Peter Paul Rubens, The Tiger Hunt, 1616 This discussion is taken from chapter 12 of my forthcoming book, Noah’s Flood and the Philosophies of Men. We are told in Genesis 6:7, “And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” For the word “repenteth” in the King James Bible, Bible Hub shows the Hebrew word, נִחַ֖מְתִּי (ni·ḥa

Noah's Ark is a painting by Cajetan Roos (1690 – 1770) This discussion is taken from chapter 11 of my forthcoming book, Noah’s Flood and the Philosophies of Men. Genesis 7:2 states, “Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.” The Hebrew says, לְךָ֛ (lə·ḵā) You תִּֽקַּח־ (tiq·qaḥ-) take שִׁבְעָ֥ה (šiḇ·‘āh) seven ׀ (mik·kōl) whole, all, any, every הַטְּהוֹרָ֗ה (haṭ·ṭə·hō·w

This discussion is taken from chapter 10 of my forthcoming book, Noah’s Flood and the Philosophies of Men. Human population growth doesn’t fit with a story of the entire earth population being reduced to only eight individuals 4364 years ago. Throughout most of the earth’s history, population growth rates have remained below 0.1%. Historically, there were population booms in 1000 AD and again in 1500 AD; where the growth rate went up to as much as 0.2-0.3%. Using the growth

Comparison of dendrochronology and dating using pottery styles This discussion is taken from chapter 9 of my forthcoming book, Noah’s Flood and the Philosophies of Men. I do not consider myself to be a conservative or liberal; rather, I consider myself, and am registered as, fiercely independent. I am also a scientist, and believe in the power of data and truth. Some ultraconservatives, who often attempt to downplay data, tend to cherry-pick individual studies where they ca

Bell Beaker artefacts from Spain: ceramics, metal daggers, axe and javelin points, stone wristguards and arrowheads This discussion is taken from chapter 8 of my forthcoming book, Noah’s Flood and the Philosophies of Men. The 1st-century Hellenized Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, stated that the Galatians (Galls/Celts) descended from Gomer, son of Japheth and grandson of Noah.1 We are then told at the “Amazing Bible Timeline with World History” website, “The Germans, fr

It appears that someone forgot to tell the Egyptians that there was a Global Flood in 2348 BC and that they all died. According to their own, more-or-less continuous, historical records, the succession of pharaohs is listed from around 2649 BC to 1186 BC. Of course, if we allow an error margin of around + 300-400 years, then the pharaonic record starts after the flood, which had killed everyone off and one wonders who there was for the pharaohs to rule over. Genesis 10:6,

Last week I posted an Easter essay, but I did not post a blog for the two weeks before that. That was because we were on a Caribbean cruise and had no internet service. Much of the time, the view out any window or from any railing looked like the photo above. I did not find these views to be comforting; rather, I found them to be a bit disconcerting. I knew there was land nearby and I trusted the captain and crew to get us safely to the next port. None-the-less, I didn’t part

The information presented here is Chapter 5 of my book The Immortal Messiah: the Physiology of Resurrected Beings (Cedar Fort Publishing, Springville, Utah, 2022) My purpose in writing that book and this excerpt is to help foster a deeper understanding of the Savior, His literal resurrection, and our future resurrection. “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3) The two disciples with whom the r

15th-century woodcut of Charlemagne and Irene This post is from Chapter 6 of my forthcoming book, Noah’s Flood and the Philosophies of Men . When I was a student at BYU, I took a genealogy course where our grade depended on the number of “Family Group Sheets” we turned in. To pad my grade, I filled out sheets for my own lineage all the way back to Adam. I could do this because I am descended from several lines of European nobility that connect to Charlemagne (748 – 814 AD).

Leinhart Holle ’s 1482 edition of Nicolaus Germanus ’s emendations to Jacobus Angelus ’s 1406 Latin translation of Maximus Planudes ’s late-13th century rediscovered Greek manuscripts of Ptolemy 's 2nd-century Geography . This post is from Chapter 5 of my forthcoming book, Noah’s Flood and the Philosophies of Men . From which of the sons of Noah did the Aboriginal Australians descend? The Bible is silent regarding any of Noah’s descendants in Australia, primarily becau

Noah’s sacrifice, James Tissot (1836 – 1902) This post is from Chapter 4 of my forthcoming book, Noah’s Flood and the Philosophies of Men . We are told in Genesis 5:28-32, “And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: And he called his name Noah , saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed . And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years,

Partially broken clay tablet containing cuneiform inscriptions and a unique map of the Mesopotamian world. Probably from Sippar, Mesopotamia, Iraq. 700-500 BC. The British Museum, London. This post is from Chapter 3 of my forthcoming book, Noah’s Flood and the Philosophies of Men . There is a very simple statement concerning the Flood and God’s Word on the internet website Answers in Genesis , which seems to be the major voice of conservative, young-earth Christians: “This

The Flight of the Prisoners (1896) by James Tisso So, I will continue to post chapters from my book, Noah’s Flood and the Philosophies of Men , which has not as yet been published. If you want the blogs that fit the current Come Follow Me lessons, they are on my website at trentdeestephens.com , toward the back of the blogs. We are told in 2 Kings 24:11-14 [that in 598/597 BC], “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city [of Jerusalem], and his servants did besiege

My book cover featuring a section of the painting, Noah's Ark (1846), by Edward Hicks At this point, I am going to depart from my regular blogs that I have been posting for the past four years. If you want to keep pace with my blogs dealing with the Old Testament Come Follow Me weekly program, all of those posts are still on my website from four years ago. I am not going to repeat them here. Rather, each of the next several weeks, I am going to post a chapter from my new, fo

Where Science Meets the Old Testament, for the Come Follow Me lesson February 2-8; Moses 7 For me, Moses chapter 7 is very interesting. Part of the chapter is clearly vision and part of it appears to be narrative of what was happening to and around Enoch. In other parts, it is not clear whether the text describes vision, actual events, or is metaphorical. For example, we are told in Moses 7:13-14, “And so great was the faith of Enoch that he led the people of God, and the

Enoch Walks with God 1728, by Gerard Hoet Where Science Meets the Old Testament, for the Come Follow Me lesson January 26- February 1 ; Genesis 5; Moses 6 We are told in Doctrine and Covenants 107:48-49, “Enoch was twenty-five years old when he was ordained under the hand of Adam; and he was sixty-five and Adam blessed him. And he saw the Lord, and he walked with him, and was before his face continually; and he walked with God three hundred and sixty-five years, making him

One dragon of the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, Iraq, colored glazed and molded bricks, 6th century BC. Pergamon Museum, Berlin Where Science Meets the Old Testament, for the Come Follow Me lesson January 19-25; Genesis 3-4; Moses 4-5 Genesis 3:1 states, “ Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made…” The Bible Hub shows the Hebrew as: וְהַנָּחָשׁ֙ (wə·han·nā·ḥāš) the serpent הָיָ֣ה (hā·yāh) was [more] עָר֔וּם (‘ā·rūm) crafty, shrewd

The Vision of the Lord Directing Abraham to Count the Stars , wood engraving, 1860, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld Where Science Meets the Old Testament, for the Come Follow Me lesson January 12-18; Genesis 1-2; Moses 2-3; Abraham 4-5 The Babylonians, apparently, invented the base-seven week, along with a seven-day creation cycle, around 2,000 BC, not for mathematical reasons, but because of their astronomy and religion, and founded on the seven visible, “movable” celestial

Archangel Michael Defeating Satan, by Guido Reni (1575-1642) Where Science Meets the Old Testament, for the Come Follow Me lesson January 5-11; Moses 1 Genesis 1:1 states, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth .” That’s it, no introduction, no preparatory statement even as to who might be writing those words. By contrast, Moses 2:1 states, “And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I reveal unto you concerning this heav

Ezra Reading the Law for the People, Nehemiah 8:5-6, Gustave Doré's illustrations for La Grande Bible de Tours, 1866. This etching is a bit inaccurate as it suggests Ezra was reading from the stone tablets, which by then had been lost. Where Science Meets the Old Testament, for the Come Follow Me lesson December 29–January 4: Introduction to the Old Testament The following is an excerpt from part of a chapter in my forthcoming book: Noah’s Flood and the Philosophies of Men