History as recorded by the Chaldean Priest Berosus from the 3rd or 4th century B.C. (not to be confused with pseudo-Berosus, a pseudipigraphic work composed long after his death alleged to be of his teaching)! The originals have been lost so what we do know is only from a handful of fragments and from quotations in the following witnesses to his three books:
- Abydenus, a disciple of Aristotle, the Greek philosopher and scientist of the 4th century BC. In that case, being younger that Aristotle, he must have been a contemporary of Berosus. His original writings have not survived, but he is quoted by Eusebius and Syncellus.
- Apollodorus, 2nd century BC. He was a student of Aristarchus of Alexandria, but he left that city about 146 BC, perhaps for Pergamon, and then he went to Athens. His original writings have not survived, but he is quoted by Eusebius and Syncellus.
- Alexander Polyhistor (c.105 - 35 BC), Greek philosopher, geographer and historian. He was imprisoned by the Romans in the war of Sulla against Mithridates of Pontus and brought as a slave to Rome for employment as a tutor. Then he was released and lived in Italy as a Roman citizen. His original writings have not survived, but he is quoted by Eusebius, Syncellus, Josephus, Atheneus and Clement of Alexandria.
- Flavius Josephus, the Jewish priest and historian (37/38 - 100 AD). Quotes from Alexander Polyhistor.
Berosus records, that allegedly the god Chronos (the Father of all time), appeared to the tenth king, in the succession of the kings of all the Earth who in their culture was named Xisuthras (our Noah). Mostly all cultures, the Akkadian and Summerian included, list ten kings to their Noah, some others only eight! So any way, Chronos tells the goodly king to build a giant boat. So Xisuthras builds a boat big enough to house his family and friends. Animals are on the boat with them. In order to determine the end of their flood ordeal, Xisuthras releases a series of birds. Finally, the last bird does not return, and the boat comes to rest on the Gordyan mountains of Armenia (what we now call the Mountains of Ararat).
According to Berosus, the remains of this magnificent ship of antiquity could still be seen in his time. Berosus’ history reveals something that further aggravates the Higher Critical School and the apostates that eat their fruit, he says Xithustras (Noah) had books (plural), and that he buried them at Sippur (lit. Booktown), and later he returned to retrieve them. So old King Xisuthras (Noah) had books before the flood came, I wonder if any were in his own handwriting? Hmmm! Perhaps some of his books were among the many we found there? The Archaeologists at Kish (Dr. Langdon), Fara (Dr. Schmidt), and Ur (Dr. Wooley), proved the possibility of this by having retrieved 100,000’s of examples of alleged
pre-flood writings.
This confirms that men were communicating in written form, many years before this historical Noah figure. Among these they found tablets demonstrating math, law, epic poems, and much more. Berosus goes on to tell us that King Ashurbanipal,
“loved to read the writings from before the flood“! So we now know that many written works not only survived the period, but were in the possession of individuals in the past, and were being read centuries before the “Scribes”. Was one the Book of the Generations of Adam?
I know this does not solve the riddle we speculate on but it is interesting...
In His love
Paul