I have seen in numerous places on the web the claim that Chernobyl is Ukrainian for “Wormwood”. This would be significant because of Revelation 8:10-11’s reference to a star named Wormwood falling to Earth and poisoning a third of the waters. Most of the web pages citing this as fact are, unsurprisingly, Christian fundamentalist websites, and I, having a base and suspicious mind, am not inclined to give much credit to Christian fundamentalist websites. On the other hand, I also found one non-fundie site which refers to the Chernobyl=Wormwood claim as fact. Now, a Ukrainian-English dictionary I found on the web has an entry for “wormwood”, and none of what comes up looks anything like “Chernobyl” (or “Chornobyl” in Ukrainian). Aha! I say. Another stupid fundie urban legend. (Which suckered in a few secular types as well.) But then, a little further research turns up a number of official references to a “Project Polyn” in connection with the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster. And Polyn does mean “wormwood” according to the Ukrainian-English dictionary above. Furthermore, this site from the University of Hawaii, which appears to be a translation of an official document from the Kurchatov Institute, states that "“POLYN” is a Russian word and means “Chernobyl’”. So at this point I don’t know what to think.
Does Chernobyl/Chornobyl mean “wormwood”?
If not, what does it mean?
Again, if the answer to question #1 is “no”, why’d the Russians name their official report on the Chernobyl disaster “Project Wormwood”? Pure literary allusion? (Like Oppenheimer supposedly quoting the Bhagavad-Gita at the Trinity atom bomb test.)
Any of the 9,315 of you speak Ukrainian (or have a grandmother who does)?
Can’t help you directly with the Ukrainian meanings, but bear in mind that different English translations of the Bible use different words to express that particular passage.
For example, the King James uses “Wormwood,” but the Good News Bible states: "The name of the star is ‘Bitterness.’ "
Some of the Bible-mavens on the Board may be able to give you more information on this point: what is the Greek word in this passage, and how is it best translated?
#2) Did the disaster poison one third of our water supply?
The answer to both, of course, is ‘No’. So does it really matter what Chernobyl means? If it does, i have a friend from Estonia who speaks Ukranian, i can ask him if you want.
Well, I probably won’t rush out and accept Jesus as my personal Saviour even if it’s true, if that’s what you mean, but it would be an interesting coincidence. (And if it isn’t true, I don’t suppose droves of fundamentalist Christians will renounce their faith and become Secular Humanists, even if the fact becomes well publicized.) But, what sort of attitude is that, anyway? This is the Straight Dope–dispelling ignorance is our great purpose in life. The Lord Cecil commands us to fight ignorance; it’s our Great Commission. I am ignorant on this matter; I seek Enlightenment.
Actually, if you take Revelations literally, I’d consider you a nut. You should hear some of the stuff that John says. About the 4 horsemen, and the dead coming alive.
Ok i emailed my friend and asked him. He’s living at his parents summer house right now where they dont have electricity so he only checks his email every few days but ill post when i get a reply.
We’ll it would have been really hard to explain to a non-techolgical person what nuclear power was(lumping fission and fussion together for a moment) so maybe God was saying it was like a star on earth, and that got translated to a star falling to earth.
jti: well, see, that area has more dialects than you can shake a shashka at. As far it being an exact analog of the Greek word that they translated as 'wormwood", it is unlikely.
However, certainly, even if it was, there would have had to be the opening of the 7 seals, and the two other Trumps, and this is something which would not be debated, or subtle in any way, such as the 4 Horsemen, the rising & marking of the 144000, the turning black of the Sun, the turning red of the moon, the complete stopping of all wind, the destruction of 1/3 of all the plants by burning hail, the falling of all the other stars, the turning of 1/3 of the waters & oceans to blood, etc. I really think we just might has noticed this.
Wormwood is a star that crashes to Earth and ruins 1/3 of our water supply. You can read more about our friend Wormwood in the New Testament book of: Revelations.
The Thrill asks what wormwood is. It is also “n.1. also called absinthe, any of various plants of the chiefly N. temperate genus Artemisia, esp. A. absinthium, a European plant yielding a bitter extract used in making absinthe…” (Collins English Dictionary) This is fun - I knew it had a vermouth connection but didn’t know it connected to absinthe-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder.
Literally Chernobyl means “was black” but that doesn’t seem to make much sense. If someone could give me the originial cyrillic spelling it would be helpful.
is apsinthos, according to Strong’s Concordance which can be found here. ( (1) Search for whatever verse or word you are looking for, (2) Click on the letter “C” which appears by the verse -> takes you to a greek-english word by word correspondance, (3) Click on the number of the word you are interested in.)
There are other instances of word wormwood in the Bible. Wormwood in the Jewish Bible appears to be used in a number of circumstances, but the Greek word absinthos occurs only in Rev 8:11. The Hebrew words that were translated “wormwood” appear to be related only in the sense of “bitterness”.
