Summary of Biblico-Egyptological Research
Paschal Beverly Randolph provides a summary of results deduced from Bunsen’s and other Biblico-Egyptological research, presenting a timeline of significant historical events and approximations of ancient civilizations. This timeline includes estimates of human origins, the rise of civilizations, and major cataclysmic events:
| Event Description | Date (B.C.) |
|---|---|
| Creation of Man in the dim background of Time | UNKNOWN |
| Civilized Nations on the Plateaus of Eastern Asia | 35,000 |
| Earliest Date of the Founders of the Thinite Nation | 28,000 |
| The Flood in Asia and part of Europe | 21,000 |
| Date of Nimrod, Atlantis, and Babylon | 16,000 |
| Date of Ghost-worship in Egypt | 12,000 |
| Date of Moses | 1,900 |
| Date of Solomon | 1,015 |
| From First Civilization known to Christ | 35,000 |
Analysis of the Flood and Cataclysms
Randolph asserts the occurrence of at least two major cataclysmic events in Asia and Africa, as well as others in America, which he associates with the Flood. He suggests these events were caused by the shifting of the earth’s axis, leading to the melting of polar ice, volcanic eruptions, and massive geological upheavals.
Key Points:
- Multiple Floods: Randolph acknowledges multiple flood events, including the well-known Noah’s Flood and a prior, mysterious flood referenced in early Chinese annals and conversations between the Priests of Sais and Solon.
- Cataclysmic Events: He describes the last great cataclysm as occurring between 42,000 and 58,600 years ago, caused by the breakup of a planet in the solar system, resulting in the asteroid belt.
- Geological and Astronomical Grounds: His conclusions are based on geological and astronomical evidence, proposing that these cataclysmic events had profound impacts on the earth’s history and the development of civilizations.
Detailed Passage on the Flood
“The “Flood” itself, may be dismissed in a few words. I consider the testimony to that event as being unimpeachable. There must have been, at least, two great cataclysms in Asia and Africa, besides others of equal magnitude in America—the last of the former of which was caused by the shifting of the axis of the earth, from causes already stated herein. The melting of the ice at the Poles, the bursting of volcanoes and other frightful convulsions of this last event, caused the molten bowels of the earth to move, and in their movements, mountains, islands, continents were upheaved in some portions of the globe, and other mountains, islands, and continents sunk to rise no more. Vast floods of water rushed down from either pole; myriads of peoples, scores of nations, attained immortality in the twinkling of God’s eye; and their souls, in millions, rose to heaven and entered the portals of disbodied glory, while their fleshly forms sunk, food for fishes and for worms, leaving only here and there a fragmentary bone or skeleton, to become in future ages, after other upheavals, mute but eloquent witnesses to the fact that there did exist, once upon a time, Pre-Adamite races of men. The particular event here alluded to is the Oriental “Flood” of Noah, Deucalion, and others. But there was one before that. I allude to the “Mysterious Event” so dimly alluded to in early Chinese annals; and, perhaps, may be the same terrible catastrophe alluded to by the Priests of Sais, in their conversations with Solon, something like six centuries before the Christian Era.
Upon geological, astronomical, and other grounds, I have reached the conclusion that, at a period not less than 42,000, nor more than 58,600 years ago, there occurred the most tremendous event this earth ever witnessed, or ever will witness, until a final convulsion shall hurl it out of being—as a habitable globe. It is known that the Planets of the Solar System are interdependent and mutually connected; and from researches conducted for long years, I conclude that about 58,600 years ago, the planet of this system then revolving on its axis in an orbit between those of Mars and Jupiter, BURST asunder—scattered into a million fragments, the larger ones now constituting the Asteroids, and named Juno, Vesta, Pallas, Ceres, and so on, to the number of a hundred or more, and the smaller bits of which are now revolving at greater or less distances apart, in a track or belt, so situated as to be crossed by the earth from the 11th to the 24th of every November, at which time we are visited by showers of meteoric stones, attracted then by the globe, and which fragments once formed part of the now shattered world. Millions of such fragments are yet flying through space in elliptical orbits; but their number will continually lessen as Novembers pass, for then “We gather them in! we gather them in!””
This detailed account and timeline reflect Randolph’s efforts to reconcile ancient records with geological and astronomical evidence, supporting his theory of advanced pre-Adamite civilizations and a complex history of cataclysmic events.
