Some Generalized Thoughts On Historical Literary Veracity Of The New Testament By Brianroy

Historians will benefit by trusting the historical veracity of the Bible.  Even though these quotes are a bit older than most would like, they remain true in their statements.

  "The excessive skepticism shown toward the Bible has been progressively discredited. Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of numerous details."    

W.F. Albright, The Archaeology of Palestine and the Bible (Revell, 1935), p. 127.


"The interval between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the (New Testament has) come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established."   

Sir Frederick Kenyon, The Bible and Archeology (New York: Harper, 1940), pp. 288,289



"It may be stated categorically that no archeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical passage."  

  Nelson Glueck, Rivers in the Desert (Philadelphia: Jewish Publications Society, 1969), p. 31


"To be skeptical of the resultant text of the New Testament is to allow all of classical antiquity to slip into obscurity, for no documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographically as the New Testament."    

 John Warwick Montgomery, History and Christianity (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1976), p. 29

“Careful comparison of the New Testament with inscriptions and other early independent evidence has confirmed their primary claims . . . Competent historical scholarship must regard the New Testament documents as coming from the first century and as reflecting primary-source testimony about the person and claims of Jesus.”  John Warwick Montgomery, History and Christianity (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1976), pp. 31,34.


It is important for us to study history...but to me, we also need to be faithful to the Almighty who gave us the Bible, and trust HIM over the ever- changing opinions and popularity of what men (or women) might think or say.

 Gleason Archer Jr. puts it better:

"...the only alternatives available to us as we confront the Scriptures: either they are inerrant, or else we are."    

Gleason L. Archer, Jr. "A Survey Of Old Testament Introduction"  (Chicago: Moody Bible Institue, revised 1994) p. 31

And a well-respected scholar once noted the acceptance of Faith and History,  stating, 
"It is, indeed, difficult to restrict a discussion of the New Testament writings to the purely historical plane; theology insists on breaking in.  But that is as it should be; history and theology are inextricably intertwined in the gospel of our salvation, which owes its external and universal validity to certain events which happened in Palestine when Tiberius ruled the Roman Empire."    
F.F.  Bruce in April 1959, as found in The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? (Downer's Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 14th reprint 1980), pp.5-6.

  

 It seems that history is becoming a category of expertise that is once again contracting, and as a result, society forgets the past, falls into moral decay, and repeats the mistakes of the past to its own peril and fatal consequences.  If one would even arrive at a level of competence in grasping historical literary testimony, skillfully gleaning facts and exercising cognitive processes that modern education steers the collective away from doing, so much past and present will open up and a greater state of awareness is achieved, and faith in the Bible as accurate and true and faith in Christ Jesus as 100% truthful and good, as well as being LORD and Savior is easily affirmed.  

The historical literary testimony tells us that the Apostles of Jesus used Hebrew manuscripts of an older date than the Greek Septuagint (LXX) as their primary texts.  Biblical Scholarship has often lamented of their confusion on this issue for the last 100 years, asking "did the apostles rely only on the LXX or a variant copy of it", because they are unwilling to believe the historical testimony of a translator who held and viewed these Greek and older Hebrew manuscripts 300 years after the last Apostle of Jesus died.


"The Hebrew Scriptures are used by apostolic men; they are used, as is evident, by the apostles and evangelists.

Our Lord and Saviour himself whenever he refers to the Scriptures, takes his quotations from the Hebrew… in the words used on the cross itself, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,” which is by interpretation “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” not, as it is given by the Septuagint, “My God, my God, look upon me, why hast thou forsaken me?” and many similar cases.

 I do not say this in order to aim a blow at the 70 translators; but I assert that the Apostles of Christ have an authority superior to theirs. Wherever the 70 agree with the Hebrew, the apostles took their quotations from that translation; but, where they disagree, they set down in Greek what they had found in the Hebrew.

And further, I give a challenge to my accuser. I have shown that many things are set down in the New Testament as coming from the older books, which are not to be found in the Septuagint; and I have pointed out that these [still] exist  [in our own day] in the Hebrew.

Now let him show that there is anything in the New Testament which comes from the Septuagint but   which is not found in the Hebrew, and our controversy is at an end."

Justin’s Apology against Rufinius, Book 2.34

We must also remember, that Jerome, a 4th Century A.D. scholar  who translated the Bible into Latin,the Latin Vulgate,  probably held copies of the New Testament that were almost exclusively from the first century A.D. sources as well, being only 350 or less years removed from the 47 -57 A.D. compositions of those works. 

Jerome, himself, handled some of these same pre-Septuagint manuscripts of Isaiah, pre-dating the LXX's completion prior to the ascension of Herod the Great.  By his own testimony, Jerome says that his Hebrew copies that he was handling, were those that pre-dated even our extant  Dead Sea Isaiah Scroll now on display in Israel, dating to at least 150 B.C. and possibly as old as 250 B.C.   For him to say this, there would have been a clear distinction in the difference of the Hebrew epigraphy.  For which aid, he sought out the best Hebrew expert of his day to learn more than just an expanded version of what he would have called "modern hebrew" in the 4th century A.D....but an "ancient Hebrew" of the 4th to 5th century B.C. as well.   

This is accessibility to oldest manuscripts and their copies  would be still yet another reason to trust the translationof the New Testament Gospels as accurate; and this is better understood when we have a more well-rounded understanding in history and language development in the relevant period of discussion.    

In regard to the New Testament (NT)  works, even in the First century we have so many copies being produced, that manuscript families branched out and they were compared one to another often, as well as back to their original source.  By example, in Ephesus of Asia, from the introduction of the Book of Revelation in late 53 A.D. to the Apostle John's death in ca. 97-98 A.D., there were many copies made of Revelation (using this one NT book by example) and copies of copies that branched out.

 At one point, as Irenaeus addresses in Against Heresies book 5.30.1-2, there was the issue of just one slip of the pen or a lacunae that had to be corrected regarding a number (6), in order that a wrong concept of 616 could be corrected, and the copies either destroyed or amended to the correction.  In fact, because of Irenaeus' boast of how that any having questions about the manuscript could simply go to Ephesus and ask John for verification, we know that Revelation existed for many years prior to John's death, and that John was fully accessible and in his right mind at all times to offer veracity to the 666 instead of the 616 one manuscript branch was promoting before that scribal error was chased down and stopped cold.

  By 392 A.D.ff., if Jerome possessed a first century New Testament copy of a letter or book  to translate, he may have possessed not only first century copies, but in regard to even it being a first century copy, it still may have been passed through as many as 16 copyists from the original in as little as its first 40 years from the master first copy from which those others were generated afterwards.    

We must historically consider the explosive and exponential growth of Christianity from a figure of a few thousands in the 30s to that of a couple millions by the 90s A.D. (though chiefly among slaves, followed by that of sailors, farmers, and soldiers), and the reasonable assumption that we can perhaps calculate no less than one manuscript per 1000 Christians would give us no less than 3,000 probable manuscripts at the utmost  bare minimum of each of the most popular books and letters of the New Testament in Churches and designated locations by the early 90s while the Apostle John was still yet alive. Each of these works were treated as more precious than gold, and closely guarded by Presbyters and bishops in their respective Churches as "holy" and set apart in a most revered manner.    Not all works were uniformly in all places at the first, however; and  by the mid to late 2nd Century A.D., the New Testament works  most certainly were virtually universal in the Roman Empire, at least.  

The  NT references most clearly used in the First Century Christian  in Rome and used regionally there, we know from that book we call as First Clement, which was based out of Rome,  and these at minimum were : The Gospel of Luke, the Gospel of Mark, Romans, I Corinthians, Hebrews, Ephesians, and I Peter.  

Clement in 64 A.D. Rome, apparently did not possess such a copy of Matthew, Greek or Aramaic, and did not quite know the full context of the use the prophecy the way the Apostles (including John in Ephesus and Phillip in Phrygia) apparently did.   This tells us that Rome's Churches took the position, under Clement, of first being communicated with -- or they would not communicate to -- since Rome was a vast central metropolis so as to take all the Roman Christian's own focus. This also tells us that the Roman Churches were, in effect, more or less isolated from the outside world during the reign of Nero and especially during his persecutions, and that in this point in history, Rome's christian Churches were not likely to intervene in other bishoprics until late in the second century (with the one exception of Corinth, because so many of its evangelists were based out of and first funded from Corinth, as was the case with Corinth's Churches funding and evangelizing Christianity being preached into the province of Asia).  

Although it has been taught that it appears that only the first Greek translations of Matthew survived well beyond the First Century,  it is obvious that Ignatius of Antioch and other bishops of the region (as late as 107 A.D.) still had the Aramaic original of Matthew in a copied form entering also into the early Second Century as well.  Further, the Christians of the Syriac and Iraq Middle East (including that of Lebanon and parts of Turkey) are those who have kept the Aramaic language of the Scriptures from the times of Jesus.  For being a witness of the One True Church, they are being targeted and killed by a criminal usurper in the U.S. Presidency and fellow Muslim butchers like John "might as well be a Muslim Heinrich Himmler" Brennan misusing the United States Central Intelligence  Agency to genocide these innocent victims, as if attempting to erase the memory of Jesus Christ from history.  The Gospel According to Matthew is apparently one that the Devil indeed hates beyond measure, apparently.  

Ignatius, bishop of Antioch of Syria wrote in Aramaic; and the copy of Matthew in historical perspective, was directed to the saints that spoke Aramaic fluently.  Ignatius wrote primarily to the Asian Churches who were guided by John for prayerful support, upon Ignatius' own arrest.  It was to Asia that help and counsel was sought from, by Ignatius, not Rome (or its bishop there).
Hundreds of years before a split, there was already an East/ West division in Christianity between the Aramaic and non-Aramaic speaking peoples.  Matthew's Gospel, in how it was accepted and distributed at the first, highlights this detail.

 Matthew was written for and eventually distributed to those of the Syriac influence churches from Jerusalem (to Babylonia and points East) to Damascus to Antioch to the province of Asia in western Turkey, and all points in between; amongst hostile, and friendly, witnesses who also were there to have seen many of the events....some in the hundreds of thousands, in their own dialect.

Irenaeus, the disciple of Polycarp of Smyrna of Asia, who was a disciple of the Apostle John  and a bishop placed in Smyrna by that same Apostle John, spoke as to the matter of the veracity of Christianity in its written form which we have later labeled as "The New Testament."

Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 1, Chapter 10, 

 selective statements  from points 1 and 2

1. The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: 

2. As I have already observed, the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it.

 She also believes these points [of doctrine] just as if she had but one soul, and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them, and teaches them, and hands them down, with perfect harmony, as if she possessed only one mouth. 

For, although the languages of the world are dissimilar, yet the import of the tradition is one and the same. 

For the Churches which have been planted in Germany do not believe or hand down anything different, nor do those in Spain, nor those in Gaul, nor those in the East, nor those in Egypt, nor those in Libya, nor those which have been established in the central regions  of the world.

  Nor will any one of the rulers in the Churches, however highly gifted he may be in point of eloquence, teach doctrines different from these (for no one is greater than the Master); nor, on the other hand, will he who is deficient in power of expression inflict injury on the tradition. 

For the faith being ever one and the same, neither does one who is able at great length to discourse regarding it, make any addition to it, nor does one, who can say but little diminish it.

Most scholars are deficient in the proper and full reading of Irenaeus.  For example, by their most popular use of even referencing him, they oft cite him as the authority for dating John's Apocalypse, and then ignore his other writings.  Why?  Perhaps they are too busy copying the end notes of their colleagues...perhaps they are too busy...perhaps philosophic arguments are simple a dinner exercise, and academic truths are as intangible as a good dinner conversation.  

Irenaeus is a third generation witness from Jesus, and a second generation witness from John the Apostle.  When discussing Church history in these first two centuries or the first 150 years of development, it is ludicrous to leave Irenaeus out.

Irenaeus clearly states that at all points of the Empire in (some say 178- 181, others 180 - 181  A.D)., Christianity clearly was an organized, developed, and communicating religious system.  Germany communicates with Egypt and Spain; the Eastern provinces communicate with Libya and Italy.  Gaul communicates with Greece and Asia...and all the Christians provinces communicate one with another, and testify faithfully that history - tradition - faith that has been passed down to them from the Apostles.  

And what NT documents are communicated them by no later than 180 or 181 A.D.?  If we judge from Irenaeus own quotations in Against Heresies, we at least have the entire Roman Empire saturated with:  

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,

 Acts, Romans, I Corinthians, II Corinthians,

 Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, 

I Thessalonians, II Thessalonians, 

I Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, 

Hebrews, James, I Peter, 2 Peter, 

I John, II John, Jude, and Revelation.

It is impossible, if Christianity had any myths in history or tradition up to this point, to have had such a uniform consistency of the Faith throughout the Empire.  There is no doubt about it...the libraries of Caesar were thoroughly checked, the places of the NT visited, the rolls of the bishops unfurled, and Christianity, 100 percent, was found true and accurate historically and in the very legal sense of truthful as well.

Let me point out that NT  manuscript families, like the Patmos family of manuscripts, tell us that the NT is  clearly 95% or better a word for word transmission of the ancient text as it probably was.  The majority of the 5%  of the grey area, is quite often simply defined as either an expanded  translation upon the Greek or a work to this effect to convey the passage more effectively.   We can literally cut the 5% by 60-70%, and then again by another half until we reach the same 40 lines consisting of less than 400  words that are known to be added in to the texts, having once been marginal notes, with the exception of a word or two here or there that do not change the theology or the essential meaning of the text where they occur, by simple inter-familial comparisons.

Further, where any translation preceding a time period of Vaticanus or Sinaiticus (or what have you) is questioned, we can go to early patristics and see how they phrased the same quote.

It is known that where the Apostolic texts differ from the much later Masoretes in quoting the Hebraic Old Testament texts, the Apostles appear to have followed a manuscript tree that was more closer to Aramaic (if we follow the second century quotations in translation to Latin and Greek by Irenaeus) and first sources, such as the Ezra era translation of Hebrew Scriptures scribed by Hillel -- if I understand correctly -- that was brought to Rome, and cited by Josephus.

Those same copies of that master copy of the Temple, 

"Now that Scripture, which is laid up in the temple, informs us..." (Antiq. 3.1.7, Whiston)

which language means that Scroll of not only the Torah but all biblical books later canonized in the 90s as holy, and would have included the Psalms and the prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah (etc.), those same works which were possessed by and quoted by Matthew (while he was in Jerusalem in A.D. 55-56) and Luke (Paul's fellow evangelist and physician, while at Corinth of Achaia in A.D. 50).  

 In Josephus Wars of the Jews, 7.5.7., it is clear that the Temple Scroll is that same First master copy or Imprimis Torah Scroll and Scriptures  (from the days of Ezra).   It may actually have been the very collection Hillel brought up from the Jews at Babylonia, if Oral Torah's historical literary testimony is to be believed.  It was that Master Copy, once made available for all Jews from circa 3 B.C. (with the arrival of Hillel, until its 70 A.D. capture) that went to Rome.

Josephus reiterates a statement of writings, now regarding the book of Joshua also:

"Now, that the day was lengthened at this thee, and was longer than ordinary, is expressed in the books laid up in the temple."  (Antiq., 5.1.17, Whiston)

"That the duration of the day was prolonged and exceeded the usual on that occasion is disclosed in the writings that were present in the temple" (Alternate translation of same passage)

The authority of Josephus as an historian on historical (and sometimes textual) data does NOT exceed the Bible, and is subordinate to the Biblical text ... but his writings should still always be readily considered as a reliable on hand supplemental

Of interest, the Apostle Paul traveled about with many scrolls of Scripture with his entourage, and occasionally had to entrust them at this or that location while on his missionary journeys.  By example, the Apostle Paul stored  his Scripture scrolls and parchments at what he probably thought would be a central location as 2 Timothy 4:13 appears to infer.  Because of circumstances and necessity to reach Jerusalem quickly by Pentecost (just prior to his final arrest) he left them behind.   Scrolls were large and bulky objects.  At the time he wrote 2 Timothy,  Paul was in Rome in a hired or rented  house at his own expense, and under house arrest.  The Apostle Paul, contrary to popular and perhaps tourist trap initiated belief, was not in a dungeon in Acts 28.  Further, in the way Paul requests his scrolls be brought to him, it was not unrealistic to request them.  Indeed, we may even reasonably infer that the Apostle Paul may well have been in the habit to rotate one or several personally owned Scripture scrolls at a time,  delivered and or taken by messenger or an ambassador (a protected status under Roman Law) or "angel"  for the sake of convenience.  

There may have been times where one could have been "mailed" by carriage in Asia and certain developed areas / provinces in the Roman Empire in this era, but that method isn't likely to have been employed (being deemed a wasteful use of funds).  Instead, manuscripts or scrolls having been wax sealed and encrusted with in similar manner as the Romans and thereby being granted legal protections and even Roman escort under certain circumstances,  were entrusted to guardians who were recognized as "ambassadors" and protected by Roman law.  The Christian guardians who delivered manuscript scrolls were generally deacons and deaconesses or presbyters or even bishops.  Again, generally, these were called both messengers and "angels" and took their task to deliver sealed scrolls unopened very seriously.  Because the Bible declares that "in the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses shall every word be established", so too would there be a religious legal requirement in the transport of such manuscripts, and we would expect a re-verification was quite often both done and commended.  

Supplement: Historic Dates of New Testament Authorship

Letter or Work             When Written                   Written in / from  

Jude                               Pentecost, A.D. 47             Jerusalem, Israel 

James                            Pentecost, A.D. 47             Jerusalem, Israel 

Galatians                         A.D. 48                              Philippi, Greece 

Gospel of Luke               A.D. 50                              Corinth, Achaia

I Thessalonians       February - July, A.D. 52      Ephesus, Asia

I Corinthians           July - November, A.D. 52     Ephesus, Asia 

Revelation          Tishrei 4-9, Sep/Oct, A.D. 53    Patmos, Aegean 

Romans               October - November, A.D. 53    Corinth, Achaia 

Titus                     February, A.D. 54                       Troas, Aegean Sea

Colossians          May - November, A.D. 54          Jerusalem, Israel

I Timothy            May - November, A.D. 54          Jerusalem, Israel 

II Thessalonians   August - December, A.D. 54   Ephesus, Asia 

Gospel of Matthew   May, A.D. 55 - July, A.D. 56   Jerusalem, Israel 

Philemon                          A.D. 56                                  Rome, Italy 

II Timothy                 October, A.D. 56                        Rome, Italy 

Ephesians                  October, A.D. 56                       Rome, Italy 

   

Philippians          February - April, A.D. 57               Rome, Italy

I Peter                  March - April, A.D. 57                    Rome, Italy 

Gospel of Mark         June, A.D. 57                             Rome, Italy 

II Peter                      June, A.D. 57                             Rome, Italy 

Acts of the Apostles    July, A.D. 57                          Rome, Italy 

Hebrews                       July, A.D. 57                          Rome, Italy 

I John 

(severed intro to Gospel of John)  

                          August - October, A.D. 57              Ephesus, Asia 

Gospel of John   August - October, A.D. 57         Ephesus, Asia 

2,3 John               A.D. 58 - A.D. 96                        Ephesus, Asia 

Fictional Short Story: Recollections of a Western Deputy (1871 -1897) - Tornado

A next installment of the fictional narrative of Recollections of a Western Deputy (1871 -1897).  




Notes from the Diary Entry of 
                           Monday October 23, 1882  - 

     The Tornado at Prairie Flats And How Adopting A Wild Goose Spurred My Wife Into Being A Town Hero While In A Fit Of Jealous Rage



     Sunday October 15, 1882 was almost a hot day, about 80 degrees and constantly raining on and off with rain and thunder and lightning clouds from the southwest like the weather couldn't make up its mind whether to flood the ground, or just to make slosh and slip out of the mud.  Then that night a cold dry wind blew almost directly south on the new weather vane the Sheriff put atop the jail on Wednesday, October 11th.   Not only did it spin in the direction of the wind, but the Sheriff had made it a two sided strip iron mechanical thing out of wood, it was painted and cut into a lumberjack sawing a fallen tree.  And every time the wind blew, that dang thing up thar' would be sawin' away on his wood.  When the wind wasn't blowin' it was full stopped.  But when the really wind blew hard, that dang thing up thar' would be sawing hundreds of times a minute like some kind of maniac in a would lumberjack compete.  Folks young and old just loved to stop and look at that weather vane, and by Thursday and Friday they started a clutterin' up the streets,  sometimes for what seemed to be hours.  


There they was, watching that thing up thar' a shootin' the breeze, sometimes right in the middle of the street a shootin' the breeze with gossipin' like statues with fingers pointed up in the air and movin' only their lips, as if someone was supposed to come and bronze them and make them into the town monument.  A town  surveyor was hired by the mayor, and declared Main Street was was 84 feet wide of dirt from horse rail to horse rail, and for me to stop usin' the word "rod" every time I mentioned 10 feet of something, and just to say "feet".  He also was one to say that a "butt" was a journey's end, and that he got that from reading Shakespeare plays and the like.  Well to me, 84 feet is 42 people spread across the Main Street rail to rail, and all having one "butt." 

Between havin' to go to trial as a witness in 16 different cases in 2 days and each time testifyin' bein' told to git on down to the Sheriff's Office and wait to be called again Thursday and Friday of last week, I can't tell you how much of a nuisance it was to have to sit thar' in the Sheriff's office a watchin' them, and then goin' out to tell them to stand to one side to let folks pass or to git along.  Especially Friday : 3 pots of coffee and 8 trips to the outhouse later,  I was almost too tired to do my evenin' chores, and find out from the wife all that she heard from her busy-body mother and two sisters was a happenin' round the town that day while I was stuck down at the office or at another rush-rush trial.   

     Round about 4 in the morning on Monday October 16, we had us a sound like there was a train yard south of town, travelin' from East to West, even though no tracks were laid yet, just the gradin' done for the new train tracks they said was a comin' maybe in 2 or 3 weeks, maybe next spring if we early wintered.  The house shook, and it was if the very air was sucked right out of the house through the open windows.  I snapped to my feet as if I was back in the war and we was a bein' over run again, and scenes from the past played out as real as it was happenin' in the present.  And for whatever reason, I remembered the first time I scouted, and had to train my replacement even as I took my first assignment, showing him how the hoof print was less than a half hour old, as the edges were still sharp and the light wind we was havin' hadn't smoothed over the edges yet.  And with that, and the Mrs. callin' my name slightly above the noise, I snapped back to the present.

As I stood thar' and scanned about, the house for just a moment was swaggering like we was on a boat deck in the water and then suddenly stopped.  The the noise was still so loud a deaf mute could hear it, as if it passed directly south of town and stopped, and then after about 20 seconds it was kept movin' west about the speed of a fast horse.  Outside was pitch black, and inside the whale oil lamp we kept lit to keep an eye on the new baby was burning dimly.  Our new child Charlotte was wide awake and was a cryin'.   Since everyone was up, we all went down to the kitchen, the meetin' place for all family and company, and had us an hour early breakfast before setting about our day.


Round about 6:40 in the mornin', a rider (said to be bleedin' from the right side of the head above the ear) came by horse from Prairie Flats, a town smaller than ours of about 350 folk about 6 miles to the West. 

The town "alarm and gatherin' bell" was rung 3 times, stopped, rung 3 times, stopped, and then rung 3 times again.  After a minute, that was repeated.  Then once more.  In about 5 minutes, every man in Militia or Posse in town was all there armed and in a lump.   Marshall Jackson and Judge Hollister together took turns informin' the town that the Tornado that skirted our town had "flattened Prairie Flats flatter than a flapjack".  "More than 200 folk" was trapped under wreckages and callin' for help.  And what's more, a 27 long wagon train stopped there for the night, and had about 50 grown men and women and twice that many children among them that were also among the casualties.    Because I was good at getting things done efficiently and others to do the same at my instructin' them,  I was volunteered by the Judge and the Marshall to organize any resources the town had, and to head a 64 man Posse and Militia with equipment to save and treat the quick, and to put off buryin' any dead unless absolutely necessary.   Doc Phillip MacDonald, his wife and four virgin old maid daughters, all skilled in the late war in tending thousands of battle casualties, and the two town veterinarians would also accompany my group.  Other groups would be organized with food and supplies to feed us and tend to our collective needs later in the day and in following days under Marshall Jackson, who would remain in town at present.

In about 10 minutes I sent a detail of 36 riders with axes, extra rope, shovels and instructions on ahead; and in just a little over 40 minutes I was able to lead a 16 wagon detail loaded with equipment and supplies (including lots of blanket, medical and food provisions) out to Prairie Flats with two riders sent on ahead to join the other 36 and let them know organized help was a comin', and other townsfolk with their women would also be a comin' to help.  In all, over 280 of our townsfolk came out to help before the mid-afternoon, and close to 400 of our townsfolk had spent at least 6 hours or more helping the folks there in Prairie Flats by the morning of the 3rd day.   

Flatter than a flapjack didn't half even describe what we found at much of Prairie Flats.  Most of it looked like something worse than a piled up train that fell onto a collapsed bridge in a dry gully.  It took us over a day and a night, even with all the extra help and workin' by torch-light to git everyone out of the rubble in which the often 16 and 20 feet long one foot diameter and larger logs of these cabins were thrown about like match-sticks and so tangled together worse than any river log jam ever was, it was hard to think they was ever organized into buildings and walls at all.   

Once everybody was saved, and tended to for a little over a day and a night, that following day about all but 40 of my fellow townsfolk were sent home or limited on what time we wanted them to spend, as we tended and fed the wounded until most of them were well enough to tend themselves.  Provisions were donated by the silver miners who bought them as a kind of way of saying they believed in grub-staking them. And work parties were scheduled by me and the leaders of Prairie Flats to be for no more than 2 days (at their insistin') in the following week where more than 120 men from my town would come out and help them on designated alternate days to build homes and shelter before the freezing winds of the north finally bring the full winter frost upon us.   The soil in Prairie Flats was as still yet soft and rich and deep enough for sod huts, and about 40 were planned to be built quickly, taken from fallow and unplowed fields,  each with walls 5 feet thick to shield from the cold, and after that, the log homes would be built again.


In all, after the first 3 days we found there was 14 dead, and 3 maimed for life (one with blindness), and 97 other folk there at Prairie Flats suffering broken bones and like injuries.   286 folk in all were rescued out of the disaster, and it was a day that they dedicated to became an anniversary of remembrance.  In fact, so many got born again through the Pastor and his wife and the 4 MacDonald daughters, that the first building that the folks at Prairie Flats pledged themselves to build was a town church large enough to fit everyone in it all at once, and attend one service together.  I don't rightly know why, but for some reason or ta other, I could only imagine for a building that big out in these here parts, it would have to be like  a huge barn that they could also use  for both services and maybe have a doctor's stall where mothers could have babies, so when the kid grew up, and left a door open on a cold day, and was asked, "Was you ever born in a barn?"  The kid could zing back, "Why yes!  I was!" 



Enter Clarissa And Unforeseen Trouble

       While I was at Prairie Flats, I don't know if I adopted this wild mother goose, or if she adopted me.  I named her Clarissa, and from the very first hour I was there in Prairie Flats she was always a huggin' and a wantin' to be petted and hugged, and when I lay down she would always sleep next to or on top of me, and always seemed to be a kissin' me. She had 4 little ones, and they was cute little critters.  But her beau, I didn't like.  The first time I lay down, I found geese had teeth as that stupid gander bit my nose and held on like a grip of a bulldog.  So I jumped up and grabbed him by the neck and whirled him about like a ball on a rope, threw him up in the air, shot him, and then gave his sorry fat carcass to a hungry family.  Well, somehow the story got home to my wife all twisted about, and the way she heard it, was that Clarissa [never mind she was a goose] was a young mother with 4 kids a always a huggin' and a kissin' me for no reason, even goin' to bed and sleepin' with me.  Her husband [never mind he was a gander] got jealous, so I shot him and made her a widow, and it in no way changed Clarissa's affection toward me, and she continued to go to bed with me at night a hugin' and a kissin' me on the cheek and in the ear.  Friend, that mountain of manure that some dang female gossip spread before my wife was so high, you could have built a train tunnel through it and ran that train for 20 minutes before you came out the other side.  But that Clarissa was a hot breathed hussy of a woman throwing herself at me and me happily acceptin' it was how the wife heard it.  

Come Saturday, I brought Clarissa and her family home, and told  the Mrs. we was a keeping it as a pet because they chase away and eat the snakes.  That makes them good pets for the kids.  For the first time in my life, I couldn't read her face.  It was blank with a stare, as if there was no emotion.  As she turned away and closed the side porch door (which was also our kitchen door) shut, I had no idea how angry she was, and I went around the back of the house to do some chores out of view of the Mrs.  


Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, down at the jail Harry McGuire had beat almost senseless the two other deputies Sheriff Bond had hired last Spring. And for whatever reason, maybe because I arrested him, maybe coincidence, recently sentenced to die for murder, Harry McGuire  (38 years old,  6 foot 2 inches and 280 pounds of him) at about the same time spryly rounded the front of the house, and with a .44 revolver he had taken off of one of the two deputies he beat near senseless at the jail, he barged in the kitchen where my wife was already at the door, standing on a stool with an iron skillet, intending full well to let ME have it.    Not seein' who he was, McGuire came stormin' in, and the wife thinking he was me, swung like she was a trying to hit a big rug off the clothes line, and laid him out flat, dead on the spot.

That night, even though the whole town made her into a heroine, and with Judge Hollister's blessings the Sheriff even made her an honorary deputy Sheriff and gave a pair of new 6 guns to shoot me with if she ever got in the mood, she had a long talk with the Pastor and his wife in the parlor (which is sacred to having immediate family only in our home as all others are trespassin'), and she got born-again.   She became more gentle, more easy to talk to, more lovin' in everything as if we was a courtin' all over again.  Yes sir, she was a lot more kind and polite. She stopped being so suspicious, and realized that no matter what, I wasn't  EVER goin' to be cheatin' on her .  Hell, I had proof positive of the consequences, with the open blessings of the Sheriff to take care of business.  After seein' what she could do with an iron skillet and now the Sheriff himself armed her with man-sized six-shooters and he thinks I'm even goin' to think to cheat on her, let alone even try?  Unh unhh.  No sir!   I ain't crazy.          


 -- Deputy B.  (June 12, 1898)

Mystery Noises: Likely Magnetic Heat Sheering By Mystery Weaponized U.S. Air Force System Developed Using "Completed" HAARP Technology

World Net Daily has recently run a couple articles and asked, 

ARE MYSTERY 'TRUMPET BLASTS' IN SKY FROM GOD?
No one has solid explanation for sounds heard since 2008




http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/whats-causing-mystery-trumpet-blasts-in-sky/

I don't have all the answers, but I do think I have a reasonable perspective to share.  My personal take on the matter is that there is -- more likely than not -- an easy scientific explanation regarding the matter, and if that is the case, it would be the following.  
        --  The noises do not seem to have a chunneling of wind against sheet metal or other apparent source.  We cannot say this for certain because we are never given a 360 pan on video to see what suspicious circumstances might account for the noises.  But let us take for granted they come from "heaven-ward".  The sound shared in the video compilation shows them to have a clear mechanical pulsation to them, which means they are from a man-made origin, and not natural in the Creation, because pulsation in rhythm as demonstrated at frequencies and pulsation in the video have to have a mechanical origin.   At best guess, if those sounds are not part of a hoax, then those sounds that are created (if they come from the sky) are of a magnetic frequency convergence in which the particulate matter / the dust  (to which H2O must attach itself to in order to form raindrops)  resonates by result of radio frequency and ultra-violet light laser bombardment and is being heat sheered.  Such technology NOW exists and was developed and is operational by the Government of the United States, if we follow what was confessed openly to Congress by those employed by the U.S. Air Force in that technology, and therefore if that is the case, the sound is a side effect of the new technology attempting to change the weather patterns over a particular area.  


 The HAARP Program had been for years attempting to manipulate magnetic frequencies at the heights of 30 to 600 miles, with alterations of even the Van Allen Radiation Belt.  Even  ultra-violet light frequency wave experiments has recently come into mainstream Media awareness sharing at a limited extent.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/weather/10268455/Weather-could-be-controlled-using-lasers.html

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/researchers-create-lasergenera/17559566

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/smart-news/scientists-are-actually-talking-about-building-giant-space-lasers-control-weather-180952455/

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/24/tech/laser-cloud-seeding-mci/


In order to perhaps understand what is being done invisibly in heat sheering, by example one need only watch something as basic as the laser light and dry ice fog effects of an Andre Rieu concert in which "O Fortuna" is played, viewing select laser light and fog portions that appear between 1:18 to 2:19 on the ff. video. 



There you will see a happenstance similarity with what is most probably the answer of what is happening on a weaponized scale in the realm of  the actual real life heat shearing the atmosphere and frying ions with radio frequencies and ultra-violet light so as to change the particulate matter and prevent dust from collecting 2H(2)O and even breaking those down into 2H(2) and O2.  


Because the HAARP technology of knowing how to change the weather has been completed and perfected to a point that it now can be fully weaponized,  the program was shut down, but only AFTER that admission was publicly made to Congress.  

http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/air-force-bombshell-admits-they-can-control-weather-haarp/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3-c1dhQ8A0




The essential admission is at 2:50 to 3:17 on the video, that the value of HAARP has been completed, and the U.S. Air Force now has the technology to control weather by ionization blasts.  That being the case, it means that the value of a 40 acre facility can now be packed onto a plane or set of planes, flown around the world and create a resonating convergence.

That testing pre-dates 2008 for a technology in development since 1993 or 1994 at a most intense level, should not be at all unreasonable to safely assume.  

In fact, the capabilities that were hoped for by 2025,

http://csat.au.af.mil/2025/volume3/vol3ch15.pdf

 to some extent (at least in regard to creating droughts) have been realized.

The U.S. Force at the immediate above link published a report called

Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025

 On page vii it states that the U.S. Air Force Goals by 2025 are:

Precipitation Enhancement Precipitation Avoidance

- Flood Lines of Communication - Maintain/Improve LOC

- Reduce PGM/Recce Effectiveness - Maintain Visibility

- Decrease Comfort Level/Morale - Maintain Comfort Level/Morale

Storm Enhancement Storm Modification

- Deny Operations - Choose Battlespace Environment

Precipitation Denial Space Weather

- Deny Fresh Water - Improve Communication Reliability

- Induce Drought - Intercept Enemy Transmissions

Space Weather - Revitalize Space Assets

- Disrupt Communications/Radar

- Disable/Destroy Space Assets Fog and Cloud Generation

- Increase Concealment

Fog and Cloud Removal Fog and Cloud Removal

- Deny Concealment - Maintain Airfield Operations

- Increase Vulnerability to PGM/Recce - Enhance PGM Effectiveness

Detect Hostile Weather Activities Defend against Enemy Capabilities

There are those who have concerns of the science of Geo-engineering which new technologies this new weaponized HAARP developed technology is indeed a part of.  

For example, a recent California Conference in March 2015 spoke of the use of systems using some 3,500.000,000 watts of power (in pulsation).  That's 3.5 BILLION watts of power.   You will have to view the following with some mild skepticism, and thinking the claims through.  





Successful attempts have existed with Chemtrails in Vietnam in a declassified U.S. Government Report from 1966.
http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/documents/19680002906_1968002906.pdf

So many of the claims regarding geoengineering have credible sources that vet decades of research being done and should raise concern, but even when credible claims are being made, we should remember what President Ronald Reagan said of even the best sources, "Trust, but verify."  In other words, have a healthy amount of reasonableness and just the right amount of skepticism to keep you and those you are trying to help, safe (or at least safer).   

By example as to having reasonable amounts of skepticism, in the video there is a claim of  heating of the "atmosphere to 15,000 degrees Fahrenheit".  That claim is likely true for sections of space to which the HAARP (the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program)  was used in projecting energy bursts into the Van Allen Radiation belt, because otherwise it does not seem likely in the lower atmospheres between 3,000 and 30,000 feet, where aircraft often occupy.  Consider this, that if the temperatures were to always heat the air to 15,000 degrees where ever the weaponized system was to be used and aimed at, the incredulous demand upon it is to always use it in areas and regions void of flying aircraft, or else at that temperature any and all aircraft hit would burst into flames and have plummeted to the Earth like a flaming meteor.  

The HAARP (the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program)  facility was allegedly built in 1993 
http://www.ask.com/wiki/High_Frequency_Active_Auroral_Research_Program
and certainly operational in 1994, and has operated 20 years until 2014 without a known such incident (or if it has, they were few and covered up, and as yet not known to us).

The WND article cited at the beginning of this post also applied, in its article, 

1 Corinthians 15:51-53         King James Version (KJV)

51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

The Second Silver Trump of the 2 Silver Trumps of the Numbers Chapter 10 is what is meant by the Apostle Paul when he uses the term, "The Last Trump".   Unlike the noises made in the video by magnetic convergence and heat shearing, if that is the case, the Last Trump must be SINGULAR.  If one were to say that the noises were similar to the 7 trumps in Revelation, they seem to want to push aside even what little they acknowledge about the Seal and Pan / Bowl Judgments which must fall upon mankind, let alone the 7 Thunders which must also sound before the 7th Trumpet does, et cetera.

Years ago, I translated the relevant chapters from the Greek and posted them to this blog after first showing the King James Version.    For example:  

http://brianroysinput.blogspot.com/2011/12/revelation-6.html

http://brianroysinput.blogspot.com/2011/12/revelation-7-kjv-with-alternate-greek.html

http://brianroysinput.blogspot.com/2011/12/revelation-8-kjv-with-alternate-word.html

http://brianroysinput.blogspot.com/2011/12/revelation-9-kjv-and-alternate-word.html

http://brianroysinput.blogspot.com/2011/12/revelation-chapter-10-king-james-kjv.html

http://brianroysinput.blogspot.com/2011/12/revelation-chapter-11-king-james-kjv.html


Such a hypothesis that the article seems to be hinting and putting forward that the trumps of the Apocalypse could possibly be sounding, or that they would sound like those noises on the video, to me personally is both irrational and ridiculous, and demonstrates incompetence in Biblical analysis.  But even if the sound were just as if one trump, it is musically still incorrect.  The famous Israeli archaeologist and scholar, Yigael Yadin, once did a study on the Dead Sea Scroll that is called 'The War Scroll'. In that ancient Hebrew document is the explanation of the blowing of the Trumpets. [Yadin, Yigael "The Message of the Scrolls", N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 1957, pp. 133-134.] When the armies of Israel go out to war, and are 'called up' to return, the Trumpet blast is blown as 'low, level, legato', Yadin explained.

The noises of the video are not, nor in any way, "low, level, even and unbroken" like an unending foghorn.  Nor do they sound like a heavenly shofar or ram's horn for any of the other blasts we would expect to hear.  No do we hear the shout of a Voice of Command, nor do we hear thunder and see great ominous and furious clouds descending, etc.   By example, just a few scriptures regarding the Rapture which follows the example of Jesus, are:  



1)    “GOD is gone up with a shout; 
         YHVeH (has ascended on high)
          with the sound of a ram’s horn” 
                        (Psalm 47:5)



2)    “This same Jesus, whom is taken up 
          from you into Heaven,
          shall so come in like manner 
          as you have seen Him go into Heaven.”
                       (Acts 1:11 - KJV)


3) “For YHVeH Himself shall descend
      (on the long and winding road leading down)
      from Heaven with a shout,
      with the Voice as the Commander of the Angels,
      and with the Trump of God:
      and the dead in Messiah shall rise first,
      then we, who are alive and remain, shall be caught up
      together, with them in the clouds, to meet YHVeH in the air:
      and so shall we ever be with YHVeH.” 
                (I Thessalonians 4:16,17 -- AWPR, or translation mine)

4) “And when He [Jesus] was saying these things --
       while they beheld, looking on -- He was taken up,
       and a Cloud received Him from their eyes
       and out of their sight.” 
              (Acts 1:9 -- translation mine) 


5) “YHVeH thundered in the heavens,
       and the Highest gave His VOICE…
       He sent from above, He took me…
       He brought me forth, also, into a Large Place.” 
               (Psalm 18:13,16,19)


6) “The Mighty GOD, YHVeH, has spoken,
       and called the Earth:
       from the rising of the sun, unto the going down thereof.
       Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, GOD, has shined.
       Our GOD shall come and not keep silence:
       a fire shall devour before Him,
       and it shall be very stormy round about Him.

       He shall call to the heavens from above,
       and to the Earth, that He may judge His people.

       ‘Gather My saints together unto Me:
         those that have made a Covenant by Sacrifice.’
           
        And the heavens shall declare His Righteousness,
        for GOD Himself is Judge. Selah.” 
                  (Psalm 50:1-6)

What is the end destination of this group that is raptured or “snatched away”: the “Large Place,” revealed in Psalm 18? Jeremiah tells us,
        “A glorious high throne from the Beginning,
          the Place of our Sanctuary.
          O YHVeH, the Hope of Israel,
          all that forsake thee shall be ashamed.
                ‘They that depart from Me 
                  shall be written in the Earth,
                  because they have forsaken YHVeH,
        the mountain-artesian-well-spring-Fountain 
        of Living Waters.”
                  (Jeremiah 17:12-13 - translation mine)

The end destination of the Rapture is the Throne of YHVeH, the Throne of GOD.   And this destination was prophesied and is attained through the Cross of Jesus the Christ.  Even the place of his burial and resurrection tomb points to that fact.  The location of the tomb was just north of the well of Rogel, Ayin Rogel, more popularly known in the Bible as En Rogel.  

En Rogel, was the temporary burial and the resurrection place of Messiah following His Crucifixion and death at Calvary, just south of the Azal fissure on Mount Olivet.  En Rogel holds the location of Stone of Zoheleth, "the stone of the fearful and crawling (serpent)". In Gematria, the Eben ha-Zoheleth of I Kings 1:9, has a value of 498. Even here, we find the end- result of the victory of the Resurrection of Jesus, and His conquering death; as well as the comfort of faith and trust into Him because of the Resurrection. 

Those 3 primary Hebrew equivalents of "Stone of Zoheleth" are:
1) חצרר Chatsorer - to trumpet, or to blow the trumpet
2) םנחת Manachath - a safe resting place in which to set down, to rest.
3) תנחם Tanchum - The compassion, comfort, or consolation which brings peace.


To me, this speaks to the Rapture of all believers as a contractual promise He must one day fulfill into a reality.  At any rate, that's my input.  Peace.