The Strand Study Bible

JEREMIAH JEREMIAH Herodotus of Halicarnassus (c. 484-424 BC), called “the father of (ancient) history,” once noted that Cheops (Khufu) never used the Great Pyramid as a tomb, but was buried elsewhere. 3 Diodorus Siculus, another historian, agreed with Herodotus’ findings, and added that Cheops was buried in an obscure place. 4 Some would argue then – why was the Great Pyramid built, if it wasn’t built as a tomb, and who were it’s builders? Some scholars conclude that it was God Almighty that designed the Great Pyramid, and had it built. Although the Pharaoh, in whose reign the Great Pyramid was built, was Khufu (Cheops), there is some evidence to support the record of the early historian, Herodotus, who pointed out that “strangers to Egypt” supervised the building of the Great Pyramid, and not the Egyptians. The supposition that the Great Pyramid was never used as a tomb, and that the two coffers within it (one in the King’s Chamber and one in the Queen’s Chamber) were empty and void of any inscriptions, suggests that the Great Pyramid might have been built by different people, for a different reason. The question is: I f “strangers” other than the Egyptians built the Great Pyramid, then who exactly were these “strangers?” Whoever they were, Herodotus adds that it took 100,000 of them twenty years to build the Great Pyramid. According to Josephus (first century historian - AD 37-95), when referring to the descendants of Seth, he wrote: They were the inventors of the peculiar sort of wisdom, which is concerned with the heavenly bodies and their order. And that their inventions might not be lost before they were sufficiently known…they made two pillars; the one of brick, the other of stone. 5 Josephus then adds that the pillar of stone “remains in the land of Siriad (Egypt, where Sirius worship was practiced) to this day.” Could Josephus have been referring to the sons of Seth as the builders of the “pillar of stone” (the Great Pyramid), which remains in the land of Siriad to this day? Some scholars seem to think so. The next question is: W ho were these scholars? * The pyramidologists of the Great Pyramid There have been a number of well-meaning, well-educated men, over the past two centuries, who have successfully examined the Great Pyramid and have given us their opinions concerning its construction and origin: Nicholas Shaw (1721), John Greaves (Professor of Astronomy at Oxford University - 1737), Napoleon’s engineers (1798), Caviglia (1817), Colonel Howard Vyse (1830), Robert Menzies (of Leith, Scotland - early 1800’s), John Taylor (London publisher and founder of modern pyramidology - 1859), Professor C. Piazzi Smyth (notable scholar during his time, held the title Astronomer Royal of Scotland and Professor of Astronomy at Edinburgh University - late 1800’s), W. M. Flinders Petrie (1932), John and Morton Edgar, James Rutherford, Sir John Hershal (great English astronomer), Dr. Adam Rutherford, and E. Raymond Capt. 6 Some of these men, such as Menzies, Taylor, Smyth, and Rutherford, believed that the architect of the Great Pyramid was not an Egyptian (by race or religion), but was God Himself, and that the structure and dimensions of the Great Pyramid were intended to indicate and symbolize a prophetic and historical record, especially in relationship to Biblical revelation. Professor C. Piazzi Smyth, the most credible of the group, certainly had a deep emotional commitment to demonstrating “scientifically” that the Great Pyramid was a work of God. After carefully examining the Great Pyramid for years, Smyth believed that it was more than just a sepulcher; that it was a treasury of Divinely given wisdom embodying chronological, meteorological, astronomical, mathematical, historical and Biblical truth, and that it would be found, eventually, that the measurements and contours of the structure’s passage system, and its chambers, would eventually point to the real Architect. 1 It is fair to add, however, that most scientists, historians, and even interested laymen are convinced that Smyth inferred far too much from the “data” he gathered. Consider the following “data” used by Smyth and others to prove their findings: * The Great Pyramid’s location Built over 2600 years before the Crucifixion of Christ and 1,000 years before the Sacred Scriptures were ever written down by Moses (c. 1487 BC), the first and greatest ‘wonder’ of the ‘Seven Wonders of the Ancient World’ was erected, amazingly, ten miles to the southwest of Cairo, Egypt – in the exact center of all the land area of the world ( Isa 19:19-20 ). 1195

According to these well-meaning pyramidologists, whomever the architect was, He knew exactly where to find the poles of the Earth back before the event of the Flood. This is evidenced by the high degree of accuracy in orienting the building’s