Attos' Magazine

Volume #77, December/2009

Home Page

Immanuel Velikovsky

Worlds In Collision

By Immanuel Velikovsky

Fifty Two Years Earlier

THE PRE-COLUMBIAN written traditions of Central America tell us that fifty-two years before the catastrophe that closely resembles that of the time of Joshua, another catastrophe of world dimensions had occurred. It is therefore only natural to go back to the old Israelite traditions, as narrated in the Scriptures, to determine whether they contain evidence of a corresponding catastrophe.

The time of the Wandering in the Desert is given by the Scriptures as forty years. Then, for a number of years before the day of the disturbed movement of the earth, the protracted conquest of Palestine went on. It seems reasonable, therefore, to ask whether a date fifty- two years before this event would coincide with the time of the Exodus.

In the work Ages in Chaos, I describe at some length the catastrophe that visited Egypt and Arabia. In that work it is explained that the Exodus took place amid a great natural upheaval that terminated the period of Egyptian history known as the Middle Kingdom. There I endeavor to show that contemporary Egyptian documents describe the same disaster accompanied by “the plagues of Egypt,” and that the traditions of the Arabian Peninsula relate similar occurrences in this land and on the shores of the Red Sea. In that work I refer also to Beke’s idea that Mt. Sinai was a smoking volcano. However, I reveal that “the scope of the catastrophe must have exceeded by far the measure of the disturbance which could be caused by one active volcano,” and I promise to answer the question: “Of what nature and dimension was this catastrophe, or this series of catastrophes, accompanied by plagues?” and to publish an investigation into the nature of great catastrophes of the past. Both works—the reconstruction of history and the reconstruction of natural history—were conceived within the short interval of half a year; the desire to establish a correct historical chronology before fitting the acts of nature into the periods of human history impelled me to complete Ages in Chaos first.

I shall employ some of the historical material from the first chapters of Ages in Chaos. There I use it for the purpose of synchronizing events in the histories of the countries around the eastern Mediterranean; here I shall use it to show that the same events took place all around the world, and to explain the nature of these events.

Estadísticas de tráfico