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Most recently in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science was published article by american astronomer William Hartmann. IN her scientist in his own way interprets biblical texts, referring to science about the movements of stellar bodies.
According to the scientist, in the appeal of the Apostle Paul, so much influencing the further development of Christianity, speaks of the fall meteorite that hit the earth when Saul (Paul’s name before baptism) was on the way to Damascus. To this conclusion Hartmann came by studying the New Testament book, “The Acts of the Holy Apostles,” where his attention was attracted by the words of Paul that in the middle of the day he saw a light in the sky that was several times brighter solar.
The following is a description of the fact that the apostle became blind and only received sight three days later in the city of Damascus. The “Acts” says that from the eyes Saul seemed to have fallen off the scales, and after that the follower of Jesus Christ began to claim that he had witnessed the “divine light”, which helped him realize his true path – to convey to people Christian faith. According to Hartmann, this place in the text should be taken literally: the apostle had temporary blindness, caused by intense ultraviolet radiation received during explosion time. In medicine, this disease is called electrophthalmia and is often observed in people affected by the result of a meteorite or just blinding by the sun.
The events described in the book reminded William Hartmann of the explosion an asteroid in the Chelyabinsk region, which was accompanied by light and acoustic phenomena, as well as the spread of strong percussion waves associated with the destruction of the atmosphere. The researcher is convinced that the meteorite described in the New Testament was similar in explosion power Chelyabinsk.
But until fragments of the asteroid mentioned in the Bible are found, then there is no real confirmation of this hypothesis. For this reason many other astronomers of the world reacted to the theory of William Hartmann very skeptical.
