Jonitus Son of Noah

For twenty four years I have been puzzled by the true name given to John the Baptist. When Elizabeth suggests John, one of the priests say; “There is no one in your family by that name.”

There are at least two John names in Elizabeth’s genealogy. Here is a article on Jonitus:

http://www.leidenuniv.nl/fsw/verduin/jonitus/jonitus.htm

Jonitus might be the brother of Zoroaster and was an astromoner. Consider Baba’s Mountain post, and the Magi

Jon Presco

As I read more on Jonitus I was puzzled by the various names that were used for this one person. It then struck me that the main difference between most of the versions of the name (Gionitus, Jonitus, Jonithus, Jonitho, Jonithon and Y�nt�n) was in the vowels and that the suffix -us is probably introduced during the Latinizing of what originally was a name from the middle east (Israel, Syria).
Thus a template with only consonants for the original Hebrew or Syriac name would be something like JNTN or JNTHN. With this template it is easy to imagine how for example the name of Jonathan fits in as well as Joniton or Yonton. As an additional bonus the name Jonathan () means “Gift of God”, which might bear some relation to the constant references to the fact that he received his wisdom as a gift of God. It therefore seems to me a feasible hypothesis that the original name of Noah’s fourth son was Jonathan. For the remainder of the text however I will stick to Jonitus.

Jonitus a Roman god?

VI.1 The Chronicon Bohemorum of Giovanni di Marignola

December 2000, I came across a Czechian internet repository of historical sources pertaining to the origin of Bohemian royalty. There I found the Chronicon Bohemorum (1354/1355) of Giovanni di Marignola (before 1290-1360?). He was a Florentine franciscan who, as an papal envoy, traveled to China, Indonesia and India. The first part of this chronicle contains a history of the world compiled from various sources and it is a veritable hotchpotch of biblical and mythological stories, enriched with details from his own travels.

The chronicle shows a strong euhemerist tendency to downsize pagan gods to the level of human kings and heroes, that is already apparent in Comestor’s Historia Scholastica (especially in the Incidentiae). This tendency is linked with a need synchronize mythological stories with the biblical chronology. Even Nimrod loses 2 cubits of his height in this downsizing process, which would leave him with still enough stature I guess, but it all seems a bit odd. Di Marignola adds a new ingredient to the story of Jonitus by identifying him as none other than Janus, the ancient god of the Romans.

Zoroaster a brother of Jonitus?

Robert de Bury finished his Philobiblon or The Love of Books just a few months before he died in april 1345. It is about de Bury’s attitude to (collecting) books and it contains the following text.
…The secrets of the heavens, which Jonithus learnt not from man or through man but received by divine inspiration; what his brother Zoroaster, the servant of unclean spirits, taught the Bactrians;…(transl. E. C. Thomas (1888)) …Arcana caelorum, quae Jonithus non ab homine neque per hominem didicit sed divinitus inspiratus accepit; quaeque Zoroastes germanus ejusdem, immundorum servitor spirituum, Bactrianis disseruit;…

Does this mean that Zoroaster was supposed to be a fifth son of Noah? Well, not neccessarily. This remark was probably based on Comestor’s Historia Scholastica