The late Immanuel Velikovsky’s views on world catastrophes have been derided by many over the years, but we’d do well to remember that when Albert Einstein died, the book lying open on his desk was Velikovsky’s Worlds in Collision.
In Worlds in Collision, Velikovsky sets out to show that two series of cosmic catastrophes took place in historical times, 34 and 26 centuries ago. There is no way Velikovsky could have read the Kolbrin when he wrote Worlds in Collision, but many of the conclusions he comes to reflect almost exactly what is recorded in the Kolbrin. I’m not going to detail all the findings, just give a few of the many sources he uses.
Pliny in the second book of his Natural History
‘A terrible comet was seen by the people of Ethiopia and Egypt, to which Typhon, the king of that period, gave his name; it had a fiery appearance and was twisted like a coil… it was not really a star so much as what might be called a ball of fire.’
Maurus Servius Honoratus, a 4th/5th-century Roman writer
Writing about the destructive comet Typhon, Honoratus states that more information could be found in the writings of the Roman astrologer Campester and the Egyptian astrologer Petosiris. These writings no longer exist - but it is interesting to have a 4th-century BC Egyptian astrologer mentioned. Problem is, we haven’t yet been able to date any of the book of Manuscripts.
Inscription on a shrine of black granite found at el-Arish on the border of Egypt and Palestine.
‘The land was in great affliction. Evil fell on this earth… There was a great upheaval in the residence… Nobody could leave the palace during nine days, and during these nine days of upheaval there was such a tempest that neither men nor gods [the royal family] could see the face of those beside them.’ Following the darkness and hurricane, the pharaoh pursued the ‘evil-doers’ [the Israelites] to ‘the place called Pi-Khiroti’.
The el-Arish inscription also tells of ‘the pursuit by the pharaoh Taoui-Thom of the fleeing slaves’. The name ‘Thomat’ is mentioned in Manuscripts 6:29, and a son called Rageb. This gives us a clue to the identity of the pharaoh at the time of the Exodus - Taoui thom / Tau Timaeus / Tutimaeus (he is called this by the writer Manetho). If I’ve read it right, this same Pharaoh also seems to be called Anturah in Man. 6:42.
Artapanus of Alexandria, 3rd/2nd century BC, quoted by Eusebius, Archbishop of Caesarea in Preparation for the Gospel
There was ‘hail and earthquake by night, so that those who fled from the earthquake were killed by the hail, and those who sought shelter from the hail were destroyaed by the earthquake. And at that time all the houses fell in, and most of the temples.’
The writers Lydus, Servius quoting Avienus, Hephaestion, Junctinus and Pliny
all describe the Typhon comet as an immense globe of fire, also as a sickle (a description of a a globe illuminated by the sun) with slow movement, a path close to the sun, of a bloody colour, which caused destruction ‘in rising and setting’. Servius writes that this comet caused many plagues, evils, and hunger.
Pomponius Mela, a Roman 1st-century AD author,
referring to the writings of Herodotus and to what he calls ‘Egyptian written sources’, writes: ‘The Egyptians pride themselves on being the most ancient people in the world. In their authentic annals … one may read that since they have been in existence, the course of the stars has changed direction four times, and that the sun has set twice in the part of the sky where it rises today.’ We find this in Manuscripts.
The Papyrus Harris speaks of a cosmic upheaval of fire and water when ‘the south becomes north, and the Earth turns over.’
The Papyrus Ipuwer describes at least 23 manifestations of the event identified as the Exodus event, some of which are in the book of Exodus and all in the Kolbrin.
The Ermitage Papyrus in Leningrad refers to a catastrophe that turned the ‘land upside down; happens that which never (yet) had happened’.
Texts found in the Pyramids of Egypt say that the sun ‘ceased to live in the occident, and shines, a new one, in the orient’.
The Papyrus Anastasi IV contains a complaint about gloom and the absence of solar light; it says also: ‘The winter is come as (instead of) summer, the months are reversed and the hours are disordered.’
Texts of Taoism: The breath of heaven is out of harmony … The four seasons do not observe their proper times.’
The Papyrus Anastasi IV: ‘The sun, it hath come to pass that it riseth not.’
The Ermitage Papyrus: ‘None can live when the sun is veiled by clouds.’
Velikovsky writes: ‘Campester, as quoted by Lydus, was certain that should the comet Typhon again meet the Earth, a four-day encounter would suffice to destroy the world. This implies that the first encounter with the comet Typhon brought the Earth to the brink of destruction.’
He also says: ‘The approach of two charged globes toward each other could … produce trumpetlike sounds, varying as the distance between them increased or lessened. It appears that this phenomenon was described by Pseudo-Philo as “testimony of the trumpets between the starts and their Lordâ€. Here we can trace the origin of the Pythagorean notion of the music of the spheres and the idea that stars make music.’ Terrible noise is referred to several times in the Kolbrin’s descriptions of catastrophes.
Velikovsky writes not only about the Deluge/Noah’s flood, but also about the flood of Ogyges, and argues that these were two separate catastrophes. This is borne out by the Kolbrin, which describes the Flood of Atuma followed by the Deluge.
I think that Velikovsky would have been enthralled by the Kolbrin.
Has anyone out there come across any other ancient documents that echo the Kolbrin’s descriptions of catastrophes or could have provided source material?