Name	Joshua
Birth date	1550-1200 B.C.E
Death date	1550-1200 B.C.E
Feast day	July 26 - Armenian Apostolic
Venerated in	Judaism,Christianity,Islam
Death place	Canaan
Titles	Judge
Attributes	Often depicted with Caleb, carrying the grapes out of Canaan
Major shrine	Tomb of Joshua
Issues	}}

Joshua ( ''Y'hoshuaʿ''; , ''Yusha ʿ ibn Nūn'', Yoshiya), is a minor figure in the Torah, being one of the spies for Israel (Num 13-14) and in few passages as Moses's assistant. He turns to be the central character in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Joshua. According to the books Exodus, Numbers and Joshua, he became the leader of the Israelite tribes after the death of Moses; his name was Hoshea the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, but Moses called him Joshua, () the name by which he is commonly known; and he was born in Egypt prior to the Exodus, and was probably the same age as Caleb, with whom he is occasionally associated.

He was one of the twelve spies of Israel sent by Moses to explore the land of Canaan. () After the death of Moses, he led the Israelite tribes in the conquest of Canaan, and allocated the land to the tribes. According to conventional Bible chronology, Joshua lived between 1500–1390 BCE, or sometime in the late Bronze Age. According to , Joshua died at the age of 110.

Joshua also holds a position of respect to Muslims. According to the Qur'an, he was, along with Caleb, one of the two believing spies whom Moses had sent to spy the land of Canaan. All Muslims also see Joshua as the leader of the Israelites, following the death of Moses. Although some Muslims see Joshua as a prophet, others view him not as prophet but as a saintly man and great leader. Muslims also believe Joshua to be the "attendant" of Moses mentioned in the Qur'an, before Moses meets Khidr.

Name

The English name Joshua is a rendering of the Hebrew language "Yehoshua", meaning "Yaho is salvation", (Yaho is the Hebrew God), (Jaho is salvation) "salvation", "to deliver/be liberated", or "to be victorious". The vocalization of the second name component may be read as Hoshea - the name used in the Torah before Moses added the divine name ().

"Jesus" is the English of the Greek transliteration of "Yehoshua" via Aramaic. In the Septuagint, all instances of the word "Yehoshua" are rendered as "Ἰησοῦς" (Iēsoūs/Jesus), the closest Greek pronunciation of the Aramaic "Yeshua" (, ). Thus in Greek Joshua is called "Jesus son of Nun" (του Ναυή) to differentiate him from Jesus Christ. Joshua and Jesus are called with the same name, adding Navin ("son of Nun") for Joshua, also in the Slavic languages following the Eastern Orthodox tradition (e.g. Иисус, Iisus, in Russian, or Исус, Isus, in Serbian).

==Narrative of Joshua==

Joshua and the Exodus

As Moses' apprentice, Joshua was a major figure in the events of the Exodus. He accompanied Moses part of the way when he ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. () He was one of the twelve spies sent by Moses to explore and report on the land of Canaan (), and only he and Caleb gave an encouraging report, a reward for which would be that only these two of the spies would enter the promised land (). He was commander at their first battle after exiting Egypt, against the Amalekites in Rephidim (), in which they were victorious.

According to , Moses appointed Joshua to succeed him as leader of the Israelites. The first part of the book of Joshua covers the period when he led the conquest of Canaan.

Conquest of Canaan

At the Jordan River, the waters parted, as they had for Moses at the Red Sea. The first battle after the crossing of the Jordan was the Battle of Jericho. Joshua led the destruction of Jericho, then moved on to Ai, a small neighboring city to the west. However, they were defeated with thirty-six Israelite deaths. The defeat was attributed to Achan taking an "accursed thing" from Jericho; and was followed by Achan and his family and animals being stoned to death to restore God's favor. Joshua then went to defeat Ai.

The Israelites faced an alliance of Amorite kings from Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon. At Gibeon Joshua asked God to cause the sun and moon to stand still, so that he could finish the battle in daylight. This event is most notable because "there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel. () God also fought for the Israelites in this battle, for he hurled huge hailstones from the sky which killed more Canaanites than those which the Israelites slaughtered. From there on, Joshua was able to lead the Israelites to several victories, securing much of the land of Canaan.

Death

When he was "old and well advanced in years" Joshua convened the elders and chiefs of the Israelites and exhorted them to have no fellowship with the native population because it could lead them to be unfaithful to God. At a general assembly of the clans at Shechem, he took leave of the people, admonishing them to be loyal to their God, who had been so mightily manifested in the midst of them. As a witness of their promise to serve God, Joshua set up a great stone under an oak by the sanctuary of God. Soon afterward he died, at the age of 110, and was buried at Timnath Serah, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

Joshua in Islamic history

Joshua is not mentioned by name in the Qur'an, but his name appears in other Islamic literature. His genealogy is given in Islam as Joshua, the son of Nun, the son of Ephraim, the son of Joseph, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. Although Joshua was regarded by some classical scholars as the prophetic successor to Moses, others see him as a pious man but not a prophet. Tabari relates in his ''History of the Prophets and Kings'' that Joshua was one of the twelve spies and Muslim scholars believe that the two believing spies referred to in the Qur'an are none other than Joshua and Caleb. As Joshua took the leadership of the Israelites after the time of Moses, his role as the first Judge can be paralleled with that of Abu Bakr (or, in Shia Islam, Ali) as the first Caliph after the Prophet Muhammad. Joshua was exceptional among the Israelites for being one of the few faithful followers of God.

In the Qur'anic account of the conquest of Canaan, Joshua (and Caleb) are referenced, but not named, as two "God-fearing men", on whom God "had bestowed His grace"

Joshua is further mentioned in Islamic literature, and significant events from his Muslim narratives include the crossing of the Jordan river and the conquest of Bait al-Maqdis. But Muslim literature also preserves traditions of Joshua not found in the Hebrew Bible. Joshua is credited with being present at Moses's death and literature records that Moses's garments were with Joshua at the time of his departure. A ''hadith'' was narrated from Abu Hurairah that Muhammad said: "Surely, the sun has never been stopped from setting down for a human being except for Joshua..."

Historicity

Joshua's narrative is ascribed to Joshua himself by ''Bava Batra'' 15a (Talmud) and early church fathers. In 1943 Martin Noth published an argument that behind Joshua and other books was a unified "Deuteronomistic history", composed in the early part of the Babylonian captivity (not long after 606 BCE). Most scholars today believe in some such composite, containing the epic history of the premonarchical period. Gerhard von Rad, another developer of the hypothesis, adds that "comparison of the ancient Near Eastern treaties, especially ... in the 14th and 13th centuries BCE, with passages in the OT has revealed so many things in common between the two, particularly in the matter of form, that there must be some connection between these suzerainty treaties and the [OT]." Kenneth Kitchen states that nearly all treaties in this period follow the pattern of Deuteronomy closely, while first-millennium treaties contrarily but consistently place "witnesses" earlier and omit prologue and blessing sections, requiring classification of the Sinai covenant and its renewals in Joshua with the fourteenth or thirteenth century rather than the sixth.

Although Egypt did not have its former grasp on Canaan, there was a strong presence into the twelfth century, and Philistia took greater control of the southern coastal plain then also ( mentions the Philistines). The first record of the name Israel occurs in the Merneptah stele, erected for Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah c. 1209 BCE, "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not." William Dever sees this "Israel" in the central highlands as a cultural and probably political entity, well enough established to be perceived by the Egyptians as a possible challenge to their hegemony, but an ethnic group rather than an organised state. The number of villages in the highlands increased to more than 300 by the end of Iron Age I (more and larger in the north), with the settled population rising from 20,000 in the twelfth century to 40,000 in the eleventh. The villagers probably shared the highlands with other communities such as pastoral nomads, but only villagers left sufficient remains to determine their settlement patterns. Archaeologists and historians see more continuity than discontinuity between these highland settlements and the preceding Late Bronze Canaanite culture; certain features such as ceramic repertoire and agrarian settlement plans have been said to be distinctives of highland sites, and collar-rimmed jars and four-roomed houses have been said to be intrinsically "Israelite," but have also been said to belong to a commonly shared culture throughout Iron I Canaan. While some archaeologists interpret the absence of pig bones from the highland sites as an indicator of ethnicity, this is not certain. Villages had populations of up to 300 or 400, which lived by farming and herding and were largely self-sufficient; economic interchange was prevalent. According to Ann E. Killebrew, "Most scholars today accept that the majority of the conquest narratives in the book of Joshua are devoid of historical reality". Popular reviews of the Book of Joshua's sharp contrasts and internal conflicts arise from "an appreciable difference between defeating a king in battle, and gaining possession of his capital city" ( vs. , , , ); and because "the land was now ''within the grasp'' of the Israelites [but] they did not avail themselves fully of that dominion which was within their reach" (, , vs. , ). The question of the degrees of conquest and/or assimilation may not be answered with certainty, as both sides cite a large body of archaeological and other evidence.

Views

In rabbinical literature

In rabbinic Jewish literature Joshua is regarded as a faithful, humble, deserving, wise man. Biblical verses illustrative of these qualities and of their reward are applied to him. "He that waits on his master shall be honored" (Pro. xxvii. 18) is construed as a reference to Joshua (Midrash Numbers Rabbah xii.), as is also the first part of the same verse, "Whoso keepes the fig-tree shall eat the fruit thereof" (Midrash Yalk., Josh. 2; ''Numbers Rabbah'' xii. 21). That "honor shall uphold the humble in spirit" (Pro. xxix. 23) is proved by Joshua's victory over Amalek (''Midrash Numbers Rabbah'' xiii). Not the sons of Moses — as Moses himself had expected — but Joshua was appointed successor to the son of Amram (''Midrash Numbers Rabbah'' xii). Moses was shown how Joshua reproved that Othniel (''Yalḳ''., Num. 776). Joshua's manliness recommended him for this high post. David referred to him in Psalms lxxxvii. 25, though without mentioning the name, lest dissensions should arise between his sons and those of his brothers (Yalḳ., quoting ''Sifre'').

In Christianity

Among the early Church Fathers, Joshua is considered a type of Jesus Christ. For instance, just as Moses did not lead the children of Israel into the promised land, but Joshua did, so Moses' law could not lead them into Heaven but the new covenant mediated by Jesus (the same name as "Joshua") could. Hebrews 4:8-10 identifies Jesus as a better Joshua, as Joshua led Israel into the rest of Canaan, but Jesus leads the people of God into "God's rest," salvation.

In later literature

In the Divine Comedy Joshua's spirit appears to Dante in the Heaven of Mars, where he is grouped with the other "warriors of the faith."

Baroque composer Georg Frideric Handel composed an oratorio "Joshua" in 1747. Composer Franz Waxman composed an oratorio "Joshua" in 1959.

For a punning take on "Joshua, son of Nun," see the 1973 political thriller ''Joshua Son of None.''

In the literary tradition of medieval Europe, Joshua is known as one of the Nine Worthies.

Joshua is a main protagonist in Matthew Woodring Stover's novel Jericho Moon.

Yahrtzeit

The annual commemoration of Joshua's yahrtzeit is marked on the 26th of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar. Thousands make the pilgrimage to Kifl Hares on the preceding night.

See also

Joshua Roll

Yehoshua

References

External links

Book of Joshua at Wikisource.

The Book of Joshua, Douay Rheims Bible Version with annotations By Bishop Challoner

Book of Joshua at BibleGateway

Smith’s Bible Dictionary

Easton's Bible Dictionary & Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia

de Pury, Albert, Römer, Thomas, Macchi, Jean-Daniel "Israël constructs its history: Deuteronomistic historiography in recent research" (Sheffield Academic Press, 2000)

Garbini, G., "Myth and history in the bible" (Sheffield Academic Press, 2003)

Graham, M.P, and McKenzie, Steven L., "The Hebrew Bible today: an introduction to critical issues" (Westminster John Knox Press, 1998)

Killebrew, Ann E., "Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, and Early Israel, 1300-1100 BCE" (Society of Biblical Literature, 2005)

Coogan, Michael D. (ed), "The Oxford History of the Biblical World (Oxford University Press, 1998)

Oxford Bible Commentary (ed. John Barton, John Muddiman, Oxford University Press, 2001)

The biblical world, Volume 2, John Barton, Taylor & Francis, 2004.

Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible (ed. James D. G. Dunn, John William Rogerson, Eerdmans, 2003)

Day, John, "Yahweh and the gods and goddesses of Canaan" (Sheffield Academic Press, 2002)

Dever, William, "What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?" (Eerdmans, 2001)

Dever, William, "Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From?" (Eerdmans, 2003, 2006)

Finkelstein, Israel; Mazar, Amihay; Schmidt, Brian B., "The Quest for the Historical Israel" (Society of Biblical Literature, 2007)

Brettler, Marc Zvi, "How to read the Bible" (Jewish Publication Society, 2005)

Joshua, an Introduction and Commentary, by Richard Hess, Inter-Varsity press (1996)

Category:15th-century BC biblical rulers Category:Biblical characters in rabbinic literature Category:Book of Joshua Category:Culture heroes Category:Muslim saints Category:Hebrew Bible people Category:Judges of ancient Israel Category:Moses Category:Old Testament saints Category:People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar Category:Torah people

ar:يوشع بن نون az:Yuşə ibni Nun be:Ісус Навін ca:Josuè cs:Jozue da:Josva de:Josua el:Ιησούς του Ναυή es:Josué (personaje bíblico) fa:یوشع بن نون fr:Josué gl:Xosué ko:여호수아 hr:Jošua, sin Nunov id:Yusha it:Giosuè (Bibbia) he:יהושע בן נון ka:მართალი ისუ sw:Yoshua lt:Jozuė ms:Joshua nl:Jozua (persoon) ja:ヨシュア no:Josva pl:Jozue pt:Josué ro:Iosua Navi ru:Иисус Навин sk:Jozue sr:Исус Навин sh:Jošua fi:Joosua sv:Josua tl:Josue tr:Yeşu uk:Ісус Навин yi:יהושע בן נון zh:約書亞

name	Josh Jay
birth date	October 30, 1981
birth place	Canton, Ohio
occupation	Magician, Lecturer
website	http://www.joshuajay.com/ }}

Joshua Jay (born October 30, 1981) is an award-winning magician, author, and lecturer who has performed his show in over 59 countries. In 1998 he was crowned World Champion of Close-up Magic at the World Magic Seminar, and he has subsequently appeared on every major television network, including Good Morning America and the Today Show. He is the author of seven books on magic, including the best-selling MAGIC: The Complete Course [Workman, 2008], which is available in four languages. Jay specializes in close-up magic and is a headliner at the famous Magic Castle in Hollywood. He attended Ohio State University, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity. Joshua Jay currently resides in New York City.

TV appearances

Discovery Channel's ''Grand Illusions: The Story of Magic''

Fox Network's ''Lance Burton's Young Magician's Showcase''

NHK's ''Magic of America'' (Japanese National Television)

NBC's TODAY SHOW (two appearances)

ABC’s Good Morning America

The Daily Buzz (broadcast on the Spike Network)

As Author

Joshua Jay has become one of the most prolific writers of the contracting literary scene in magic. Nearly all his books have been translated into other languages, and two titles have been published for the public, MAGIC: The Complete Course and The Amazing Book of Cards (Workman Publishing). He is also the publisher of many titles, through his company Vanishing Inc Magic with magician Andi Gladwin.

"Overlap (2005)"

"Joshua Jay's Magic Atlas (1999)"

"A Teens Routines (1998)"

"Session: The Magic of Joel Givens (2004)"

"Magic: The Complete Course (Book & DVD) (2008)"

"Joshua Jay's Amazing Book Of Cards (Book & DVD) (2010)"

His award-winning[citation needed] book "Joshua Jay's Magic Atlas" has been translated into German, Japanese, and French.

"Destroyers: The Magic of Troy Hooser (2001)"

"Moments: More Magic of Troy Hooser (2010)"

Awards

First place awards include:

2011 Merlin Literary Achievement Award

World Magic Seminar, 1998 First Place Champion (Presented by Lance Burton)

International Battle of Magicians (twice, 1996 and 1998)

Columbus Magi Fest

Kleinman Incentive Award, Most Promising Youth (SAM National Convention)

Best Published Trick, Award for Creativity (Linking Ring magazine)

Youngest magician to write One-Man-Parade (twenty page exposition of original effects) in Linking Ring magazine

Society of American Magicians Close-Up Magician of the Year Award 2011

Videos

"Close Up, Up Close: Volumes 1 – 3"

"Talk About Tricks 1-3"

Columns

''Talk About Tricks'' (''Magic'' magazine)

''Under, Over '' ("M-U-M magazine")

External links

Official website

Magic magazine

Vanishing Inc. Magic - Joshua's publication company that he co-founded with fellow magician Andi Gladwin.

Category:Living people Category:American magicians Category:1981 births

de:Joshua Jay

Name	Zecharia Sitchin
Birth date	July 11, 1920
Birth place	Baku, Azerbaijan SSR
Death date	October 09, 2010 (aged 90)
Death place	New York, New York
Resting place coordinates
Citizenship	United States
Known for	Ancient astronauts
Alma mater	London School of Economics, University of London
Website	http://www.sitchin.com/ }}

Zecharia Sitchin (July 11, 1920 – October 9, 2010) was an Azerbaijani-born American author of books promoting an explanation for human origins involving ancient astronauts. Sitchin attributes the creation of the ancient Sumerian culture to the ''Anunnaki'', which he states was a race of extra-terrestrials from a planet beyond Neptune called ''Nibiru''. He believed this hypothetical planet of Nibiru to be in an elongated, elliptical orbit in the Earth's own Solar System, asserting that Sumerian mythology reflects this view. Sitchin's books have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been translated into more than 25 languages.

Sitchin's hypotheses are not accepted by scientists and academics, who dismiss his work as pseudoscience and pseudohistory. Sitchin's work has been criticized for flawed methodology and mistranslations of ancient texts as well as for incorrect astronomical and scientific claims. According to Sitchin, Nibiru (whose name was replaced with MARDUK in original legends by the Babylonian ruler of the same name in an attempt to co-opt the creation for himself, leading to some confusion among readers) collided catastrophically with Tiamat (a goddess in the Babylonian creation myth the ''Enûma Eliš''), which he considers to be another planet once located between Mars and Jupiter. This collision supposedly formed the planet Earth, the asteroid belt, and the comets. Sitchin states that when struck by one of planet Nibiru's moons, Tiamat split in two, and then on a second pass Nibiru itself struck the broken fragments and one half of Tiamat became the asteroid belt. The second half, struck again by one of Nibiru's moons, was pushed into a new orbit and became today's planet Earth.

According to Sitchin, Nibiru (called "the twelfth planet" because, Sitchin claimed, the Sumerians' gods-given conception of the Solar System counted all eight planets, plus Pluto, the Sun and the Moon) was the home of a technologically advanced human-like extraterrestrial race called the ''Anunnaki'' in Sumerian myth, who Sitchin states are called the ''Nephilim'' in Genesis. He wrote that they evolved after Nibiru entered the solar system and first arrived on Earth probably 450,000 years ago, looking for minerals, especially gold, which they found and mined in Africa. Sitchin states that these "gods" were the rank-and-file workers of the colonial expedition to Earth from planet Nibiru.

Sitchin wrote that Enki suggested that to relieve the Anunnaki, who had mutinied over their dissatisfaction with their working conditions, that primitive workers (''Homo sapiens'') be created by genetic engineering as slaves to replace them in the gold mines by crossing extraterrestrial genes with those of ''Homo erectus''. According to Sitchin, ancient inscriptions report that the human civilization in Sumer, Mesopotamia, was set up under the guidance of these "gods", and human kingship was inaugurated to provide intermediaries between mankind and the Anunnaki (creating the "divine right of kings" doctrine). Sitchin believes that fallout from nuclear weapons, used during a war between factions of the extraterrestrials, is the "evil wind" described in the Lament for Ur that destroyed Ur around 2000 BC. Sitchin states the exact year is 2024 BC. Sitchin says that his research coincides with many biblical texts, and that biblical texts come originally from Sumerian writings.

Popularity

Since the release of his first book ''The 12th Planet'' in 1976, now in its 45th printing, Zecharia Sitchin wrote seven other books as part of his ''Earth Chronicles'' series, as well as six other companion books, all of which are still in print . Sitchin's books have sold millions of copies worldwide and been published in more than 25 languages, as well as in braille. New York Times reporter Corey Kilgannon noted that despite academic dismissal of his work, Sitchin has "a devoted following of readers".

Critic Michael Heiser called Sitchin "arguably the most important proponent of the ancient astronaut hypothesis over the last several decades". Sitchin was a frequent guest on the Coast to Coast AM radio show, which in 2010 presented Sitchin with a life-time achievement award. ''Gods of the New Millennium'' author Alan F. Alford admits he initially became "infatuated" with Sitchin's hypotheses but later became a critic of Sitchin's interpretations of myth.

According to some writers, Sitchin's ideas along with those of Erich von Däniken may have influenced the beliefs of the religious sect of Raëlism, and writer Mark Pilkington sees the mythology of Japan's Pana Wave religious group as rooted in Sitchins ''The 12th Planet'' and its sequels.

The 1994 movie ''Stargate'', directed by Roland Emmerich, and the 2009 video game ''The Conduit'' drew some conceptual inspiration from Sitchin's ideas, while screenwriter Roberto Orci says the villains of the film ''Cowboys and Aliens'' were inspired by Sitchin's conceptualization of the Anunnaki as gold-mining aliens.

Criticisms

Criticism of Sitchin's work falls primarily into three categories: 1) translations and interpretations of ancient texts, 2) astronomical and scientific observations, and 3) literalism of myth.

Translations and interpretations

When Sitchin wrote his books only specialists could read the Sumerian language, but sources such as the 2006 book ''Sumerian Lexicon'' have made the language more accessible to non-experts. Ancient language scholar Michael S. Heiser, states that he has found many inaccuracies in Sitchin's translations and challenges interested parties to use this book to check their validity. Prof. Ronald H. Fritze, author of the book ''Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-religions'', mentions the example of Sitchin's claim that the Sumerian sign ''Din-Gir'' means "pure ones of the blazing rockets", adding that "Sitchin's assignment of meanings to ancient words is tendentious and frequently strained." Fritze also commented on Sitchin's methodology, writing that "When critics have checked Sitchin's references, they have found that he frequently quotes out of context or truncates his quotes in a way that distorts evidence in order to prove his contentions. Evidence is presented selectively and contradictory evidence is ignored." Hundreds of Sumerian astronomical seals and calendars have been decoded and recorded, and the total count of planets on each seal has been five. Seal VA 243 has 12 dots that Sitchin identifies as planets. When translated, seal VA 243 reads "You're his Servant" which is now thought to be a message from a nobleman to a servant. According to semitologist Michael S. Heiser, the so-called sun on Seal VA 243 is not the Sumerian symbol for the sun but is a star, and the dots are also stars. The symbol on seal VA 243 has no resemblance to the hundreds of documented Sumerian sun symbols.

In a 1979 review of ''The Twelfth Planet'', Roger W. Wescott, Prof. of Anthropology and Linguistics at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, noted Sitchin's amateurishness with respect to the primacy of the Sumerian language:

Sitchin's linguistics seems at least as amateurish as his anthropology, biology, and astronomy. On p. 370, for example, he maintains that "all the ancient languages . . . including early Chinese . . . stemmed from one primeval source -- Sumerian". Sumerian, of course, is the virtual archetype of what linguistic taxonomists call a language-isolate, meaning a language that does not fall into any of the well-known language-families or exhibit clear cognation with any known language. Even if Sitchin is referring to written rather than to spoken language, it is unlikely that his contention can be persuasively defended, since Sumerian ideograms were preceded by the Azilian and Tartarian signaries of Europe as well as by a variety of script-like notational systems between the Nile and Indus rivers.

Astronomical and scientific observations

Sitchin's "planetary collision" view does superficially resemble a theory by modern astronomers—the giant impact theory of the Moon's formation about 4.5 billion years ago by a body impacting with the newly-formed Earth. However, Sitchin's proposed series of rogue planetary collisions differ in both details and timing. As with Immanuel Velikovsky's earlier ''Worlds in Collision'' thesis, Sitchin states that he has found evidence of ancient human knowledge of rogue celestial motions in a variety of mythological accounts. In Velikovsky's case, these interplanetary collisions were supposed to have taken place within the span of human existence, whereas for Sitchin these occurred during the early stages of planetary formation, but entered the mythological account passed down via the alien race which purportedly evolved on Nibiru after these encounters.

While Sitchin's scenario for the creation of the Solar System is hard to reconcile with the Earth's current small orbital eccentricity of only 0.0167, Sitchin's supporters maintain that it would explain much of Earth's peculiar early geography due to cleaving from the celestial collision, i.e., solid continents on one side and a giant ocean on the other.

According to former Immanuel Velikovsky assistant turned prolific critic, C. Leroy Ellenberger, "[Sitchin states that] from an equal start, the Nefilim evolved on Nibiru 45 million years ahead of comparable development on Earth with its decidedly more favorable environment. Such an outcome is unlikely, to say the least, since Nibiru would spend over 99% of its time beyond Pluto. Sitchin's explanation that heat from radioactive decay and a thick atmosphere keep Nibiru warm is absurd and does not address the problem of darkness in deep space. Also unexplained is how the Nefilim, who evolved long after Nibiru arrived, knew what happened when Nibiru first entered the solar system."

Sitchin in “the case of Adam’s alien genes” states that 223 unique genes found by the Human Genome Sequencing Consortium are without the required predecessors on the genomic evolutionary tree. Later researchers have argued that the conclusion from the Human Genome Sequencing Consortium cannot be drawn due to a lack of a comprehensive gene database for comparison. An analysis by Salzberg identified 40 potential genes laterally transferred into the genome from prokaryotic organisms. Salzberg also argues that gene loss combined with sample size effects and evolutionary rate variation provide an alternative, more biologically plausible explanation.

Literalism of myth

Peter James, co-author of the controversial book ''Centuries of Darkness'', has criticized Sitchin both for ignoring the world outside of Mesopotamia and more specifically for misunderstanding Babylonian literature:

William Irwin Thompson comments on what he calls Sitchin's 'literalism':

What Sitchin sees is what he needs for his hypothesis. So figure 15 on page 42 is radiation therapy, and figure 71 on page 136 is a god inside a rocket-shaped chamber. If these are gods, why are they stuck with our cheap B movie technology of rockets, microphones, space-suits, and radiation therapy? If they are gods, then why can't they have some really divine technology such as intradimensional worm-hole travel, antigravity, starlight propulsion, or black hole bounce rematerializations? Sitchin has constructed what appears to be a convincing argument, but when he gets close to single images on ancient tablets, he falls back into the literalism of "Here is an image of the gods in rockets." Suddenly, ancient Sumer is made to look like the movie set for ''Destination Moon''. Erich Von Däniken's potboiler ''Chariots of the Gods'' has the same problem. The plain of Nazca in Peru is turned into a World War II landing strip. The gods can cross galactic distances, but by the time they get to Peru, their spaceships are imagined as World War II prop jobs that need an enormous landing strip. This literalization of the imagination doesn't make any sense, but every time it doesn't, you hear Sitchin say "There can be no doubt, but..."

Bibliography

Earth Chronicles volumes

# ''The 12th Planet'', New York: Stein and Day, 1976 # ''The Stairway to Heaven'', 1980, Avon Books (Bear & Company, 1992, ISBN 0939680890; Harper, 2007, ISBN 0061379204) # ''The Wars of Gods and Men'', 1985, Avon Books (Bear & Company, 1992, ISBN 0939680904) # ''The Lost Realms'', Avon Books, 1990, ISBN 0-380-75890-3 # ''When Time Began'', 1993, (Harper, 2007, ISBN 006137928X, ISBN 978-0061379284) # ''The Cosmic Code'', Avon Books, 1998, ISBN 0-380-80157-4 # ''The End of Days: Armageddon and Prophecies of the Return'', William Morrow, 2007, ISBN 978-0-06-123823-9

Companion volumes

''Genesis Revisited: Is Modern Science Catching Up With Ancient Knowledge?'', (Avon Books, 1990, ISBN 0-380-76159-9)

''Divine Encounters: A Guide to Visions, Angels and Other Emissaries'', Avon Books, 1995, ISBN 0-380-78076-3)

''The Lost Book of Enki: Memoirs and Prophecies of an Extraterrestrial god'', Bear & Company, 2001, ISBN 1591430372

''The Earth Chronicles Expeditions'', Bear & Company, 2004, ISBN 978-1591430766

''Journeys to the Mythical Past'', Bear and Company, 2007 ISBN 978-1591430803

''The Earth Chronicles Handbook'', Bear & Company, 2009, ISBN 978-1-59143-101-5

''There Were Giants Upon the Earth: Gods, Demigods, and Human Ancestry: The Evidence of Alien DNA'', (Bear & Company), 2010, ISBN 9781591431213

DVDs

''Are We Alone in the Universe?'' (based on ''Genesis Revisited''), documentary, 1978 (2003 DVD release)

''An Evening with Zecharia Sitchin'', lecture and slide presentation, 1997

''A Talk From The Heart!'', lecture and slide presentation, 2006

''Signs of the Return'', lecture and slide presentation, 2009

''2012 - The End of Days?'', lecture and slide presentation, 2010

''Zecharia at 90 - Farewell Address'', lecture, 2010

See also

Alan F. Alford

Ancient Aliens (TV series)

Ancient astronauts

Chariots of the Gods?

David Icke

Dogon people

Extraterrestrial hypothesis

Giorgio A. Tsoukalos

Panbabylonism

Planet V

Mesopotamian mythology

Murry Hope

Nibiru collision

Robert K. G. Temple

Sumerian literature

The Sirius Mystery

References

External links

Official Website

Kilgannon, Corey. "Origin of Species, From an Alien View", ''The New York Times'', January 10, 2010. p. MB4.

Zecharia Sitchin Audio Tribute on Coast to Coast AM

Criticisms

Ian Lawton's Mesopotamia Papers

An Astronomer's View of the Akkadian Seal by Tom van Flandern

SitchinIsWrong.com: A Polemical Website against the Theories of Zechariah Sitchin

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