Nebuchadnezzar's Dream

In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep.  So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king, he said to them, “I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.”

Then the astrologers answered the king, “May the king live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”

The king replied to the astrologers, “This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble.  But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me.”

Once more they replied, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”

Then the king answered, “I am certain that you are trying to gain time, because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided:  If you do not tell me the dream, there is only one penalty for you. You have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change. So then, tell me the dream, and I will know that you can interpret it for me.”

The astrologers answered the king, “There is no one on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer.  What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans.”

This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon.  So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death.

When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact.  He asked the king’s officer, “Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?” Arioch then explained the matter to Daniel.  At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him.

Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.  He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.  During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said:

“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
wisdom and power are his.
  He changes times and seasons;
he deposes kings and raises up others.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning.
  He reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what lies in darkness,
and light dwells with him.
  I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors:
You have given me wisdom and power,
you have made known to me what we asked of you,
you have made known to us the dream of the king.”

Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, “Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king, and I will interpret his dream for him.”

Arioch took Daniel to the king at once and said, “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king what his dream means.”

The king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?”

Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you were lying in bed are these:

“As Your Majesty was lying there, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen.  As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that Your Majesty may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.

“Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance.  The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze,  its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.  While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them.  Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.

“This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king.  Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.

“After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.  Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others.  Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay.  As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle.  And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.

“In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.  This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.
“The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him.  The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”

Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men.

^{-Daniel 2:1-48}

The Light Stealer

Giant sat in the heavens, looking down upon the world.  There was not much going on, so The Trickster decided to have a bit of fun.  He put on a raven skin and dove to earth.  As he flew over the water, he dropped a stone, which turned into an island.  He landed on the island, and took some seeds from his pocket.  Then he flew over the land and dropped seeds, and all kinds of fruit trees sprang up.  Then he flew over the waters again and dropped fish eggs, which became trout and other fish.

Giant was still feeling mischievous, so he spotted the home of one of the goddesses.  In her home was the maa.  So he turned himself into a baby and hid inside of her.  He was soon born, and a remarkable baby he was!  He could sit up and speak before he was a month old, and his parents marveled at him.  One day, as he sat on the floor, cooing and laughing, he began to speak.  "Maa!  Maa!"  His father - or, rather, the man who thought he was the father - said, "I believe he wants the maa."  So they took it down form the hearth and gave it to him.  He rolled it along the floor, and soon they ignored him.

So giant, seeing the opportunity, grabbed the maa, shed his baby form, and took off running.  The gods were angry, and ran after him.  "Giant is taking the maa!" they cried.

Giant stood on the bank of a river, where people were fishing.  "Give me some fish!" he cried.

"No!  You are Giant!  You are a liar!"

"I will break the maa if you do not give me fish!" 

But the people refused.  So Giant broke the maa upon the ground, and the earth had daylight.  Then Giant put on the raven skin again, and flew off into the sky.

-From the Tsimshian peoples of Alaska, found in Giants: Legends and Lore of Goliaths


This week's myth is a classic example of Telephone Mythology at work.  The parallels between this Alaskan myth and the Greek myth of Prometheus are astonishing, and, unless we believe that Telephone Mythology is possible, difficult to dismiss.

If you are unfamiliar with the story of Prometheus, here's a quick explanation:

Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus, both Titans, were charged with creating the world and everything in it.  They split up the job, with Epimetheus creating the animals and people.  However, since he was rather liberal with his materials, when it came time to create man, he didn't have anything "special" left.  So Prometheus ascended into heaven, stole fire from the sun, and gave it to the newly-created humans.  This action earned him the nickname of "Trickster," but it also enraged the gods, who eventually punished him for his deeds.

Now consider:

In the Greek myth:                                          In the Alaskan myth:
1) A giant partially creates the world             1) A giant partially creates the world
2) Prometheus is known as a "trickster."        2) Giant is known as a "liar"
3) Prometheus brings fire from the sun to      3) Giant brings the light of the sun to the world
     earth.
4) The gods are angry with Prometheus         4) The gods are angry with Giant.


Coincidence?  Possibly, but if we're honest and realistic the parallels are far too similar to truly dismiss as independently invented.  It would, in fact, take far more blind faith to believe that these two myths were invented independently of each other than to believe that the story was passed down from generation to generation and culture to culture until it evolved into the story we see in the Native Americans of Alaska.

Telephone Mythology, which requires a singular event in the history of mankind that we commonly call The Tower of Babel, is not a popular theory.  And, while this week's myth certainly does not prove anything - after all, none of us were there - it does suggest that much of ancient literature may be more than just symbolism and superstition.  So now, readers, I leave it in your hands:  what do you think of Telephone Mythology?  Possible, plausible, or preposterous? 

The Spread of Austronesian Culture

This article from World Archaeology offers some real gems of insight into the spread of cultures - in this case, in Australia and Indonesia - throughout time.  There are two pieces of information that really stood out to me:

1) Australia and parts of Indonesia were populated and settled remarkably early in human history - around 40,000 B.C., according to archaeological dating methods.

2) The Austronesian languages are spoken from Easter Island in the Pacific, all the way to Madagascar off the coast of Africa.  It has over 500 variations, and is "one of the world's largest language groups."

This brings up some interesting observations.  I want to make it clear that these observations fly in the face of modern archaeology and geology, and, as I am neither an archaeologist nor a geologist, I do not claim my observations to be 100% accurate.  However, the spread of ancient cultures over such a large area does create a mystery:  how did these cultures spread so far - and so early - with only outrigger canoes (as the going theory states)?  Outriggers are remarkably stable - in mild thunder storms.  Crossing vast amounts of ocean and being subject to severe thunder storms and hurricanes does leave even an outrigger canoe vulnerable to capsizing.

So this leaves us with two possibilities.  The first possibility is that Pangaea, which geologists tell us broke up some 200 million years ago, was actually a much more recent event.  Afte rall, the continents don't come with dates and labels informing us as to when they broke apart.  In fact, the breaking of fault lines, the collision of plates, the volcanic upheaval that would be caused by a massive movement, and the subduction of the mantel would all lead to a catastrophic event similar to the Deluge.  As I mentioned, however, I am not a geologist, so I cannot rightly argue against the geology.  Nonetheless, based on the actual spread of cultures, language, and literature, I feel the need to leave this open as a possibility.

The second is that ocean travel was far more sophisticated than we believe. We know that architecture was remarkably advanced at an early stage, and there are several ancient cultures that speak of various types of flying machines. Though it seems impossible to our modern way of thinking - which asserts that mankind has developed from primitive to technologically advanced - perhaps history is cyclical: technological advancement, followed by a "forgetting" of sorts, which is then followed by a rediscovery. Perhaps, as King Solomon of Israel put it, "There is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

Though I don't quite feel the push to believe in ancient astronauts coming from distant planets, the repeated discovery of new technology, coupled with the discoveries of earlier and earlier civilizations, all point to one solid conclusion:  man has been far more advanced at far earlier in his history than previously thought.  And now, with the more recent discoveries of underwater cities around the globe, the date for civilization is being pushed back even further. 

Many religions and mythologies have been asserting that mankind started out advanced and lost technology as he developed.  Perhaps science needs to catch up with the literature.