2014-02-12T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: February 12, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

In addition to heaven, earth, sea, and underworld, Mesopotamian cosmology believes in an intermediate region between the earth and the underworld, belonging to the god Ea. Though not entirely consistent in mythologies, and the relationship between the Apsu and the sea and the Apsu and the underworld is ambiguous, Horowitz (Mesopotamia Cosmic Geography, 344) claims that the Apsu has common elements in most accounts:  “The Apsu is always filled with waters, the Apsu is always lower than the earth’s surface,... Read more

2014-02-11T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: February 11, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

James Watts (Ritual and Rhetoric, 87-88) calls attention to the repetitions of Leviticus 4-5, especially of the basic roots, cht (sin, sin offering) and ‘shm (guilt, trespass offering): “the refrain ‘sin that he sinned . . . as sin’ appears eight times (4:3, 14, 23–24, 28, 5:6, 7, 10, 13). The most exaggerated use of redundancy for rhetorical impact appears later in Leviticus 5, where verse 19 consists of only five words and uses the root ‘sm three times: ’asham hu... Read more

2014-02-11T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: February 11, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

Recent studies of the Levitical system have questioned the “facile” links that commentators draw “between its ritual instructions and narratives, its theology, and Israel’s ritual practices” (James Watts, Ritual and Rhetoric in Leviticus, 15). Citing William Gilders (Blood Ritual in the Hebrew Bible) and Wesley Bergen (Reading Ritual), he elaborates, “Both noted the paucity of symbolic interpretations of ritual in biblical texts and criticized the tendency of biblical scholars to regard rituals as having only one meaning, which proper textual exegesis... Read more

2014-02-11T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: February 11, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

Exodus 18’s description of Jethro’s advice to Moses seems disconnected from its context. As Martin Hauge explains (Descent from the Mountain, 252), the story actually anticipates the entire narrative of chapters 19-40: “The story of the second day presents how parts of the Moses function were transferred to representatives of the people. This is comparable to the main story line in Exodus 19-40. Concluded by the people as the new theophanic figures, the substitution of Moses by a new set... Read more

2014-02-11T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: February 11, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

John Lundquist claims that secrecy is one of the features of temples and temple rituals in the ancient world. All temples are sacred space, which means secret space, off-limits to any but the authorized. He cites Exodus 19:12-13, 21-24 in support. This is certainly true of ancient temples in general, and it applies to the Bible insofar as the inner sanctuaries were off-limits. Yet the interior of the sanctuary, and the rites performed there, were recorded, and that record was... Read more

2014-02-11T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: February 11, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

Paul says that everything that is in the light, everything that becomes visible, is light (Ephesians 5). He is writing about the light of the Father, Jesus, or the Spirit. If we are in that light, we ourselves become lights. But the claim is strictly true: Everything that the light shines on becomes a reflector of light, that being the only way it can become visible at all. Everything that receives light becomes a lamp, and, conversely, if something doesn’t receive... Read more

2014-02-11T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: February 11, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

John M. Lundquist argues that ancient temples were “associated with the realm of the dead, the underworld, the afterlife, the grave.” He states further: “The unifying feature here is the rites and worship of ancestors. The temple is the link between this world and the next. It has been called ‘an antechamber between the worlds.’ Tombs can be—and in Egypt and elsewhere are—essentially temples (compare the cosmic orientation, texts written on the tomb walls that guide the deceased into the... Read more

2014-02-10T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: February 10, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

The gods fight back chaos and form a universe, and set up an image to mark the boundary of their ordered realm. A god instructs a king to build a temple, who places an image of the God in the inner sanctuary. The zones of ancient cosmology – heaven, sky, earth, sea, underworld – are populated by gods. Gods, and divinized heroes, sit enthroned in the sky palace. God creates a world and places a living breathing image in His... Read more

2014-02-10T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: February 10, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

When there’s a famine in the land, people leave for brighter horizons. They find food; they multiply; they get rich. It happens to Abram in Egypt, to Jacob in Haran, to Israel in Egypt. Exile agrees with Israel; they always return with children and treasures. Except Naomi. She goes to Moab during a famine, and her family shrinks as she loses husband and sons. She doesn’t return rich. She is literally emptied. She comes back with nothing. Nothing – except... Read more

2014-02-10T00:00:00+06:00

Last updated on: February 10, 2014 at 12:00 am   By

Yahweh destroys the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot escapes with his daughters to a cave, where they get their father drunk with wine, and seduce him, giving birth to Moab and Ammon. Late in Judges, Gibeah of Benjamin has become a Sodom, and Yahweh sends the rest of Israel to destroy the tribe of Benjamin. We keep reading, and find a story about a Moabitess, Ruth.  Just as we expected; there’s always a Moabite seductress after Sodom. Except Ruth... Read more

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