Claim CH505.1:
In 1952, Harold Williams wrote a story told by Haji Yearam, an Armenian
Seventh-Day Adventist, in 1916. According to the story, Yearam as a boy
helped guide three English scientists to the ark in 1856. Upon finding
the ark sticking out of a glacier near the summit, the scientists, "vile
men who did not believe in the Bible," flew into a rage and tried futilely
to destroy it. Then they took an oath to keep the discovery a secret and
murder anyone who revealed it. About 1918, Williams saw a newspaper
article giving a scientist's deathbed confession, which corroborated
Yearam's story.
Source:
LaHaye, Tim and John Morris, 1976. The Ark on Ararat, Nashville: Thomas
Nelson Inc. and Creation Life Publishers, pp. 43-48.
Response:
- The story has several questionable elements (Bailey 1989, 83-84).
- Why did Williams wait until 1952 to relate such a story?
- There is no record of such an expedition leaving England. (A
five-man English expedition did explore Ararat that year, but they
used Kurdish guides, and they were not interested in the ark.)
- Why would the scientists try to find the ark if they did not believe
its existence and did not want it found?
- Why would they threaten their guides not to reveal the ark's
location if the location of the ark was apparently common knowledge
to the local Armenians?
- Yearam died in 1920 at the age of 82. The scientist, who was
reputedly much
older than Yearam, died around 1918. His age must have been 100 or
more.
- The newspaper story has never been found, despite diligent search.
According to the account, Yearam's father thought God wanted people to
know the ark was still there. That combined with the vilification of
unbelievers suggests that the story was created as religious
propaganda.
References:
- Bailey, Lloyd, 1989. Noah: The Person and the Story in History and
Tradition. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.
created 2003-5-7
