Ararat or Aramenia is the place or region, where historically where the Ark or Boat of Noah was supposed to be seen even unto this day, according to Genesis 8,4, and the ark rested . . . on the mountains of Armenia (other versions uses Ararat). Now, where was that? Must have been quite the mountainous area to get a label like this. We present to you; the Drakensberg. We and many others think the final location of the Ark may have been the mountainous region just down from Lesotho and a bigger part of the Drakensberg, back in the day called the region of Ararat. This chain of mountains stretches from the tip the Eastern Cape and towards the Western Cape, all the way to Cape of Nahum as it used to be called. You can clearly see these mountain regions on the map that today is called Northern and Southern Drakensberg. Now Ararat is still a name for one of the peaks in the Eastern Cape, or that stretch of mountains that would back in the day have been called Mountains of Ararat or the peak of Cordyaea or Qardu, close to places that today go by names such as Elliot and Maclear (EC).
Noahs Ark was the vessel from the stories of the flood in Genesis chapter 6 to 9, mainly. There has been many observations of this Boat by explorers and we will look into some of the old ones, before the schisms and moving of the Promised Land off the Continent of Africa. We gonna move it back home though! Now getting into this, we see that the Historian Eusebius of Caesarea made some observations we may be able to draw something of value from. Now we will mention here that it seems AFTER muslim conquests, the Holy Land was pretty much been moved by then, ironically up to Middle Eastern and Arab lands. So some sources, before the muslim trade routes had been established along the southern African coast, may be entirely accurate. Usually language and place names gives them away, but truth can be gleaned from Greek and Latin sources.
We see from sources like Eusebius from Caesarea in Philistia Caesarea Phillippi (Cesarea would be up the South-east African Coast, along with many other cities), that there has always been interest in the physical remains for the Ark. Both Bantus and Muslims (Ishmael, also of Abraham) had this story as very central to their core beliefs, however sources seem to differ widely on were the remains could be found today. We will off course go with the oldest sources that seem less compromised and still given exact descriptions before the Promised Land was "lifted up" and away from Southern Africa.
Now the Ark itself was said to have been 300 cubits long (which they estimate to be 137m), this is pure speculation and it may have been considerably bigger. Now looking for sources that are not tainted and that excludes the African continent from Biblical history, we find some interesting remarks (before Islam burned every book and map available), both Origen and Augustine make these remarks that they knew very well its whereabouts and shape.
The Structure of the Ark, have great similarities with Solomons Temple and the worship, Because SoNiNi gave Noah these instructions (Genesis 6,14-'6):
14 "So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish."
So we can read, 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high, measurements we can only speculate today because we have no idea what these meant back in Noahs days. People got older and animals and even trees in nature seemed to be larger the further back one goes. The world is not like it used to be, and these days it is certainly slowly being destroyed. But don´t fret, in Heaven there are many worlds... Now, 1 cubit back then could have been very large so a discussion of correct measurements should be avoided if possible. Still, the numbers are interesting as they have a numerological fascination with the number 60, same number as used by the Babylonian flood hero Utnapishtim (written about in the Epic of Gilgamesh).
Now if we go deep into the size of the Ark, we can see that the internal divisions was three parted, Heaven, The Earth and the underworld... Each deck was the same height as the Temple in Jerusalem, seemingly SoNiNi had Noah construct an Ark in very specific dimensions. Each Deck was three times the area of the court of the Tabernacle, which means this was a holy area for preservation of life, filled with people and animals. The whole thing was to be smeared with koper or kaparta, witch could have been a mixture of cow-dung, plants and coal. Creating something akin to pitch or bitumen, sealing the ship from outside.
Now academics tell you that the Mesopotamian myths are older than the Bantu ones, its easy to assert that when books and material about the past have gone missing and or been destroyed. The parallels between Noahs Ark and the Ark described by the Babylonian flood heroes, Utnapishitim & Atrahasis (Sounds like very much Indian names right? Perhaps the Babylonian peoples were just that, Indians. Anyways, if we read the literature we see that Atrahasis Ark was round and looked like a quffa (a basket woven from reads much like the basket Moses was out in).
This round Atrahasis Ark had two decks, and may have looked something like the image on your left. If we look to Utnapishtims Ark, it says it was a cube with size decks of seven compartments, each again divided into sub-compartments, something like 63 sub-compartments er deck, which ads up in the tally. We will naturally leave that one for now. Try instead to use the imagery we have from Noahs Ark, it was likely to be rectangular with three decks.
And lets leave out the dimensions of these historical Arks, as we do not have those measurements they used back in the day, ephah, stadia or cubit - its as easy as confusing miles, km, feet, inches and or centimetres today. The difference we can say for certain what these mean today, but the measurements back in the day are up for questioning. Lets not go there just now, point is this vessel was BIG ! Now in these ancient texts we also see a similar use of the word pitch or resin, we have teva or teba which is very close to Babylonian (Akkadian a version of Hindu) and the word tubbu. Now this is where the Biblical text and and Babylonians ones start to drift apart. In the Bible SoNiNi sent the flood because of the angels mating with humans and creating strange offsprings that most likely did not do good things on earth, but Gilgemesh Epic gives no reason for the flood, in Atrahasis text we see that the flood came due to overpopulation...
Now if we go into the shape of the Ark even more, we get deeper into ancient Bantu cosmology, which means a flat and disk shaped earth, with Heavens above and Sheol below. Now from below is where most of these entities come from these days, we will try and do a study of this in the future, this whole UFO and demonic worship that has taken over most militaries today. We will get into that soon enough, its all smoke and mirrors though and very easy to get lost in all these wars that are going on around us these days. Hold on to Christ and His Spirit, and focus on finishing the race.
Back to these three levels, the Heavens on top, Earth in the middle and levels of Hell below, all these were surrounded by waters of chaos, protected by the firmament which was a transparent dome resting on the mountains that ring the earth. We will do an article on this in depth in the future. Now Noahs Ark represented these three levels of the cosmos in a three levelled boat (Genesis 6-8). Now SoNiNi flooded that space in between the waters, saving Noah and his family, and telling Noah to bring seven (pairs) of all the clean animals and two (pairs) of the unclean ones (Genesis 7,2-3). Now really try to imagine the size of the vessel!
Now if we go further into the extra Biblical histories, such as the Sanhedrin (Avodah Zarah & Zevahim) we see that while Noah was building the Ark there came people trying to divert or interfere with him and his building project, but lions and other animals helped to protect Noah and kept intruders from the Ark. If we read the Midrash we see that it was angels that gathered the animals and the food they would eat, to the Ark. The clean animals even came and kneeled before Noah before entering the Ark. The Sanhedrin goes further in extra Biblical notions and writes that Noah did not sleep for a year, because he was running around feeding all these animals day and night. And they also behaved very goo, no fighting or procreation (some authors say they where held from one another with sharp spears so Interpretations vary ofc), and lastly the same number went out as boarded the Ark. More interesting is the case of the Raven, who accused Noah of wanting to end its line by sending him out among the waters, but SoNiNi wanted the raven to go out as its descendants was meant to feed the Prophet Elia.
Now the lowest part of the Ark was said to be where the refuse was, humans and the clean animals on deck two, and the unclean birds and animals on deck three. Stones and other precious things gave light and SoNiNi somehow made sure all the food remained fresh.
Now magical as that may sound, if we read some of the newer literature from the time after Immanuel, we have writings like Epistle of Peter, that compared Noahs salvation through water as the same for a Christian through baptism. Another interesting point came from Rome and Hippolytus, although it seems Hippolytus already had started making idols and images at this early time he gave some pointers as to where the Ark was finally located, landing in the East on Mount Kardu in the land of Raban, a region called Ararat by the Arameans, the people of Grief (we know from Scriptire that Immanuel was aram, of grief in Tswana). Hippolytus also said the Bones of Adam was onboard, along with Gold, Frankincense and myrrh. Catholics was also back then more concerned with material things, smells, bells and heavenly lights.
Now other Early Church fathers, such as Origen, did respond to these theories about the Ark and he (ORIGEN) doubted that the Ark did contain all these animals and that Moses, as the author of Genesis, was brought up in Egypt and would have used a larger measurement in the CUBIT. And Origen theorised therefore more on the shape of the Ark as a pyramid, square at the bottom with a tapered peak and only later have wen have gotten used to the traditional rectangular shape with a sloped roof.
Now early Christian artists shows Noah standing in a box in the waves, symbolising how SoNiNi saved and preserved the True Church during the turbulence that came in the first years after Immanuel. Now Augustine of Hippo (another early catholic) went on about the dimensions of the human body and the Ark, being similar. Jerome, author of the Latin Vulgate, went even further in theorising and condemned the poor raven, took the olive branch as a symbol of the Holy Spirit (breaking the 3. Commandments with style), the cross of the Romans surely came not much later after that.
So you see, there has been so much theorising in the time after and before Immanuel, its really sobering to check these writings again. Some of them hold truth, others are put here to lead you quite far astray. Which explains why most of the churches are so lost today. Now back to the location of where Noahs Ark might have been built, we find a very interesting clue in Gnostic writings (they are old enough to hold at least some right locations), and we see that Noah was told to build the Ark at a location called Mount Sir or Seir, which could have been the Mount Seir Road the Western Cape towards the coast.
Now going to Josephus, he said that the Aram was saying the Ark rested at the Mountain of the Cordyaeans at the location called Place of Descent, he wrote (Antiquities of the Jews, Book I):
Now all the writers of barbarian histories make mention of this flood, and of this ark; among whom is Berosus the Chaldean. For when he is describing the circumstances of the flood, he goes on thus: "It is said there is still some part of this ship in Armenia, at the mountain of the Cordyaeans; and that some people carry off pieces of the bitumen, which they take away, and use chiefly as amulets for the averting of mischiefs." Hieronymus the Egyptian also, who wrote the Phoenician Antiquities, and Mnaseas, and a great many more, make mention of the same. Nay, Nicolaus of Damascus, in his ninety-sixth book, hath a particular relation about them; where he speaks thus: "There is a great mountain in Armenia, over Minyas, called Baris, upon which it is reported that many who fled at the time of the Deluge were saved; and that one who was carried in an ark came on shore upon the top of it; and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved. This might be the man about whom Moses the legislator of the Jews wrote.
Allot of interesting bits here, and mountaintops such as Baris, which could mean places like the highest mountaintops there such as KwaDuma (closer to Lesotho) or Ben Macdhui (Eastern Cape).
Searches for Noahs Ark seems to have been made from Eusebius time and to this very day, and the clue in Genesis is our strongest evidence, however another clue is in Book of Jubilees that talks about a particular mountain named Lubar. Now if we consult more sources like the Talmud, not a very trustworthy source we know, but here it talks about Sennacherib the Assyrian (who we know came by the sea to Zebulwanes land on the coast of Southern Africa, and these mountains are just inland in the Eastern Cape), now this King he found a beam there in the mountains and made it into an idol. The Assyrian King then started worshipping this idol in the temple of Nisroch that he built... Just like bowing down to a cross, it is just as bad as what this King did, fashioning an image out of wood and stone. Our Saviour does not dwell in a cross, if you let Him He will dwell in your Spirit and not in the things of this world.
Now pinpointing the location and the true place that was and is the Mountains of Ararat, we see that through history it is placed in the Levant (Middle East), and we find the repeating of the name Qardu/Carrhae/Cardyaei/Corduene, which was a place in Armenia where the Cordyaeans dwelled.
Now we see many of the ancient historians, the ones that Josephus recommended as recording somewhat unbiased like Berossus, Hieronymus of Cardia, Mnaseas of Patrae and Nicolaus of Damascus, and they all placed the Ark in the same place on a mountain in Aram, and that remains of the vessel was there even until this day. Josephus goes on to say that the Carrhae would show visitors the Ark, as it was back then regarded as clear evidence of what took place.
We can find a quotes these from people like Ephihanius of Salamis, who seems to have been an early catholic priest. And we see that Salamis must have been a town on the East-African Coast, as he also was called Ephihanius of Philistia (Gaza is still on Display in parts of Mozambique), even though his version of the Gospel should be highly disputed we see that he mentioned in his works:
"Thus even today the remains of Noah’s ark are still shown in Cardyaei."
Now what we have to figure out is, where was Cardyaei, another word for Mountains of Ararat in the Eastern Cape? More sources from John Chrysostom, another of these early church fathers which we have given a better roadmap in understanding in our Early Church Father series on the Trinity. Now to find the good guy (so to speak) you must figure out the persons stance on The Trinity, and people on this blog knows that SoNiNi na NiNi is One, not three. Regardless of their Gospel stance, the Church father has this to say about the Ark:
"Have you heard of the Flood--of that universal destruction? That was not just a threat, was it? Did it not really come to pass---was not this mighty work carried out? Do not the mountains of Aramenia testify to it, where the Ark rested? And are not the remains of the Ark preserved there to this very day for our admonition?"
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