Some Scriptural Evidence Regarding Time

From the last century onwards, remarkable coincidences have been observed between the Bible and certain texts of the Western tradition, on the one hand, and certain Eastern sacred books, mainly Hindus, on the other. To mention the best known, the Bible speaks of a Universal Flood that takes place at the end of a period of sheer degradation of the human race, and the Puranas and other sacred texts, both from the East and West, talk about periodic, partial devastations of the universe by water. (Actually, memories of one or several “universal floods” remain alive in ancient traditions throughout the world.) But there are many other coincidences, as will be seen below.

For example, the Book of Genesis (1:2) relates how, in the beginning, “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters;” Bhagavata Purana (5, 25: 1, ff), in turn, says that at the beginning of creation, Vishnu (God) is lying over the Causal Ocean.

In the Gospel of St John (John, 14:2), Jesus states: “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.” Brahma–samhita (5:40), in turn, says God’s glow, the "brahmajyoti," contains countless planets.

Again, in a passage of the “Gnostic” gospel of Thomas (77), says Jesus: “I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained.” Svetasvatara Upanishad (4:11), another well–known sacred Hindu book, states: “He [God] governs all the sources of creation; the universe emanates from Him, and to Him it comes back in the end.”

On the other hand – and herewith we are drawing further into matter – the book of Genesis (3:23, etc.) describes the “fall” and exile of man from Paradise, a recurring topic in the scriptures and traditions from all around the world that is closely associated to the idea of world ages and cosmic cycles. While not that obviously, also in John 14:3, 15, 19, 15, and in his announcements of the end of time, Jesus would be referring to them; also Daniel 2:21, 29 ff, 7:1 ff, other prophets from the Old Testament, St John’s Revelation, etc.

Last but not least, some authors have observed remarkable concordances on these issues between some Eastern scriptures, like the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu and the Hindu Upanishads, on the one hand, and several stoic, hermetic, and neo–platonic treatises on the other.

The modern science has in turn validated various passages from the Bible. Some of the best–known examples, like the predominance of an evolutionary order in the creation of species (fish – birds – beasts), accurately reflected in Genesis 1: 20 ff, and the fact that in the last ten or twelve thousand years there might indeed have occurred such a great disaster as to produce a “universal flood,” as evidenced both by the rings of the Californian sequoias and the fossils and corpses deposited and preserved in frozen mud, are just a few of them. Other examples include a knowledge of the spherical shape of the Earth in Isaiah 40:22, where the Hebrew word chugh, commonly translated as “circle” or “orb,” may also mean “sphere;” of the Earth floating in space, in Job 26:7; of a primitive Earth cloaked in darkness and in a watery steam, in Genesis 2:6; and of the very steps of the Creation in Genesis 1: 3 ff, whose sequence – if considered from the point of view of a terrestrial observer, as well as that each “evening” with its corresponding “morning” represent vast periods of time – perfectly harmonizes with the one postulated by the most recent cosmological theories.

However, it is among the Eastern scriptures themselves that we can find extraordinary examples of scientific information.

Bhagavata Purana (9, 3:30–34), for example, recounts the trip of king Kakudmi to Brahmaloka, the highest planet in the universe, governed by the powerful demigod Brahma, the creator of the world, to ask for his advice on a good husband for his daughter Revati. When the king reaches Brahma’s palace, the god is hearing musical recitals by the Gandharvas, the celestial musicians, and Kakudmi waits in the anteroom; when the music is over, he expresses his desire. Brahma breaks in laughter: “O King, he answers, whoever might have been thought of by you have been swept off by Time. Twenty–seven chatur–yugas [27 x 4’320,000 terrestrial years] have rolled by and we hear no more even of the races of their sons, grandsons and great grandsons…” Now, although a space–time bend as the one exemplified by this story may result from the different translation speeds of “higher” and “lower” planets around the Sun according to the Hindu tradition, it still remains illustrative of the well–known paradox anticipated by the theory of relativity for interstellar traveling at close to light–speed velocities...

(First published Qassia Jan 24, 2008)