2038 The Great Pyramid Timeline Prophecy. John Van Auken

of Ephraim and Manasseh, lived directly in the path of the Assyrian invading forces, much of it was “lost”; actually they came under Assyrian rule. That would leave the four tribes of Judah, Simeon, Benjamin, and Levi; and it is known that all these southern tribes were not affected by the invasion. However, the tribe of Simeon “disappeared” by being integrated into the tribe of Judah, so one could think of it as being among the lost tribes. Actually only nine tribes were “lost”: Reuben, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Ephraim, and Manasseh. However, Assyrian and biblical records indicate that in the 732 BC invasion Reuben, Gad, and western Manasseh were captured and resettled in Assyria, not Britain. A portion of Ephraim, including the city of Janoah, was captured and ruled by an Assyrian governor; few were resettled. In the 720 BC reinvasion, massive deportation of the people of Israel did occur and was documented. It was because these tribes kept appointing their own kings despite Assyrian authority! But, here again, records indicate that many were sent to Assyria (the lands of modern-day Iraq). Even so, there is also evidence that the seafaring Phoenicians, Cypriots, and even Philistines helped many Israelites of the northern tribes escape by sea, sending them to lands in Western Europe, Britain, and Scandinavia. This gave the pyramidologists in Egypt (particularly the British ones) a sense of their personal, historical involvement in biblical Egypt.

      The Scripture that was pointed to most often by pyramidologists was Isaiah 19: 19-20: “In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt . . . ” Pyramidologists believe that this passage is speaking of the Great Pyramid when it refers to “an altar to the Lord” and “a pillar to the Lord,” but a pyramid is hardly an “altar” or “pillar” and it is not on the border. In his book A Study in Pyramidology, Raymond Capt states that the Hebrew word translated as “pillar,” matstsebah, is “correctly translated monument.” However, I could find no Hebrew Lexicon that translated matstsebah as anything other than a pillar or tree stump. However, matstsebah can be a pillar that is a “monument” to someone or some event, but it is in no way a massive pyramidal structure. Now some correlate this Hebrew word with the Arab word mastaba, which is a low, rectangular structure with an underground tomb. But the primitive root word from which matstsebah comes is natsab, which is associated with “standing,” like a stanchion or pillar, or to “take a stand” or “take an upright position.” This is an example of how pyramidologists too often stretched some facts to better fit their theories and to connect their theories with sacred Scripture—when it was unnecessary because what they had was sufficiently profound and meaningful.

      When we read this often quoted passage from Isaiah in context with the whole of the chapter, it does not appear to be speaking about the Great Pyramid but rather an offering altar to Yahweh and the pillar of a spiritual person or persons who will lead the people closer to God. Here is chapter 19 of Isaiah (Revised Standard Version, RSV):

      An oracle concerning Egypt: Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them. And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will fight, every man against his brother and every man against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom; and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out, and I will confound their plans; and they will consult the idols and the sorcerers, and the mediums and the wizards; and I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master; and a fierce king will rule over them, says the Lord, the Lord of hosts. And the waters of the Nile will be dried up, and the river will be parched and dry; and its canals will become foul, and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away. There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up, be driven away, and be no more. The fishermen will mourn and lament, all who cast hook in the Nile; and they will languish who spread nets upon the water. The workers in combed flax will be in despair, and the weavers of white cotton. Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed, and all who work for hire will be grieved. The princes of Zo’an [area in the Nile Delta] are utterly foolish; the wise counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, ‘I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings’? Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you and make known what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt. The princes of Zo’an have become fools, and the princes of Memphis [area just before the Delta, near Saqqara] are deluded; those who are the cornerstones of her tribes have led Egypt astray. The Lord has mingled within her a spirit of confusion; and they have made Egypt stagger in all her doings as a drunken man staggers in his vomit. And there will be nothing for Egypt which head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do. In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand which the Lord of hosts shakes over them. And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians [this would indicate a time long after the Great Pyramid was constructed]; everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose which the Lord of hosts has purposed against them. In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts [Genesis 14:2 tells us their names: Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar (or Bela)]. One of these will be called the City of the Destruction. [One of the Dead Sea Scrolls changes “City of Destruction” to “City of Sun,” and most modern Bibles use this more positive term. In Hebrew, heres is “sun” and hheres is “destruction.” Since Zoar is the only city that is spared in the Bible story (Genesis 15:16), it is believed to be the City of Sun. But the City of the Sun may also be the Egyptian Heliopolis; literally, “city of the sun.”] In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border [to the Promised Land]. It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they cry to the Lord because of oppressors he will send them a savior, and will defend and deliver them. And the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians; and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and worship with sacrifice and burnt offering [the altar?], and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them. And the Lord will smite Egypt, smiting and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will heed their supplications and heal them. In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage.” (Isaiah 19)

      It is difficult to see how the Great Pyramid is spoken of in this chapter.

      Extremists on either side of this debate took their points to such a degree that there was no room for reasonable elements of the other side’s theories. In the case of the pyramidology, the biblical side of this debate often espoused positions that were simply not supportable by any existing evidence. In this case, even good evidence of a prophetic timeline inside the Great Pyramid and a correlation with chapters in the Egyptian Book of the Dead were dismissed along with the rest of the pyramidological theories. Gradually, even reasonable researchers had to leave any part of pyramidology alone, casting it into pseudoscience, or worse, sheer fiction. It became taboo. Today, no archaeologists in their right minds would present a paper on the correlation of the Great Pyramid with the Egyptian Book of the Dead—not if they wanted to keep their position at a university or on an authorized expedition team approved by Islamic Egyptian authorities.

      Yet, our story requires that we sift through the muck and mire of pyramidology for the gold nuggets, and so we continue.

      

      The content in the Egyptian Book of the Dead dates to before the pharaohs, the pyramids, and the papyruses (papyri). In remote antiquity the content existed orally. They were called “utterances,” only to be spoken as part of a spell-like invocation. They contained “words of power” (hekau). On a coffin lid containing a copy