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From: ncramer@bbn.com (Nichael Cramer)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: No Biblical Mt Ararat [was:Noahs Ark]
Message-ID: <May.18.02.13.51.1991.3898@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 18 May 91 06:13:53 GMT
Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu
Lines: 32
Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu

allenroy@eecs.cs.pdx.edu (callen roy) writes: 
>In 1915, Harold Williams wrote down the deathbed confession of 
>Haji Yearam, an Armenian who lived at the foot of Mt. Ararat as a 
>child.  Haji told of three men who came to his village and asked for
>guides up the mountain.  Haji and his father took them up to Noah's 
>Ark...

Hi Callen

I've found what I think is a good rule of thumb for judging these sort of
Noah's Ark claims.  Namely, if the claimer can't even get the biblical
location of the Ark right you can stop listening.

In particular, according to your description Williams claims that Haji had
seen the ark on Mt Ararat.  Bear in mind that there is no Mt Ararat
mentioned anywhere in the Bible.

Now Genesis 8 has the Ark landing in the Mountain*S* of Ararat (modern
translations typically render this as something like the "Ararat
Range"[*]), but if people like Williams expect such extreme claims to be
taken seriously, the least that they can do is to get the minimal details
of geography correct.

Moreover, the mountain currently called Ararat has only been called that
for the last few centuries (in English only?  Does anyone know the Turkish/
Armenian names?).

N

  [* NOTE: If you think this is a minor quibble, consider how safe you'd
     feel taking a flight to Denver with a navigator who spent his time 
     looking for Mt Rocky.   ;)  ]