Creator Needed

Notice in the post below that  it was scientists that designed and built this brain.

Nothing like this ever happens without intelligent direction -- a Designer.

Now the same designers will have to keep this brain maintained or like everything else it won't improve by itself. It will start to crumble.

 The Bible says that God created... Yet evolutionists  will still claim that the human brain -- just evolved by itself. 

Scientists create functioning, virtual brain that can write, remember lists and even pass basic IQ test

Scientists create functioning, virtual brain that can write, remember lists and even pass basic IQ test

How Far Did Early Missionaries Travel?

Part Two -- Necho 's Phoenician Flotilla


You can imagine the look or surprise on faces of natives living along the East and West coasts of Africa one day in the seventh century B.C. as they saw a fleet of foreign galleys sailing past them. 

 These vessels were part of a flotilla commissioned by the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho to sail around Africa from East to West starting in the Red Sea.

There was no certainty they would succeed. For centuries  Phoenician mariners had been trying to sail southward along Africa's Atlantic coastline  for centuries but had not succeeded in a complete trip around Africa from that direction according to the Greek historian Herodotus, because of  tricky Atlantic currents and winds along that part of the coastline. 

Still, they set off, sailing down the Red Sea and then southward along the East coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean.  And according to Herodotus they returned to Egypt  after sailing around the southern tip of Africa, north along the Atlantic coastline and eastward through the Mediterranean three years later  after  stopping over somewhere along the route long enough to plant and harvest  a food crop.

Some historians have debated the reliability of Herodotus' account  but historian Lionel Carson believes there is no reason why skilled Phoenician mariners could not have completed the voyage  in the time mentioned.

This successful voyage by the Phoenican flotilla do doubt opened up the way for merchants and traders and even early Christian missionaries  to follow behind them just as  the voyage of Pytheas we'll look at in Part Three did much the same thing North of the Mediterranean along the Atlantic Ocean as far as Britain and beyond.



  

How Far Did Early Missionaries Travel?

 Part  One - Voyages to the Western Mediterranean and China

At Colossians 1:23 the Apostle Paul wrote about 60 C.E. that, "the good news was preached in all creation that is under heaven."

What exactly did he mean by that? Exactly how far had Christian missionaries traveled by his day? Some have suggested that he meant just the Mediterranean world his readers would have been familiar with.

 But this known world would have included lands far beyond  the Eastern end of the Mediterranean. Long before Paul's day Phoenician and other mariners  had traveled across the entire Mediterranean to the Atlantic.  There are reports of the Phoencians sailing regularly to both to Gadir ( the modern port city of Cadiz)  and to Tarshish by the ninth century B.C.E.   Still others had sailed down the Red Sea  --  as far as India and  even China by the  second  century B.C.E.

So the "known world"   could have referred to other areas beyond the Eastern end of Mediterranean  or The Great Sea as it was called then.

In Part Two we'll take a quick look  at a Phoenician voyage around Africa organized by Pharaoh Necho of Egypt in the seventh century B.C.E.

Wine As A Medicine.

During Bible Times wine was prescribed and used as a  potent medicine.

There are a number of examples of this in the Bible. One is at Luke 10: 30-34 where the Good Samaritan poured oil and wine on the wounds of a a traveler after he had been attacked and left for dead by robbers.  Another is at 1 Timothy 5:23 where Paul told Timothy, "Do not drink water any longer, but use a little wine for your sake of your stomach and your frequent cases of sickness."

This was regarded as wise medical treatment at the time.  According to the book  Ancient Wine which describes win as a "analgesic, disinfectant, and general remedy all rolled into one."
Because of this it  played a major role in Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Syrian health care.

Two other publications support this.  The Oxford Companion to Wine  says that wine is actually man's "oldest documented medicine"  and  The Origins and Ancient History of Wine says:
"It has been shown experimentally that living typhoid and other dangerous microbes rapidly die when mixed with wine."

And modern research supports these claims showing. Researchers have found  that there are more than 500 compounds contained in wine and that some of these  can protect persons from such diseases as typhoid  as well a provide a number of other medicinal benefits.

The Garment That Made Them Gamble

According to John 19: 223 four Roman soldiers who witnessed Christ's death on the torture stake cast lots to see who would take the inner garment he had worn

 You might wonder why they would view his inner garment as such a prize. I mean inner garments were not unique. Natives of the Middle during that time often wore these under their clothes much as we would wear a sweat shirt today. They were not that unique.

Early tailors made from rectangular pieces of linen or wool that when finished reached to the wearer's knees after the clothes maker had sewn together two pieces of rectangular cloth along three sides and left holes for head and arms.

More expensive garments were made from one longer piece of cloth and folder in the middle with a hole left for the head. The sides then were hemmed up with holes for both arms on the sides according to the publication  Jesus and His World.  Still not that unusual.

But both the loom and the tunic produced on it were very unique -- at least in Palestine. The operator worked with an upright loom with two sets of of vertical threads -- one at the front of the loom and one at the rear.

Unlike other looms the operator making this style of garment alternated the shuttle on the machine which carried the weft threat alternatively between the two enabling the weaver to produce sa cylindrical garments -- with no seams.

This style of inner garment was very rare in Palestine of that time and would have been a prized possession -- something Roman soldiers saw as something worth casting lots for.  The rest of Jesus' clothes they apparently just divided  up. 

Creators of Durable Portable Shelters

Modular, portable buildings had an early start in the Middle East. Archaeological evidence shows that during the time of Roman occupation of Egypt young men about 13 began learning a trade.  One of these was tent making -- a craft that might take them several years to master according to the book The Social Context of Paul's Ministry.

It was not just a matter of grabbing a needle and start sewing. There was much to learn such as how to cut material to size and shape and sewing it all together  with a variety of awls and needles  and using a variety of stitching techniques.

Tent makers also had to learn how to weave different materials to work with before  sewing them together. Different materials included goal and camel hair, which expanded when wet, blocking out the rain as well as leather and even linen --used to create sun awnings to cover the atria of private houses and possibly other buildings.

Once they mastered their trade, as the Apostle Paul did according to Acts18:3young Jewish men, as well as men from surrounding countries had valuable skills that enabled to earn a living almost anywhere they traveled -- either making new  or repairing old tents for others.

This is a trade that exists down to this day in the Middle Eastern countries.