to the present day, normal written Hebrew does not use vowels. Vowels were developed for the text of the Hebrew Bible because the language had stopped being used for speaking and comprehension was more difficult. Different attempts to vocalize the text of the Hebrew Bible date back to well before 600 CE, but the Masoretic system, which is the one that became standard, began to be developed around that time.
Daheshist wrote:But, they did not know what "RRT" meant or where it was. So, they simply used an "A"......."A"R"A"R"A"T.
Neither claims are true. The Septuagint, translated around 200-100 BCE, renders Αραρατ, or Ararat. Jerome's Vulgate, translated around 400 CE, renders the Hebrew "mountains of Ararat" with
montes Armeniae. The eastern Christian traditions had another traditional location for the mountain, which I'll get to later, but the western tradition became standardized pretty quickly.
Daheshist wrote: At the time, there was no mountain named "Ararat".
Of course not. Genesis simply mentions a region called Ararat, which is obviously a Hebrew version of the Assyrian Urartu (Babylonian Urashtu).
Daheshist wrote:The Mountain now named "Ararat" was not named that until the 9th century, by Christians living there. It was called by the Turks Agra Dag (Angry Mountain) and by the Armenians "Masis". The Kurds called it something else, but never in its history until then was it ever called "Ararat".
Nope. Jerome interpreted Josephus' description as a reference to the highest peak in Armenia, then called Masis. That was around 400 CE.
Daheshist wrote:Bible scholars today are sure that "RRT" does not refer to "Mount Ararat" but in fact to "uRaRTu"; the ancient land of Armenia.
This is not true. The words "Ararat" and "Urartu" refer to the exact same place, they're just two different transliterations of versions of the name from two different languages. In some Assyrian texts, it's spelled Uratri or Uruatri.
Daheshist wrote:It means in Akkadian "lava flows".
What is your source for this? I can find no known meaning in any of my resources.
Daheshist wrote:Indeed, Armenia has a LOT of dead volcanoes is was known as the Land of Lava Flows. So, "RRT" refers to ancient Armenia, long before it was called "Armenia".
Not too long. The name Armenia dates to Herodotus, and that section of Genesis only dates to around four centuries earlier.
Daheshist wrote:The ancient people of Urartu spoke Urartian, a language very similar to Sumerian. Some scholars think the Sumerians were in fact "colonists" from Urartu.
No they don't. Sumerian is a language isolate. Urartian is related to Hurrian, and the two languages are the only members of their language family. A broader classification called Alarodian has been proposed as a kind of umbrella family over the Northeast Caucasian and Hurro-Urartian languages, but that's not been very successful.
Daheshist wrote:According to local Armenian legend, Noah was named Nokhcht (nawghkkhhchtd), and, indeed, the southern plain of the Valley of Armenia is called by this name, and the capital is "Nokhcht-evan" (Place of Nokhcht). According to legend, "Nokhct" means "He came down" or "He descended [from heaven]".
The legend is that it means "Place of Descent," although some think it means "first landing."
Daheshist wrote:Again, the ancient language of Urartu is not spoken anywhere today, and Armenian is not that language. Armenians is related to ancient Persian and also Greek. There are some similarities between Urartian and the language spoken by the Dagistanis; a people just east of Chechnya.
The Valley of the Aras River, also called the Valley or Ararat, is closed on all sides by high mountains. Upon these mountains are UNfertile lava flows. Nothing but some grass grows on these lava flows that only the most hearty of goats have much trouble digesting it. There are no trees at all on the lava flows. They are barren except for some inedible crab-grass. The only fertile part of the Valley of Armenia is the valley floor, which is extremely fertile, and great for growing grapes. Noah is called a "husbandman" (grape-grower). That means, if the Valley is flooded, people and animals could not live on the surrounding hills, because even their sheep could not survive in the hills.
Very little rain or moisture in the Valley of the Aras (Armenia). However, in 3400 B.C. a comet hit the Indian ocean about 400 miles southeast of Madagascar. Much proof for this.
Are you referring to the Burckle Crater?
Daheshist wrote:The comet hit the ocean, and set trillions of tons of water vapor into the stratosphere, which came down, all over the earth, as rain in the warmer climates and snow in the colder ones. This is what "froze" the mammaths of Siberia. This is what "froze" the "Ice Man" who was discovered only in recent years in the Alps. He was "froze" about 3400 B.C. He was an unlucky guy to be up in the Alps when the comet hit.
Actually he was killed by a blow to the head that followed being hit by an arrow that was subsequently removed, and he died around 3300 BCE.
Daheshist wrote:Now, did the water vapor "cover" the entire earth 15 feet above Mount Everest, and most Fundies believe? No! Certainly, there was "flooding" all over the Earth, and many lowlands were flooded, rain and snow just about everywhere, but, again, the Earth was not "baptized" by total immersion ion as the Church used to teach.
But, the Valley of Armenia was flooded. Why? Because the Aras River must pass through a gorge called the Kor-E Gorge, which is over 50 miles. Very narrow! a lot narrower I'm sure in 3400 B.C. On each side of the gorge are high cliffs. Excessive rain (which Armenia rarely gets) would have caused many mud-slides, and debris, blocking and clogging the Kor-E gorge. This would be like plugging the drain in a bath tub. The water had no place to go but up.
Noah had to have "anchors" so his Ark would not travel out the gorge once it became unblocked, and so the Ark would not crash to pieces on the sides of the Valley; which has many hills. These Anchor stones can still be found near Nakhchtevan (the Place of Noah); which is the southern half of the Valley of Armenia.
If the rains lasted for "40 days" (meaning many days and nights), the people would not be saved by climbing up on the nearby hills or mountains. There would be nothing to eat. The animals would not be able to eat the kind of grass that grows there still today. The people would have slaughtered the animals for food, but all food would be gone in about a week or two, and the people could have survived maybe a week without food then they would be dead.
That's a whole lot of utter nonsense.
Daheshist wrote:The Hebrew does NOT say that the Ark "rested on mount Ararat" and so many stupid Fundies think.
Those stupid Fundies. I bet they don't even know Hebrew.
Daheshist wrote:The Hebrews says that the Ark rested "on the high places of Urartu".
"Upon the mountains of Ararat," to be literal. It does not say "high places."
Daheshist wrote:That means on the lava slow hills surrounding the valley floor. The word used in Hebrew is "Hariym" (hills, mountains). The name Har Megiddo is used for "Mount Megiddo" which is only about three stories high, so "high mountains" is a mistranslation.
First, Tel Megiddo is quite a bit larger than three stories, but the word הר can refer to small and large mountains.
Daheshist wrote:"Hariym" simply mean "high places" and can mean a small hill or a great mountain.
No, it does not mean "high places." It refers to hills and mountains, and it comes from an obscure root that likely means "to loom over."
Daheshist wrote:The Ark of Noah did not float from Sea-Level in North Carolina and land up resting on top of Mount Ararat, a mountain 14,000 feet high! Such is nonsense in the extreme. The Ark was anchored, and probably did not move much; no more than a fat kid in an inner-tube resting in a pool. There was no reason to "sail" or move around. The Ark was square, not pointed like a ship. The last thing Noah wanted was to move around and dash the Ark to pieces on the hills or the sides of the gorge. That's why he anchored it. Google: "anchor stones of Noah" to see photos of the anchor stones which still survive.
Yeah, that's much more believable.
Daheshist wrote:The wood of Noah's ship would not survive today until it was buried within a few years after the flood. The floor of the valley of Armenia was covered in forest, and probably had a lot of forest left in Noah's day, but today there are few trees, because the land must be farmed, and also because people have used wood for building and fuel for cooking and heat for thousands of years there. Over thousands of years, people cut down the trees, and then they even dig up the stumps, for fuel for heating and cokking. Rapa Nui (Easter Island) was once covered in trees. Now it is barren; because of people use wood for heat and cooking. Noah and his family would be INSANE to "NOT" use the wood of the Ark for building and for fuel, for generations after that. Otherwise, the wood would have rotted away and been useless to them after the Flood. So, don't except to find Noah's Ark somewhere in Armenia today. Just over about 100 years, the descendants of Noah would have used all the wood for fuel for cooking and heating and for beams for their houses. And the beams would have rotted away long ago.
The Hebrew does NOT say that the flood covered the entire planet Earth. The ancient Hebrews had no concept of a ball floating in space called "Earth".
They did have a concept of a circular disc containing all the land of the "earth." ארץ could mean "land," or "earth."
Daheshist wrote:The Hebrew says that the flood covered the entire "eretz" (land) by 35 cubits (the cubit is the space between the elbow and the end of the thumb). It is absolutely possible for the Valley of Armenia to have been flooded in this manner!
And why would you think this means ancient Hebrews couldn't have thought it happened?
Daheshist wrote:The "land" (eretz) was the plain, the level ground, the fertile level ground upon which animals ate and things could be grown. A perfect description of the valley floor of the valley of Armenia.
The word does not specify any specific shape to the land.
Daheshist wrote:Type in "Map of Armenia" and you'll see how the Valley of the Aras can fill up like a bowel, and how narrow the gorge is that drains the Aras river! Also Google "Comet his the Indian ocean in 3400 B.C." and you'll read more about the comet that send so much water vapor into orbit around the planet, that came down as rain and snow. It really happened.
There is a "mound" in central Nokhchtevan, which locals say is the burial place of Noah. Google it, and you'll see it.
Stunning.