OK I confess ... I'm a circler and an underliner. As I read my Bible I tend to underline or circle interesting or important passages to make them stand out for easier reference. As I'm reading I often come across fascinating little discoveries and out comes the pen. Consequently my Bible is full of circles and squiggly lines for me to ponder the implications of what lies within them.
I thought I might share a few of these rather intriguing little references with you now and then.
The latest circle to appear in my Bible popped up today in my daily reading as I pondered the words of Amos, a humble herdsman and keeper of sycamore fig trees chosen by the Lord to be one of His prophets. Amos wrote his prophecy during the reign of Uzziah king of Judah somewhere between 810 and 759BC (remember those dates).
Now for a little lesson in how much credence one should put on the "official" verson of history and science and the pronouncement of "experts".
This is the "official" version of the history of our knowledge of the "water Cycle". It is taken directly from the website:- http://www.unesco.org.uy/phi/libros/histwater/1history.html
"I) HISTORY:
understanding the water cycle
Only in the late seventeenth century did European scientists reach a clear understanding of the origin of water and its natural cycle. This cycle has three components: (a) the sea, and to a very small extent, vegetation (evaporation and evapotranspiration driven by solar energy); (b) the clouds (transfer, condensation, precipitation); and (c) continental surface water (springs, rivers, lakes) and groundwater which, with the exception of fossil water, run into the sea after a certain period of time.
The first book on scientific hydrology in the Western world was De l'origine des fontaines (On the origin of springs), written by Pierre Perrault and published in 1674 in Paris by Pierre Le Petit. Perrault created a water balance in a basin located in the upper section of the Seine River. In 1687 the Englishman Edmond Halley calculated the evaporation rate of the Mediterranean and then compared that figure with the contributions of the rivers flowing into the sea. To measure the evapotranspiration of plants the French mathematician de la Hire built three lysimeters in 1688.
Outside Europe, however, the Chinese had understood the water cycle 500 years before the birth of Christ, and in India, Kautilya, a minister of the Maurya dynasty (321-185 BC), had rain measured in pails placed in front of rural stores. In terms of public services, the first flood-warning system, set up by the Chinese in 1574 on the Yellow River, used horseback riders who travelled faster than the water. Owing nothing to the West, the Koreans started taking regular, systematic rainfall measurements in 1441 and have continued doing so ever since."
Therefore I thought the following words of Amos written some 760 to 810 years before Christ and some 260-300 years before the Chinese worthy of a circle:-
Amos 5:8 "Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name"
I also put another circle in that equally (if not more) ancient book of the OLD Testament, Job.
Job 36: 27-28 "He draws up (IE evaporates) the drops of water, which distil (IE. condenses) as rain to the streams; the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind"
If nobody back then knew about the water cycle who (other than the Lord Himself) told this humble herdsman and keeper of Sycamore fig trees?? And the equally ancient man from the land of UZ (thought to be somewhere in what is now the Arabian Desert)?? Just as intriguing is the question WHY does the "official" record not acknowledge that Amos and Job BOTH knew about the water cycle, and documented it before even the Chinese?? The "books" of Amos and Job have been part of the official Jewish records since at least 759 to 810 years before Christ. Surely you can't just conveniently ignore the FACT that they clearly RECORDED their knowledge of the water cycle 260-300 years BEFORE the Chinese supposedly were the first to discover it! After all if your aim really is to ACCURATELY record world history why would you?
Perhaps they found the question of WHO told Amos and Job about the water cycle a bit too uncomfortable to face?
More circles later ...
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