The Great Year and The Destruction of the World by Fire and Water
The opposite idea to the destruction by a great flood is the destruction of the world by fire. No mention of such an idea has yet been found in any original Babylonian or Assyrian text, but there is evidence that such a doctrine did prevail among the Babylonians. Seneca quotes Berossus as having made an allusion to this, and the passage is so important that it is here reproduced. There seems good reason also for supposing that this Babylonian idea may have passed over to the Hebrews. The matter is not quite certain, but the following passages may be echoes of these Babylonian idea. Below are two quotes different records of the same account, slightly different but offering the same information.
-From Seneca, Nat. Qucest. iii. 29.
Berosus, who thus interprets the Babylonian tradition, says that these events take place according to the course of the stars ; and he affirms it so positively as to fix the time for the general conflagration of the world, and the deluge. He maintains that all terrestrial things will be consumed when the planets, which now are traversing their different courses, shall all coincide in the sign of Cancer, and be so placed that a straight line could pass directly through all their orbs. But the flood will take place, he says, when the same conjunction of the planets shall take place in the constellation Capricorn. The summer is in the former constellation, the winter in the latter.
-From Carl Muller's Fragmenta Historicorum Graecbrum.
Berossus who interpreted Bel, says that this will happen through the course of the stars, and affirms it to this extent that he appoints times for the conflagration and for the deluge. He argues that the earthly things will be burned, when all the stars, which now have diverse courses, shall come together in Cancer, so that placed in one position a straight line might pass through all. On the other hand, there will be a flood when the same stars come together in Capricorn. The former is the summer solstice, the latter the winter solstice — signs of great moment, for in them are the chief changes of the year.
Every 19 years marks 1 full Babylonian Great Year (235 Months). Every 19 years, 5 celestial orbs align, at which time the ancients would burn the crops and fields, followed by allowing the river to flood and wash over the burned land. This was done to enrich the farmlands and maintain their growing population.
As this story travelled from culture to culture, the reason in which the flooding and burning took place was lost, and only the destruction of the world component of the story had remained. Eventually, a story of enriching farmland would later be known as multiple times the world was destroyed, sometimes with fire, sometimes with water.
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