Their technology...?

[Radrook]

Let's remember that when the Library of Alexandria was destroyed, we lost most of the ancient writings, and what we have now is just a small percentage. That's like trying to put together a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle from 20 pieces, and not having the finished picture to go by. Hypothesis: ca 100BC there was a large group of historical scholars in many countries who believed that the flood was a mishap caused by misuse of technology and they had in their possession, or perhaps written many new, books (like the UFO alien cults of today) to "prove" it. This group wrote new books based on these ideas and one of these books was the Book of Enoch, another was Metamorphoses, and some others became additional pseudepigrapha. If we word the hypothesis in this way, we avoid all the issues of what is or is not true because it is inspired, and we read history as what it is is: stories written by people to explain their past. I think parts of Enoch, not all, are inspired, and I think we need to be careful to investigate what we mean by this. Because not all denominations agree on what inspiration means. Is "Lord of spirits" inspired? God certainly is that, but is it His will to be addressed this way? The fire from the throne is certainly the fire that made the tongues of Pentecost, but that does not make it inspired, because Plato's Timeaus discusses how that fire was made, and there is nothing particularly divine about it. The metal mountains are described in Khnemu, but it took me over 20 years to prove it, and cross-reference it to Tesla's patent.

Have you considered using Pliny's natural history as a technological source? He mentions a dinosaur skeleton (so I assume) recovered in in Judea in early Christian times, and taken to Rome to a museum. This 40 foot long creature is called a "son of Neptune", surely proof of a tradition that the gods gave birth to giants. The reference I wrote down is 9:9 but I cannot verify it now.

Thanks for the very informative post and the sources you provide for research purposes. I understood you to say that after the Alexandrian Library was destroyed writers began to conjecture based on the few manuscripts left and in that way the book of Enoch and Metamorphoses were produced? Correct?

 

[Ken Behrens]

Thanks for the very informative post and the sources you provide for research purposes. I understood you to say that after the Alexandrian Library was destroyed writers began to conjecture based on the few manuscripts left and in that way the book of Enoch and Metamorphoses were produced? Correct?

No, the chronology is wrong. I believe that Metamorphoses and Enoch were produced when the Library was still standing (destruction 393AD, Meta ca 1 AD, Enoch 100BC give or take). These two survived. The destruction is what creates the jigsaw puzzle I mentioned. We have a few such pieces that were not destroyed, but not the rest of the books to really put these into context. The conjectures began around 600 or so, after the older scholars died off.

That makes these books accurate for their time, but we have no idea if they are supposed to be truth, fiction, or some mysterious genre like "mythology" or "midrash". Did the authors believe them? Did the people who saved them believe them? The ideas are fascinating springboards either way.

 

[Radrook]

No, the chronology is wrong. I believe that Metamorphoses and Enoch were produced when the Library was still standing (destruction 393AD, Meta ca 1 AD, Enoch 100BC give or take). These two survived. The destruction is what creates the jigsaw puzzle I mentioned. We have a few such pieces that were not destroyed, but not the rest of the books to really put these into context. The conjectures began around 600 or so, after the older scholars died off.

Well, the NT book of Jude written during the first-century CE does quote from the Book of Enoch so that would seem to indicate a survival of manuscripts which were not part of that library.
The Burning of the Library of Alexandria | eHISTORY

 

[Ken Behrens]

Well, the NT book of Jude written during the first-century CE does quote from the Book of Enoch so that would seem to indicate a survival of manuscripts which were not part of that library.
The Burning of the Library of Alexandria | eHISTORY

Yes, this is the correct data. I suppose about 1% was saved as parts of private libraries. Other things have been found, and recognized once we learned to read Egyptian and Sumerian/Babylonian a century or two ago. But it is still very spotty. And we have no idea the relative quality of saved vs. lost parts.