The story of Noah’s ark and the flood epic is one of the oldest nursery legends in the world and it has captivated the imaginations of children and adults alike throughout the ages. From childhood memories one may recollect that God sent the deluge to destroy all the evil people upon the earth. It is known that Noah and his family were saved by departing on a titanic ark with every species of animals and birds on board the floating zoo. The ark began its maiden voyage on the 17th day of the second month when the rain began and it lasted for the proverbial 40 days and 40 nights.
Noah's Ark by Edward Hicks (1846) (Public Domain)
Celestial Knowledge Of The Flood Saga
Some of the more precise details after that may be a little sketchy but the Book of Genesis tells that the waters started to rise on the earth over a period of 150 days. Few will remember hearing of so many days, but they may recall that the tops of the mountains finally disappeared below the waves. Perhaps children rub their sleepy eyes when they listen to how the ark docked on Mount Ararat and miss out on the fact that it was on the 17th day of the seventh month.
Noah’s ark seemed so real then right up to where the saga ended with a rainbow on the horizon. It was the ultimate image of a colourful finale but never did anyone realize that there was a magical formula of celestial knowledge of the heavens on display in the timing details of the flood saga. Those timing details listed particulars days and specific months together with the length of periods in days. It was very mysterious how the dates and periods were so precise as if they adhered to a deliberately planned timetable.
Noah by Lorenzo Monaco (circa 1370 –circa 1425 ) Metropolitan Museum of Art (CC0)
The Riddle Of Noah’s Age
The first sign that there was some time amiss in the flood story was with an anomaly with the ages of Noah and his son Shem. It stated in the Book of Genesis that Noah was 500 years old when he became the father of triplets, one of whom was Shem. It also outlined that the flood finished on the end of Noah’s 600th year. However, later in the story it stated that Noah’s son Shem became a father when he was 100 years old, which was listed as two years after the flood. That was fake news for Shem would have been 102 years old when it was two years after the flood. It appeared that the scribes had tempted one with an intellectual challenge where the episode of the flood contained possibly the first numerical riddle in written existence.
Ham sees his father, Noah, naked and drunk; Shem and Japheth. Etching by S. Mulinari after A. Sacchi. (Wellcome Images / CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Ark Blocked In Its Tracks
The cockups continued when tracing the dating events in the saga of the flood as outlined in the Book of Genesis. Read the three chapters in order to get a greater appreciation of the timing details. The relevant times given for the events at the beginning of the flood are listed below and to make the presentation more user-friendly, the names of the months used today are utilized. It should be stated that ancient numbers and arithmetic were very different than what is used today. The timing details were as follows:
All went into the Ark on the 17th day of the second month and the rain started – February 17.
It rained for 40 days and 40 nights and the waters rose for 150 days until the Ark was 15 cubits above the mountains. This would date the event forward to the 17th day of the seventh month –July 17.
But it then stated that the Ark rested on Mount Ararat on the 17th day of the seventh month –July 17.
There was a major problem for how could the ark rest on Mount Ararat on the 17th day of the seventh month when the waters were 15 cubits above the mountains on the same day and had not the time to recede?
The ark had come up against a barrier worse than an iceberg and it was amazing to find that this blunder had never featured prominently in previous biblical commentary. It was back to the drawing board to investigate what the story tellers had in mind when they devised the puzzling dating system in the flood saga.
The Deluge towards Its Close by Joshua Shaw (1813) Metropolitan Museum of Art (Public Domain)
Time On Earth Different Than Time At Sea
Biblical academics have established that there were two versions of the flood story standing back to back. One of those versions was in the earthly realm where it simply rained for 40 days and 40 nights. But the other version was in the cosmic realm where it stated that the windows of the heavens were thrown open and the fountains of the deep were broken open. Because the ark sailed up to the heavens and with such a precise dating schedule, one has to take cognizance of how time is measured. It introduces the astronomical terms of the solar year and the sidereal year as follows:
Modern calendar is based on the solar year, which is measured against a fixed point on the landscape such as a sun dial and it is 365.242 days long.
The year is also measured against a fixed star in the heavens and it is 365.256 days long. This is known as a star or sidereal year.
Ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus with the astrolabe he invented. William Cuningham, "The Cosmographical Glasse", (1559).(CC BY-SA 4.0)
Current opinion is that the Greek astronomer Hipparchus discovered the difference between solar and sidereal time and he lived in the second century BC. The sidereal year is longer than the solar year by a little over 20 minutes. In the era before mechanical clocks were invented, the period of 20 minutes would have been almost impossible to measure. However, the biblical astronomers seemingly made theoretical projections where the tiny time period of 20 minutes added up to one day in 72 years and 14 days in 1,000 years. It gave a meaning to the phrase in the second Book of Peter where “with the Lord a day was like a thousand years.” The scribes also used time on land to represent solar time and time at sea to represent sidereal time.
Calculating-Table by Gregor Reisch: Margarita Philosophica, (1503). The woodcut shows Arithmetica instructing an algorist and an abacist.(Public Domain)
The biblical astronomers went further where they devised a unique formula to measure sidereal time and solar time. To achieve their objective they projected the tiny period of 20 minutes out over 100, 1,000 and 3,000 years. It was a simple formula where they applied 777 beads on an abacus to represent the days. Then they simply counted out 777 beads over and over again and found that after 47 lots had been counted, they had the total of 36,519 to represent the days in 100 years. There was a shortfall of 5.2 days so they would have added an extra five beads to complete the exercise with 36,524 days precisely. With 100 sidereal years there was a shortfall of 6.6 days and therefore they would have added on six extra leap days to achieve the target of 36,525 days precisely.
They would then have repeated the same exercise many times until the numbers to represent the periods of 1,000 and 3,000 years had been projected. There would have been a shortfall of 157 beads to achieve the target with the number of days in 3,000 solar years. They would have added on those extra 157 beads to the overall total to represent 3,000 solar years precisely. It was simply a matter of conducting the same exercise to project out 3,000 sidereal years except that the maths shows that it would have required adding an extra 197 beads to reach the precise target. The periods involved were thus 3,000 solar years with 157 leap days and 3,000 sidereal years with 197 leap days.
Genesis 7, 11-14: "In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights..." Augsburger Wunderzeichenbuch, (c. 1550) (Public Domain)
Noah’s Ark Sailed Back In Time
Armed with the knowledge of the 777-day calendar and its indices it was quite obvious that the leap days for solar time were on display in the flood story. The saga outlined that the rain started on the 17th day of the second month and the waters rose for a period of 150 days. After that the waters receded for another 150 days. There were also two periods with Noah waiting for seven days plus seven days when he sent out the dove which returned the second time with an olive leaf in its beak. These collective periods added up to two distinct intervals with 157 days plus 157 days. The two intervals fitted like gloves for they equated exactly to the leap days, which had to be added on to synchronize the 777-day calendar when projected out over 3,000 plus 3,000 solar years.
The period of 197 days to represent 3,000 sidereal years was not openly discernible in the flood saga. But while drawing up a chart to show the complete dating of the flood epic from beginning to the end, a very unusual picture emerged. The mental arithmetic suggested that the timing details of the flood epic also dated back in time to the tune of sidereal time. This seemed surreal until the complete timing details of going forward in time and going back in time were mapped out as shown in the illustration.
The Blue and Yellow Routes of the Ark through Solar and Sidereal Time (Compiled by Michael Hearns)
In was an amazing spectacle where this illustration formed naturally into the shape of a huge ship with sails. The details may seem overwhelming to digest but approach the diagram as one would use a street map to find one’s way around a foreign city. In simple terms the route the ark took forward in accord with solar time is outlined in blue. The events began on February 17, follow the arrows and it points to two periods of 150 days plus two periods of seven days to when the flood ended on the last day of December of that same year. Thus, there were two combined periods of 157 leap days on the blue route to mirror two periods of 3,000 solar years in the heavens, when measured with the 777-day formula. That was the journey on the blue route and it was in accord with solar time.
The sidereal time route was paradoxically, back in time as shown on the yellow route. The starting day was the same on the yellow route where it began on February 17 when the rain began. Follow the arrows back in time with the 40 days and nights rain together with a seven-day waiting period, as was outlined in the Book of Genesis. That brought the dating schedule back to January 1. Then continue back in time through the previous year starting with January, February, March and April until an extra 150 days had elapsed and that was on May 30. In all it was a total of 40 + 7 + 150 = 197 days, which equated to the same period in leap day for 3,000 sidereal years. On that date of May 30 on the yellow route the ark would have been 15 cubits above the mountains.
Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge by Thomas Cole (1829) Smithsonian American Art Museum (Public Domain)
Tracing the path back in time from May 30 to July 17, the waters would have had 47 days to recede. That was the date in the timing schedule where it stated in the flood story that the ark rested on Mount Ararat on the 17th day of the seventh month. The problem of the ark resting on Mount Ararat was resolved for the waters had those 47 days to recede. Continuing back in time from July 17 for another 150 days it brought the schedule to December 17. That made it an extra period of 197 days with 47 +150 days. Therefore, there were two periods of 197 days back in time from when the flood began on February 17 to the December 17 of the previous year. These equated to two periods of 197 leap days with sidereal time when projected out over 3,000 plus 3,000 sidereal years. This puzzle has to be studied like the moves on a chest board, so it may help to retrace the two routes again as follows:
On the blue route follow the arrows forward in time from February 17 and note the timing in the blue boxes. Notice where the 150 days plus 150 days plus seven days plus seven days are listed for the complete period to the last day in December.
Therefore, there were two combined periods of 157 days plus 157 days on the blue route and they were in accord with solar time. The 40 days and nights of rain ran in parallel with the 150 days that the waters rose.
On the yellow route trace the arrows initially back in time starting on February 17 and it took in the 40 days and nights rain plus seven days that Noah waited. Then the route switched on January 1 back in time through the previous year. Follow the arrows and note the dates in the yellow boxes. The days added up to 47 days plus 150 days (197 days) to when the ark was 15 cubits above the waves on May 30. The schedule showed the ark traveling back anticlockwise in time on the yellow route and the 40 days and night ran in series with the 150 days. Follow the yellow route back in time to July 17 (seventh month) when the ark rested on Mount Ararat. The anomaly was solved for the waters had 47 days to recede to let the ark dock on the mountain. Continue on the yellow route back in time for another 150 days making it a total of 47 + 150 = 197 days to end on December 17 of the previous year.
But now for the real demanding challenge because one has to follow the mind map of the puzzle along both the yellow and blue routes at the same time. It is an exercise that will utilize both sides of the brain.
It was the ‘double speak’ of two separate routes which confused the issue with the ark resting on Mount Ararat on July 17 (seventh month) on the yellow route whereas it would have been 15 cubits above the mountains on that date on the blue route.
The Deluge by Hans Baldung (1516) (Public Domain)
The Period Of 777 Days
There was still one more surprise in store where it seemed so odd how two different dates were listed as to when the flood ended. The schedule stated that the earth was dry on January 1 of the following year. Then the schedule repeated that the earth was dry though it was on February 27 of the same year. There was a very good reason for having those 57 extra superfluous days built into the story from January 1 to February 27 when the earth was dry. When all the periods in the flood saga were added up both forward in time and back in time of the dating schedule, the total came to 360 days plus 360 days plus the 57 extra days. The overall total added up to 777 days. The designers had written in the main indices of the calendar formula with 777 days into the timing details and that was the purpose of the 57 extra days to February 27 of the following year.
Noah and His Ark by Charles Wilson Peale (1819) (Public Domain)
Zoroastrian Wisdom
What mortal eye could look upon such a majestic display that the scribes prepared of the ark’s dual journeys and not be captivated by its breathtaking numerical logic? Who were those visionaries who could see into the future and demonstrate in a thought-provoking matrix, the difference between solar and sidereal time projected out over the period of 12,000 years? They changed modern perception of history for it is reckoned that the flood saga was rewritten between 722 and 609 BC and that was five centuries before Hipparchus.
All those souvenir hunters who long to go to Mount Ararat to look for the wooden skeleton of Noah’s ark must have been puzzled at how the vessel could dock on the mountain on the same date as when it was 15 cubits above the mountain tops. Now one knows the reason why, for it was 15 cubits above the mountains on that date on the blue route whereas the waters had receded on the yellow route allowing the ark to rest on Mount Ararat. It was also correct to say that Shem became a father when he was 100 years old at the end of the blue route because it was two years after the flood ended on the yellow route.
Those two periods of 157 days and two periods of 197 days mirrored four periods of 3,000 years in the heavens, which added up to 12,000 years. This forged a link to the Zoroastrian period of the long dominion of 12,000 years and it was at the very beginning of the Book of Genesis. It was a dramatic statement about how the biblical writers were influenced by Zoroastrianism and where the religious concept of good and evil originated.
The moral of the flood story was the theme of good and evil. On earth the journey was in solar time and the evil mortals on the ground perished in accord with God’s command. In contrast, the journey back in time was in accord with sidereal time of the heavens and all the good people with Noah and his family on board the ark survived to tell the tale.
Michael Hearns has been involved for many years conducting independent research on some of the cryptic puzzles and unsolved mysteries in the Bible. He is the author of several books including The Mystery of the Tabernacle, The Messiah Immortalized in Time, Mary Magdalene – the First Pope, The Copper Scroll Bible and Noah and the Magic Time Formula.
Top Image: Noah's ark on the Mount Ararat by Simon de Myle (1570) (Public Domain)