The Missing Link: Astronomy: The Key to the Past

By Dennis W. Johnson

One problem with understanding history is that a comprehensive chronology of past events has never been demonstrated to be reliable. The solution to this problem is not something that could have been proposed or imagined by any historian. Instead, like many breakthroughs to solving similar problems, those offered by Johnson were accidentally discovered; this is the story of those discoveries.

 

Because of the unique characteristics of The Book of Jasher, a book that was the focus of his Master of Arts thesis, it is proposed to be the means by which the solution to the problem can be demonstrated. The Book of Jasher describes the same events as some described in the Christian Old Testament, Egyptian history, Babylonian history, the Trojan War, British history, and Armenian history. Once its events are correctly situated, they can be verified by the science of astronomy.

The usefulness of one of the discovered astronomical cycles that is most significant turns out to also have led to the correct explanation of the Mayan Calendar (incorrectly assumed to have ended in 2012).

 

The author of The Missing Link: Astronomy: The Key to the Past provides astronomical evidence that the discoveries he has made are significant and reliable. If you are interested in history, be the first to read this book so you can be the one who knows something that others do not know. You can see where Bible chronology actually fits in history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dennis W. Johnson
• Release date: Oct 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201688509

Book preview

The Missing Link

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Astronomy: The Key to the Past

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A compendium of Egyptian, Italian, Hebrew,

Meso-American, Armenian, and Babylonian History

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Dennis W. Johnson

Copyright © 2016 by Dennis Johnson

All rights reserved

First Edition

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without written permission from the author.

Acknowledgements

This work is the result of several decades of effort and necessarily is in debt to many individuals for their involvement. Among these individuals is Professor Allison Coudert, who was a professor in the Religious Studies Department at Arizona State University in 1999 (now at University of California Davis) when I was completing my Master of Arts degree, and she was the chair of my thesis committee. She advised me very well, and on several memorable occasions, I was invited to her home. My master’s thesis represents the original research for this book.

I have been fortunate to have researched in a time where computers and computer programs and internet websites were available. Had I lived in previous times when many far greater scholars than I worked, I would not have been able to do the necessary astronomical calculations utilized in this book.

I want to acknowledge the contributions and sacrifices of my wife, Karen, whose encouragement and advice through the years has made it all possible.

Table of Contents

Introduction

CHAPTER 1

The Anchor Point

CHAPTER 2

The Colossal Discrepancy

CHAPTER THREE

The Book of Judges Explained

CHAPTER FOUR

Floods, Famines, and Wars

CHAPTER FIVE

Joseph and Egypt

CHAPTER SIX

Canaanite, Hurrian, Armenian, and Egyptian History

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Trojan War and Early Roman History

CHAPTER EIGHT

Other Chronologies

Sumerian Records

Jewish Chronology

Nostradamus

CHAPTER NINE

Conclusion

APPENDIX A

The Mayan Calendar Explained

Mayan Calendar Hysteria

APPENDIX B

The Sothic Cycle Explained

Sothic Cycle in Review

Discovery

Analysis

Antoninus Pius and Censorinus

APPENDIX C

Manetho Explained

Author Biography

Bibliography

Introduction

I am one of those people who seem to have been born with a desire to know what really happened in the past. One problem with understanding history is that a comprehensive chronology of past events has never been demonstrated to be reliable. The quest for establishing such a chronology is complicated by the fact that in the academic community, scholars who have invested an entire lifetime in one particular explanation of past events are frequently unwilling to consider alternative explanations. Since they are not motivated to undermine their own academic work, they tend to dig in to defend it rather than consider any explanations that might cast doubt on its validity. This has led to an ironic reality where novel perspectives or interpretations of historical evidence are often introduced by outsiders, that is, those who are not invested in defending any particular point, just in finding the truth of the matter.

Many of the most significant insights have been accidental discoveries. By accidental discoveries, I mean things no one would know to look for in advance. The story told in the pages of this book represents what I would describe as a series of accidental discoveries. It is also my belief that before someone can make such a finding, they must be struck by a thunderbolt from Zeus, so to speak. In other words, due to some unexpected event, what one thought was indisputable is demonstrated not to be so. This leads to a willingness to reconsider what was previously thought to be proven. Such an event happened to me in the early 1990s.

As a child, I was involuntarily involved with a fundamentalist sect that focused primarily on eschatology. This focus led to my pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in theology with a minor in history, which I received in 1972. After that, it became my hobby to do my own research primarily focused on refuting those works that claimed to discredit the Bible. Eventually, due to overwhelming evidence, I was finally forced to acknowledge that no universal flood had occurred and destroyed all humanity at the time traditional biblical chronology suggested. I was thunderstruck. This personal realization led to the formation of an attitude of inquiry, forming the basis of my approach toward the historical evidence described in this book. Rather than choosing which of two or more seemingly contradictory conclusions are correct, I seek an explanation, if possible, that allows all to be correct.

Although the material presented in this book frequently cites the text of what I refer to as the Hebrew Bible (what Christianity calls the Old Testament), I want to be clear about one important point. I am not attempting to prove or disprove the validity of the Bible. I am not focusing on theology of any sort; I am only focusing on its internal chronology and its coincidence with another obscure Hebrew work called The Book of Jasher, or in Hebrew:

I first became aware of The Book of Jasher in 1990 when I found a reference to it in a book I was reading on Jewish legends. I found a microfiche copy of the 1840 English translation at the Yale University Library, and I obtained a copy. The first story from The Book of Jasher that really got my attention was one about a war between Egypt and a coalition from the Levant, led by a person named Zepho. Zepho is identified as a grandson of Esau, Jacob’s brother. By chance, I had recently read a story attributed to Manetho in the work of a Jewish historian, Josephus, called Against Apion, which seemed to describe in detail the very same war.

The Book of Jasher (hereafter Jasher) contains a long and detailed chronology. Many of the events internally dated in Jasher are the same events that appear in the Hebrew Bible. They even use the exact same language, in Hebrew, as if one were copied in part from the other or derived from a common source. The difference in the internal dating conventions of these two sources is that in the Hebrew Bible, not every event is dated. In Jasher, however, every event is dated, and they are often clarified by relational dating with one or more other events. Jasher also offers a number of correlation points for other chronologies since it claims to describe major events in Egypt and the Levant and even internally dates the destruction of the Kingdom of Babylon (Dynasty I). I was intrigued by the prospect of correlating both sources with the histories of known Middle Eastern cultures, such as Egypt and Mesopotamia. Jasher contains numerous references to astronomical events such as eclipses, which can be verified with archeoastronomy. In addition, several regional famines and two floods are described. These events could conceivably be correlated with tree-ring and ice-core chronologies.

But all of this necessarily depends on finding an anchor point for its chronology. My investigation into this subject is based upon the premise that the historical record of Jasher stands or falls as a unit. In other words, if one event can be correlated to an exact year, then none of its events should be possible to disprove by science. It seemed to me that the best prospect for such an anchor point was the Egyptian war with a coalition from the Levant, which is described in both Jasher and Manetho.

As it happened, the first date I investigated for this war was based on Pharaoh Rameses II beginning his reign in the year 1304 BCE. Using this date results in Jasher placing the fall of Babylon I in the year 1531 BCE. This is the same year for that event first proposed by William F. Albright, referred to as the short chronology. At that point, it seemed further investigation was warranted, and I spent the next several years doing so. Eventually, I announced to my wife that I wanted to write a book about this subject. She responded that I would need to upgrade my credentials first. I agreed, and in 1998, I was admitted to the Master of Arts program at Arizona State University in the religious studies department.

Not surprisingly, I selected The Chronology of the Book of Jasher as my thesis topic. This allowed me to vet my work and learn how to document and refine my methods of research. In May of 1999, my thesis was defended and accepted, and I received my MA. My original plan was to teach religious studies at one of the community colleges in Greater Phoenix while writing the book. I discovered, alas, that there were literally thousands of adjunct professors, already in queue, waiting for any full-time position to open up. Since I was not ready at that time to sell my idea for a manuscript, I had to postpone the book until I was able to build up enough income and free time to actually write it.

A number of works dealing with entirely different topics bear the same enigmatic title: Sefer ha-Yashar, or Book of Jasher. Their topics vary from the Halachic treatise of Jacob ben Meir (Rabbenu Tam) to a medieval ethical work whose authorship is debated, to commentary on the Pentateuch by Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra, to The Book of Jasher. Jasher has been translated into many languages and has appeared under a variety of names. It may be that the predilection for this title is related to the fact that the Hebrew

appears in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible, and the selection of this title may enhance interest in the various works.

Although its origin is debated among scholars, Jasher was most likely among those documents brought by Jews who arrived in Italy when they were expelled from Spain in 1492. In its preface, it claims to have been taken to Spain from Jerusalem when the Roman general Titus was destroying that city. Determining its origin or transmission is of no major concern to me. It is known to have existed in its present form since 1600 CE (in Hebrew), which is prior to the archaeological excavation of what is now called the ancient Near East (ANE). It is self-evident that if its internal chronology can be situated and anchored so that many of its described events can be corroborated with external sources, it must have been derived from authentic sources of what actually occurred.

In particular, the influence and control of the land of Canaan by Egypt during particular periods was not known until after the latest date for Jasher. Yet, it apparently treats this political reality matter-of-factly as if it does not require an explanation. This ancient Egyptian impact is actually the basis for the focal point of this book. A key term in this analysis is the 480th year, which refers to the beginning of the construction of Solomon’s Temple in the Hebrew Bible.

Having situated the chronology, an immediate problem occurred to me. I was aware of a particular passage in the Hebrew Bible: And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD (1 Kings 6:1 [King James Version]).

The proposed anchor point does not allow for 480 years between Solomon and the Exodus as internally dated in Jasher. However, the 480th year prior to Solomon’s fourth year does land on another specific event in Jasher: the year Jacob purchased a piece of property near the Canaanite city of Shechem when he was ninety-eight years old. He and his family had, according to Jasher, crossed the Jordan River for the first time the previous year but stayed in the border region. Out of curiosity, I decided to use the SkyGlobe computer planetarium program, which displays the sky from any location on any date. I looked at the Jerusalem sky on that date in Solomon’s fourth year, which fell on the first of the Jewish month, Iyyar. The Jewish day and month for the beginning of construction in the Bible equate to May 4, 968 BCE. To my surprise, on that date, Venus rose in concurrence with the new moon just after sunset. In other words, a new Venus was in conjunction with a new moon.

At the time, I was reading Fingerprints of the Gods, a book by Graham Hancock first published in 1995, which has a passage about the amazing accuracy of Mayan knowledge about the periods of planetary movement. One of the measurements of time from their literature is three hundred Venus cycles. A Venus cycle refers to the astronomical fact that eight solar years (365.25 days x 8 = 2,922 days) very nearly equals five revolutions of the planet Venus (5 x 584 days = 2,920 days). The Mayans knew that when Venus completed exactly three hundred such cycles after being aligned with the moon and the sun, it is aligned with them again.

The amazing thing is the Mayans knew that over a long period of time, the average Venus cycle is 583.92 days rather than the nominal 584 days. It happens that one of these Venus/moon/sun cycles is just less than 480 solar years.

300 Venus x 383.92 days = 175,176 days

175,176 /365.2422 = 479.6 years

Exactly 5,932 lunations = 5,932 x 29.5306 = 175, 176 days

Four hundred seventy-nine plus years could be construed as the 480th year.

I wondered what the sky looked like 175,176 days before this specific date for the beginning of construction on what would become known as Solomon’s Temple. It turns out that this day was September 26, 1448 BCE (Julian). Imagine my amazement to discover that the Hebrew date for this day is Tishri 1, 2314, the Jewish New Year! According to this discovery, it appears that the 480th year was calculated from the day Jacob and his family first purchased property in the land of Canaan, which could easily be interpreted as the founding of the nation! According to our chronology, Jacob was ninety-eight years old when he purchased a piece of land outside the city of Shechem. The particular place was called Shalem in the Hebrew