Immanuel Velikovsky was
born in Belarus (at that time part of Russia) in June 1895 to a
wealthy Jewish family and died in New Jersey in 1979. As a child, he learned
several languages. As an adult, he was fluent in Russian, Hebrew, French,
German, and English. He is most famous for the U.S. bestseller, Worlds in
Collision, published in 1950. I was fortunate to be able to read this book
decades ago. He wrote this book in English, definitely not his native language.
The grammar is impeccable. He was a master of the English language. This book
is incredibly researched, filled with footnotes, carefully arranged in chapters,
and includes an extensive alphabetical index at the back of the book.
He earned degrees in mathematics, medicine, and psychology at universities in Moscow, Scotland, and France. He also translated two volumes of scientific papers into Hebrew when he lived in Berlin. He practiced medicine, psychology, and psychoanalysis in what was then called Palestine from 1924 to 1939. In 1939, he moved to the United States, where he spent the remainder of his life.
People might disagree with some of his beliefs, but no one should ever doubt his intellect. His teachings are interdisciplinary, borrowing from many fields of human knowledge: science, history, mathematics, physics, astronomy, various religions, and mythologies.
Velikovsky was the victim of what is sometimes called the scientific mafia. Great men like Copernicus and Galileo are respected and honored on our time. However, in their lifetimes, they suffered much persecution. Velikovsky faced persecution from scientists who did all in their power to prevent Velikovsky from being published, most who never even read any of his writings. Many of the attacks were false allegations, accusing Velikovsky of saying and writing things that he never said or believed. Their attacks on Velikovsky were published in “scientific” journals with lies and false accusations. However, Velikovsky was never permitted to have his responses to these false accusations published.
Until about the 17th century, catastrophism was a prevailing belief, whereby much of what we see in the world is the result of catastrophes. Since that time, uniformitarianism has been in vogue, whereby everything we see in this universe is the result of gradual changes taking place over millions of years. Velikovsky belonged more to the school of catastrophism.
Velikovsky
didn’t have the advantage of the internet to gather information. He didn’t have
access to a computer. He gathered information the old-fashioned way, going to
libraries in various countries. He was, I believe, a genius in every sense of
the word. On the other hand, I have the internet for research and for fact
checking as well a computer. Velikovsky didn’t access to such things.
His intelligence and expertise in so many areas were cause for another attack – rejecting his theories because it is interdisciplinary, displaying an inordinate understanding of so many areas of intellect, including languages, science, medicine, history, religion, various mythologies, etc. Velinsky brings these various specialties together, making sense of them. I presume that Leonardo DaVinci could also face such charges of interdisciplinarianism, as he was a sculptor, painter, scientist, inventor, etc. It’s very unusual, but it isn’t a sin to be knowledgeable in many areas of intellect.
For centuries of scientists believed that the planets have been in their present orbits for millions of years. Then along came Immanuel Velikovski, who claimed that there were near encounters between the planets Venus, Mars, and Earth in the 15th, 8th, and 7th centuries BCE.[1] His claims are all carefully documented. His ideas were not greeted with reasoned debate. Instead, they were greeted with scientific outrage.
As time marched on, science began to verify much of what Velikovsky had published in his book in 1950. At that time, scientists believed that Venus was perhaps a temperate planet like Earth. Velikovsky wrote that Venus was a very hot planet, with surface temperatures of several hundred degrees Fahrenheit, partly as a result of being a relatively young planet that had been cast out of Jupiter.
He also believed that the dense atmosphere (15 miles thick, 45 miles above the surface of Venus) was rich in petroleum gases, that is, hydrocarbons, which turned out to be true. This contradicted the theory that hydrocarbons, including petroleum gases, must be fossil fuels. Recent discoveries have proven that Velikovsky was correct. Venus is a dead planet, with no possibility of life, and therefore no fossils or fossil fuels. Also, if the petroleum on Planet Earth is fossil fuel, why do we not find any fossils in the petroleum? In addition, he believed that much of the atmosphere of Venus also contained much carbon dioxide. All of these heat-trapping gases would have conspired to make Venus an even hotter planet.
Worlds in Collision could also be called, War of the Worlds. But the latter was already the title of a book written by H.G. Wells. Velikovsky was wise enough to realize that H.GH. Wells was wrong to believe that Mars had intelligent beings on it that would invade Planet Earth. However, there were interplanetary encounters that could correctly be called wars, but between planets, not people.
The Plague of Blood
Velinsky may or may not have been religious. However, he did believe in the Jewish Scriptures as being history. The first plague to strike Egypt, eventually leading the Israelite slaves to freedom, was the plague of blood. Velinsky attributes this plague to a near encounter with a planet, possibly Mars, also called the Red Planet. This corresponds with Exodus 7:21. “There was blood throughout the land of Egypt.” The planet Mars is red because of all the oxygenated iron in its ferrous soil, scattered like a fine dust throughout the planet. This dust caused the Nile River to turn red. “And all the Egyptians digged around about the river for water to drink, for they could not drink of the water of the river” (Exodus 7:24).
Other plagues include the cattle murrain and boils on people. The skin of cattle and people was irritated by the red dust, which caused boils, sickness, and the death of animals, “a very grievous murrain” (Exodus 9:3). And why is the Red Sea called “red”? The Red Sea is a deep blue. Perhaps this red dust covered the Red Sea also, turning it “red,” and the name stuck, even though the Red Sea is blue.
Jonathan Swift, in his book, Gulliver’s Travels, wrote about the moons of Mars in 1726. This provides verification of at least one near encounter between Earth and Mars. At that time, there were no telescopes strong enough to discover the tiny moons of Mars. However, you can read an article for yourself called “Gulliver and the Moons of Mars” at www.jstor.org/stable/2707059 by S.H. Gould.
Writing in 1726, Jonathan Swift refers to the two moons of Mars discovered by astronomers from the mythical kingdom of Laputa in the third chapter of his book.
He gave their distances as 3 and 5 Martian diameters, and orbits of about 10 and 22 hours. This is a fairly accurate description of the moons of Mars. The orbits perhaps changed a bit as a result of near encounters with Planet Earth.
However, it wasn’t until 1877 when an astronomer named Asaph Hall discovered these moons. This was 151 years after Jonathan Swift wrote about them in his book Gulliver’s Travels. I do not believe this was a “lucky guess.” I believe that somehow Jonathan Swift must have had some contact with ancient literature in which people had seen Mars in one of its near encounters with Planet Earth. These ancient astronomers didn’t even have clocks to measure time. They also didn’t have the modern tools to measure the distances or the sizes of the moons of Mars.
Today we know more about these moons of Mars. These are two small, irregularly shaped moons – Phobos and Demos – both named after the Greek mythological sons of Ares (Mars in Roman mythology). Phobos (fear and panic) and Deimos (terror and dread) accompanied their father Ares (Mars) into battle in Roman mythology.
In many ancient cultures, Mars was not just a curious star in the sky, but a fearful omen linked to war, bloodshed, and disaster. Today, most historians believe that Mars became a fearful omen because of its reddish color, a color of war and bloodshed. That may be true, but it may also be true because of a near encounter between Earth and Mars.
The Plague of “Hail”
Another Egyptian plague was what is commonly called hail. The Hebrew word for this plague is בָּרָד (barad). When you read about this plague in Exodus 9:23-24, you find that this plague included hail and fire falling down on the land of Egypt. Hail is made of ice. Fire and ice don’t go well together! Barad is basically stones falling to the Earth. Velikovsky quotes Talmudic and Midrashic sources which tell us that they were hot stones.[2] Velikovsky tells us that the plague was not hail, but was small meteorites.
We also see a future plague of fire and hail hitting the Earth in Revelation 8:7, which will burn up a third of the earth. However, hail is made of ice and does not burn up anything. Once again, this is a confirmation of hot stones, not ice, coming to Earth.
Meteor showers are relatively common. Meteors which actually land on earth are called meteorites, which happens, but is very uncommon. Thousands of little meteorites actually landing on this planet would be exceedingly rare, but it happened with the seventh plague that occurred in Egypt in about 1500 BCE.[3]
Velikovsky propounds the belief that the planet Venus was cast out from Jupiter over four thousand years ago as a giant comet. Like almost all comets, Venus circled the sun in a highly elliptical orbit. Legends of the pre-Columbian peoples of Mexico described Venus as “the star that smoked.” [4]
In the Talmud, we read, “Fire is hanging down from the planet Venus.” [5] The Chaldeans described Venus saying it “was said to have a beard.” [6] The same expression is used in modern astronomy to describe comets. The Chaldeans also described Venus as a “bright torch of heaven” and compared its light with the light of the rising sun.[7] This would only be the case if there were close encounters with the planet Venus. Today, Venus can appear as a bright star, but its light is only about one-millionth the light of the sun. Even our moon is much brighter than Venus. Venus was more of a comet than a planet, flying through space in a highly elliptical orbit as is typical of comets.
Ancient Arabs described Ishtar (Venus) as “one with hair,” as did the Babylonians. In fact, the word comet is derived from the Greek word for hair. Velikovsky writes, “The Peruvian name ‘Chaska’ (wavy-haired) is still the name for Venus, though at present the Morning Star (Venus) is definitely a planet and has no tail attached to it.” [8]
Velikovsky takes his readers through ancient mythologies, such as the deity Zeus (Jupiter), which is the progenitor of Venus. Greek authors describe the birth of Athene (Venus), saying she “sprang from the head of Zeus (Jupiter).” Velikovsky expresses no doubt that Venus (at that time still a comet) caused catastrophes to the Egyptians in the days of the Exodus.
Velikovsky believed that the source of petroleum on Planet Earth was the result of near encounters with Venus, not the result of fossilized plants and animals. Today we know that Venus is enveloped in clouds of hydrocarbons and petroleum gases, which the gravity of Earth was able to ‘steal’ from Venus during close encounters.
Velikovsky writes, "The Midrashim[9] state that naphtha, together with hot stones, poured down upon Egypt. The Egyptians refused to let the Israelites go, and He (God) poured out naphtha over them, burning blains (blisters).” Naphtha is petroleum in Aramaic and Hebrew.[10]
The 360-Day Year
The Veda texts of ancient India exclusively speak of 12 lunar months of 30 days each resulting in a 360-day year in the ancient Hindu calendar.[11] The current length of a lunar month is 29 ½ days, with 12 months equaling about 355 days. Therefore, Jewish calendars add an extra month about once every three years to keep the Holy Days in cinque with the seasons. However, the ancient Jewish calendar was also 12 months of 30 days each. We read in Genesis 7:11 that the Flood began in the 17th day of 2nd month. Then in Genesis 8:3-4,we read that the Ark rested on the mountains of Ararat 150 days later on the 17th day of the 7th month, telling us that 5 months equaled 150 days, or 30 days per month.
Prior to the 7th Century BCE, the ancient Persian calendar also had 12 months of 30 days each. Likewise, the ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Roman, and Assyrian calendars had 360 days per year. On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the ancient Inca and Mayan calendars also had 12 lunar months of 30 days each, with 360 days in a year. When we continue west across the Pacific Ocean, we discover that the ancient calendars of China had 360 days per year.
Velikovsky blames the change from 360 days per year to the current 365 ¼ days per year on inter-planetary catastrophes occurring between 747 BCE and 687 BCE.
Velikovsky wrote about many other matters, far more than I can describe in a short article. I remain very impressed with him.