Second Coming of Saturn Bibliography

Lord willing, I plan to read Derek Gilbert’s Second Coming of Saturn. While Gilbert does not claim to be a scholar on the level of Michael Heiser, Gilbert is second to none when it comes to putting all the research in one area. In that case he might be more accessible than Heiser. SkywatchTV has a running series on his study notes. I thought it would be a good idea to put most of his footnoted sources in one area.

The Second Coming of Saturn Part 1: The Great Conjunction

1 Enoch 6:1–7. George W. E. Nickelsburg and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Translation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012).

Amar Annus, “Are There Greek Rephaim? On the Etymology of Greek Meropes and Titanes.” Ugarit-Forschungen 31 (1999).

Aren M. Maeir, “A New Interpretation of the Term ʿopalim (עֳפָלִים) in the Light of Recent Archaeological Finds from Philistia.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Vol 32.1 (2007), pp. 25–26.

Brian B. Schmidt, Israel’s Beneficent Dead: The Origin and Character of Israelite Ancestor Cults and Necromancy (Doctoral thesis: University of Oxford, 1991), pp. 158–159.

Christopher B. Hays and Joel M. LeMon, “The Dead and Their Images: An Egyptian Etymology for Hebrew ôb.” Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections Vol. 1:4 (2009), pp. 1–4.

Christopher B. Hays, “Enlil, Isaiah, and the Origins of the ʾĕlîlîm: A Reassessment.” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 132(2) (2020), p. 226.

Edward Lipiński, “El’s Abode: Mythological Traditions Related to Mount Hermon and to the Mountains of Armenia,” Orientalia Lovaniensa Periodica II (1971), pp. 18–19.

George Heider, The Cult of Molek: A Reassessment (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1985), pp. 390–391.

George W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1–36; 81–108 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), p. 184.

Jaap Doedens, The Sons of God in Genesis 6:1–4 (Leiden: Brill, 2019), pp. 250–252.

Josef Tropper, “Spirit of the Dead.” In K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, & P. W. van der Horst (Eds.), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd extensively rev. ed. (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), p. 807.

Judd Burton, “The War of the Words, God-kings, and Their Titles: A Preliminary Report on the Linguistic Relationship Between the Rephaim and Royal Titles in Eurasian Languages.” Bulletin of the Institute of Biblical Anthropology (2021), p. 7.

Klaas Spronk, Beatific Afterlife in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East (Kevelaer: Butzon & Bercker, 1986), pp. 168–169.

Klaas Spronk, “Baal of Peor.” In K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, & P. W. van der Horst (Eds.), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (2nd extensively rev. ed.) (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), p. 147.

Klaas Spronk, “Travellers.” In K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, & P. W. van der Horst (Eds.), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (2nd extensively rev. ed.). (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999) p. 876.

 Lluis Feliu, The God Dagan in Bronze Age Syria (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2003), p. 212.

Nicolas Wyatt, “Calf.” In K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, & P. W. van der Horst (Eds.), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible: 2nd extensively rev. ed. (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), p. 181.

Noga Ayali-Darshan, “The Seventy Bulls Sacrificed at Sukkot (Num 29:12–34) in Light of a Ritual Text from Emar (Emar 6, 373).” Vetus Testamentum 65:1 (2015), pp. 7–8.

Renata MacDougal, Remembrance and the Dead in Second Millennium BC Mesopotamia (University of Leicester: Doctoral dissertation, 2014) pp. 58–59.

Scott B. Noegel, “God of Heaven and Sheol: The ‘Unearthing’ of Creation.” Hebrew Studies, Vol. 58 (2017), p. 121.

Sjur Cappelan Papazian, “Abgal or Apkallu.” Cradle of Civilization, April 5, 2015. https://aratta.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/abgal-or-apkallu/, retrieved 5/16/21.

Stephanie Dalley, “Apkallu.” In: Eggler J./Uehlinger Ch., eds., Iconography of Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near East, http://www.religionswissenschaft.uzh.ch/idd/prepublications/e_idd_illustrations_apkallu.pdf, retrieved 6/26/21.

William R. Gallagher, “On the Identity of Hêlēl Ben Šaḥar of Is. 14:12–15.” UF 26 (1994), pp. 140–141.

Wolfgang Herrmann, “El.” In K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, & P. W. van der Horst Eds., Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd extensively rev. ed. (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999) p. 275.

Xinhua Wang, The Metamorphosis of Enlil in Early Mesopotamia (Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2011), p. 245.

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Job NIVAC (Walton)

Walton, John H. Job The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012.

Walton does theology by avoiding easy, cliched answers. It pays off in his commentary on Job. Although he is criticized for reading Ancient Near Eastern culture into the biblical text, Walton doesn’t actually do that. He goes to great pains to show how Job is different from ANE (Walton pp.33-37).

Ancient Near Eastern thought believed in “The Great Symbiosis.” We provide sacrifices for the gods and in return they protect us. If bad things happen to us, it’s probably because either a) that’s just how the cosmos is, or b) we made a ritual faux pas. Walton points out that the justice of a particular god is irrelevant. A god might be interested in promoting justice in a city, but ancient man had no reason to believe that the god himself is just.

This places “Satan’s” challenge in a new context. If the Great Symbiosis is true, and there is a strict “Retributive Principle” at work, then Satan is right. If Job even concedes that the evil has come as a result of Job’s sin, and in doing so expects God to restore the balance, the Challenger wins. By the end of the book we are affirmed in believing that God is just. The point of the book, however, is that wisdom, not justice, should be the epistemological foundation. We see God’s wisdom in the cosmos.

This book is unique among the NIVAC set in that Walton allows one of his former students to tell her story concerning a crippling nerve injury she had. It reads like a novel. Walton ends with some moving meditations about God’s will and suffering.

The ancient world believed the cosmos was ordered. However, within this ordered cosmos are spheres of disorder. Eden was an ordered cosmos, but not so the area outside Eden.

We do not always see God’s justice. The book of Job, however, promises us God’s wisdom. As Walton notes, “God has ordered the cosmos by his wisdom; justice is one of his attributes, but the cosmos do not always mirror his justice. Wisdom is at the heart of order” (Walton 411).

Chapter 1

Who are the “sons of God?” Walton correctly identifies the bene elohim as divine council members (64). They are not angels. Angels have a messenger function, whereas these have an administrative function.

Who is Satan? This is tricky. While Walton offers a lucid commentary on the morphology of the term, he muddies the waters by bringing in passages from Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. Let’s say for the sake of argument this is the “devil.” You could never make that case from Job 1. This “challenger” isn’t cast out from heaven. Nothing he says is evil (in fact, he makes a good case against the pagan ANE mindset of the time). All of that is true.

Walton, however, goes out of his way to prove that the “devil-figure” can’t be placed in the Isaiah and Ezekiel passages. This is irrelevant. I think he is wrong, but he does make a good case that since Ezekiel calls him “a cherub,” he can’t be the Serpent of Eden. That’s true. If anything, the Nachash would have been a seraph.

Some notes

4:15 is a reference to Zaqiq, the dream god (157). This would explain why when talking of the wind, Eliphaz mentions “a form before him.”

9:5-9 gives a beautiful description of cosmic geography. We have reference to the ‘pillars of the earth,’ implying a flat disc. The stars are “sealed” away (v. 7).

19. When Job asks for a mediator, does he mean Christ? Probably not. Job wanted a mediator to prove his innocence. Christ mediates for us precisely because we aren’t innocent!

25:5-6: The Realm of the Rephaim. The Rephaim are either the royal dead or quasi-demonic beings (or both). While they live in the underworld, Job identifies one of the access points as “beneath the waters.” Walton suggests that the language is the “cosmic waters,” rather than regular ocean water (250). This makes sense, otherwise we could access Sheol via submarine.

Walton correctly notes that eres can mean underworld in several locations (1 Sam. 28:13; Job 10:21-22; Eccl. 3.21; Isaiah 26:19; Jonah 2.6). Netherworld works instead of “earth” because it would be the opposite of the “heights of Zaphon.”

28:11: Sources of the Rivers. In Ugaritic literature the high god El dwells “at the source of the rivers” (Walton 286). Genesis 2 speaks of the origin of the four rivers coming from a sacred space (Eden). The origin of wisdom, then, is a cosmic mystery. There are several personifications in this passage:

• Deep (tehom)
• Sea (Yamm)
• Abbadon (Destruction; Gk. Apollyon, personified as an evil Angel in Revelation 9). While Abbadon could be an evil entity, we need to be careful about reading later demonology into this passage.
• Death

Nota Bene: Elihu mentions the spirit of God. We should be careful not to read a full Nicene theology into that phrase. For Elihu (and much of the Old Testament) the spirit of God is seen more as an extension of God’s presence than a separate person (though, of course, it is not contradictory to the later idea of the Spirit’s being a distinct person). Further, the spirit of man is “on loan” from God (Walton 376).

The Lost World of Torah (John Walton)

This book isn’t as “revolutionary” as perhaps Walton’s critics and fans think it is. There are a number of things he isn’t saying:

a) He isn’t saying the Torah doesn’t apply today.
b) He isn’t promoting sexual freedom.
c) He isn’t saying Israel copied from ANE cultures.  In fact, he specifically rejects that idea.

In short, Torah revealed Yahweh’s order in society.  It addressed threats to order, and in that revelation it teaches wisdom, not a format for OSHA codes.

Thesis: Order is achieved through the wisdom of those who governed society.  Our primary task in studying Torah is not to make it an updated version of the Congressional Register, but to see how it embodies (or is embodied) order in society.

Proposition 1: The Old Testament is an Ancient Document

Walton faces a stiff challenge:  he correctly notes the embeddedness of much of Torah, yet he wants to affirm its relevance for us today.  Can he do that? He suggests the use of a “cultural broker,” a person an analogue who can help us make sense of commands like “Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.”

Proposition 2: The Way we think about Torah today is conditioned by how we think law and legislation work.

Walton notes, correctly I think, that Hebrew “legal sayings” include legislation and instruction.  These are two distinct speech-acts with different expected responses.

Proposition 3: Legal Collections in the Ancient World are not Legislation

Key idea: What did legal sayings in the ANE look like?  Does the “Law,” whether Hammurabi’s or Moses’s, cover every legal aspect of society? Walton argues that judges in the ancient world, more often than not, used their intuition.

Proposition 4: ANE Legal Collections teach wisdom

These lists are aspective.  They contain a wide variety “of aspects pertaining to a topic.” A collection of legal lists would teach the king or judge how to be wise in a ruling.  Walton suggests it is like the “practice problem” in a math textbook. It teaches you how to do something, but the individual problem isn’t the standard for all further deductions.

Proposition 5: Torah is similar to these legislations and therefore teaches wisdom

An example that Torah functioned also as wisdom is David’s (unwitting) response to Nathan’s parable.  He says the man must die but he also must pay fourfold.

Terminology: 

None of these terms refer to codified legislation.  But does not the command to “obey” imply that Torah = legislation?  Not necessarily. The command to “obey” almost always has “voice” as its object, not Torah itself. I think there are some exceptions, though.

We are told to keep (smr) his commands (mitzwot). These commands occur often in Wisdom literature, which is concerned with order.

Proposition 6: The Israelite Covenant functions as an ANE Suzerainty Treaty.

Thesis:  these treaties sought to teach wisdom and explain what the regent may or may not do; it wasn’t a comprehensive legislation.  The suzerein’s stipulations were more of “extending his identity” than imposing a piece of legislation (Ezek. 36:22-24).

Proposition 7: Holiness is a status, not an objective

In Lev. 19:2 God’s people are called to be holy (indicative, not imperative).  It is more along the lines of “You Will Be Holy.” The Hebrew qds can mean:

* a constellation of all that is associated with Yahweh (the ark, temple, Mt Sinai, etc).

* God’s patronage (Ex. 6:7).

Proposition 8: ANE rituals served to meet the needs of the gods

Thesis: rituals provide the means by which order is maintained.  I agree with what he is saying but he didn’t offer any argumentation or have any textual support.

Proposition 9: Israelite ritual maintains to preserve covenant order because Yahweh has no needs

At this point there is a clear break between ANE societies and Israel.  Yahweh doesn’t need to be pampered. Therefore, the ritual exercises maintain a different status quo.  These rituals serve the role of a tribute. It served the purpose of revelation: it revealed (among other things) Yahweh’s order to the world.

Walton points out, but does not develop, that kipper rarely has “person” or “sin” as its object.  It is rather to restore the cultic equilibrium.  It’s not so much that it forgives sin but it allows a person to be forgiven.

Proposition 10: Torah is similar to other ANE codes because it embodies the same cultural context.

This is tricky.  On one hand, it is true by definition.  We don’t live outside space and time. It also makes sense that legal wisdom (or wisdom in general) would bleed through national boundaries.  On the other hand, as Walton admits, establishing that x borrowed from y is very difficult.

Proposition 11: The differences between Torah and ANE codes are found not in legislation, but in establishing order

Unlike other law codes, Torah is concerned with holiness and covenant.  Yahweh, who is holy, has taken to himself a people who are now holy. How should they live?  He gives them Torah to define the nature of the order which reveals himself.

Proposition 12: Torah is situated in the context of the ancient world.

Proposition 13: Torah is situated in the context of covenant.

For many laws in Torah, even if they are functioning as law, they are apodictic, not casuistic. 

Proposition 14: Torah is situated in the context of Israelite theology regarding God’s presence residing among them. 

Propoition 15: Discussions of the law in New Testament context do not tell us anything about Old Testament Torah in context.

Proposition 16: Torah should not be divided into categories to separate what is relevant.

Speaking of the debt-slavery in the Old Testament, Walton notes,

Taxation in Torah times was based on goods-and-barter system, as coins weren’t minted until the Persian period. Therefore, Torah isn’t talking about monetary taxation, giving principles for or against, but warning rulers not to trust in their own strength (as measured by goods).

Proposition 17: Torah was never intended to provide salvation.

Proposition 18: Divine Instruction can function as a metaphor for health rather than law

Proposition 19: We cannot gain ethical knowledge by reading Torah apart from its culture.

His basic claim is the difficulty in finding out which passages contain moral (and only moral) principles and which are ceremonial.  The immediate counter is that “Thou shalt not kill” seems fairly moral.

Proposition 20: Torah cannot provide prooftexts for solving problems today.

He isn’t saying we shouldn’t go to Torah for ethical wisdom.  He means only that many of the passages don’t neatly fit today.  He has an excellent discussion on Deut. 24:1-4. 

Some Thoughts on the “Ten Commandments.”  

Torah actually doesn’t call them that. They are the “Ten Words” (Ex. 20:1’ 34:28).

 

From the Stone Age to Christianity (Albright)

Albright, William F. From the Stone Age to Christianity. Garden City, New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1957.

Reading this book was like being introduced to an old friend. No one can read widely in Old Testament studies without coming across the name of William F. Albright. But one might not have read him: some of his major works are out of print. In any case, Albright was a scholar of the highest caliber. Albright’s methods are more critical than mine, but he does defend the basic historicity of the Old Testament. While sections of the book are tedious (e.g., the dating of various pottery), the book as a whole is a literary joy to read. He writes with that old school style, somewhat similar to Arthur Lovejoy.

There is something of elitism in this book. Albright has little patience for amateurs. He’s probably justified, though. Amateurish lexicography has ruined many sermons, for example. Albright writes, “In few fields of learning has more nonsense been perpetrated by amateurs, i. e., by enthusiasts who are unwilling to submit to the painfully rigid discipline of the linguistic method” (Albright 45). He then explains how proper linguistic analysis proceeds: induction, deduction, and analogical reasoning (42-43). In other words, he helps you avoid the word = concept fallacy. “Actually, no competent lexicographer in any language fixes the precise meaning of a word by its etymology but rather by collecting as many passages where the word occurs as possible or practicable and by listing all meanings and shades of meaning in them” (46).

He explains why Hegelianism was so popular among Old Testament scholars in the 19th century. It was something of a necessity (pardon the pun). Scholars read the OT and saw a wide variety of data representing different time periods. One doesn’t even have to accept the documentary hypothesis to realize that some parts of the Old Testament represent a more “prophetic” cast while others have a “priestly” accent. Hegel allowed the reader to put all of these facts into a coherent system. He was wrong in the end, to be sure, but his system had great explanatory power.

While we don’t have to accept an evolutionary development of Israel’s worship (which Albright himself doesn’t advocate), we have to be honest that Israel didn’t fall out of the sky with a fully intact Old Testament. We know that, but examining the history can be messy at times.

We also have to deal with the problem of monotheism. The word is something of an anachronism and doesn’t really explain all the data in the Old Testament. There is only one Yahweh. No one is like him. Sui Generis. For a while it was fashionable to posit henotheism: Israel worshipped Yahweh, but other nations worshipped their gods. That doesn’t really explain the evidence, either. Those who advocate henotheism are usually pushing an evolutionary worldview, anyway. So, henotheism is out of the question. Nonetheless, we still have to deal with apparent henotheistic passages. Jepthath’s response in Judges 11:24 sounds henotheistic: “Wilt thou not possess what Chemosh thy god has given thee?” Albright fails to connect this with Gen. 10-11 and Deut. 4 and 32: God allotted the nations to various beney ha-elohim. That solves the henotheism problem.

Albright’s comparisons with other religions of the time are quite interesting, yet he doesn’t always draw the most powerful inference. He notes of Ninurta that she “spans the whole cosmos and all the gods and goddesses may be symbolically equated with parts of his cosmic body” (218). This doesn’t sound anything like monotheism or henotheism. Rather, it is almost a pure monism. And while Albright notes of monotheistic-sounding religious movements in Egypt, he cautions against reading too much into them. When men like Akhenaten or even Plato spoke like this, this was hardly a religion. These “monotheisms” were so rarified and abstract tha the masses would never fall for it. Sort of like medieval scholasticism. This is why Yahweh, perhaps ironically, is always described in anthropomorphic terms. Calling him “The Ground of Being” or the “essence beyond essence” would have guaranteed failure, and rightly so.

Albright has a quite good account of the Joshua narrative, although speculating that Joshua 10 and Judges 4-5 are probably the same event (275). He also notes clear editorializing in Judges (18:30). He then suggests a striking line of argumentation: there might have been Hebrews in Palestine before Joshua. There is very little spoken of the conquest of north-central Palestine, except for a list of conquered towns in chapter 12 (277).

This book was a joy to read. However, it is only for the intermediate level student.

Stories from Ancient Canaan (Coogan)

This is the first edition, not the second edition edited by Mark Smith.

Coogan, Michael. Stories from Ancient Canaan. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1978.

When God revealed himself to man, he revealed himself using words and concepts that his target audience would have understood. This included the influence of nearby Ugarit. Ugaritic can shed light on several biblical words, like Lotan (Leviathan). It isn’t a crocodile. It is a cosmic serpent (Coogan 106). It lives in the watery depths, the apsu. (And below the Apsu are where the Rephaim dwell).

This book also illustrates perhaps why the Israelites were so tempted by Baalism. The language was often similar and while I believe that most of Torah was written down quite early, it’s doubtful that agrarian farmers would have had bound copies of Torah in their home libraries. And without constant reading, it’s easy to get confused.

Nota Bene: Coogan suggests that Anat has been compared to the Hindu goddess Kali (Coogan 13).

Ugaritic poetry sheds light on many biblical passages, as the biblical writers would have used conceptual currency already in play. Psalm 82 says that “Elohim has taken his place in the Assembly of El/In the midst of the elohim he holds judgment.” This is Divine Council language.

Isaiah 14:13 speaks of the “stars of El.”

Aqhat and Danel

While the text doesn’t actually mention “Sheol,” it uses similar concepts. It also notes that it is a world of “slime” (33, 34). This might partially explain why no one ever looked forward to going to Sheol.

Ba’al is a “son of El,” as Anat tells Aqhat, “You will be able to match your years with Ba’al/Your months with the sons of El” (37). If the Divine Council worldview is true, this means that Ba’al is a fallen ben’ ha-elohim.

The Healers

Coogan suggests the Healers are minor deities of the Underworld. Coogan offers as evidence that the biblical term Rephaim, the demon kings of the Underworld, is also the cognate for healers (rp’um). They live below the (cosmic) waters (Job 26.5).

The Ba’al Cycle

This conflict is worth noting in some detail, as it involves a god’s war against the sea (ym; Heb. yam). And in terms of parallelism, the sea (ym) is also the same as the river (nhr). The poetry in this poem is occasionally striking. Death speaks, “One lip to the earth, one lip to the heavens/He will stretch out his tongue to the stars” (107). Of course, any similarities between Yahweh and Ba’al vanish immediately, as it notes of Ba’al (who is also Zeus–JBA), “He fell in love with a heifer in the desert pasture/a young cow in the fields of Death’s shore: he slept with her 77 times/He mounted her 88 times” (108).

John Walton: Lost World of Genesis

Transferring from my old blog. I plan to finish Walton’s commentary on Genesis today, and I want this review on this blog for when I write the other review.

Like the other “Lost World” books, this is written in proposition format, which makes the arguments easy to follow.  Walton is very clear, even on points where I disagree. There are some flaws in this work, but it is a valuable text.

Proposition 1: Genesis 1 is Ancient Cosmology

This shouldn’t be a controversial claim.  The earth might be 6,000 years old, but there isn’t any underlying science that matches with Genesis 1.  Ancient man wouldn’t have been as interested in Answers in Genesis as he would have in the following questions (19):

* How does God interact with the world?
* Is there such a thing as a natural world?

* Is the cosmos best seen as a machine, a set of material objects, a kingdom, a company?

Proposition 2: Ancient Cosmology is Function Oriented

What does it mean to exist?  A company’s existence is different from a chair’s (23). Walton contrasts a “material ontology” (e.g.,what constitutes a physical chair) with a “functional ontology” (e.g., what makes a business a business)?  There is something to this, to be sure.

Walton says we have focused too much on the material ontology of creation and not its functional ontology (25).  For the ancient man something exists “by virtue of its having a function in an ordered system” (26). Of course, Walton is quick to point out that ancient man would have seen the material constituents of an object (or a universe).

Proposition 3: Create concerns functions

He argues that bara means to assign functions, rather than material constituents.  He then lists about forty usages in the OT where most of the time it is giving a function to something (41).

Proposition 4: The beginning state in Genesis 1 is Nonfunctional

There is some payoff to his claim: if we read Gen. 1:1ff, we aren’t exactly dealing with a mathematical nothingness prior to the Big Bang singularity.  The tohu is simply an unproductive void, rather than a zero-state void (48).  Walton then lists 20 occurences where Tohu means unproductive, rather than non-existent.

Propositions 5: Days 1 to 3 in Genesis 1 Establish Functions

God calls the light “day” instead of just “light.”  Why? Because he is giving a function to it. Further, reading the text functionally allows us to solve a potential problem in Day 2: the sky isn’t really solid (56).  Rather, God is showing us that by a “firmament” in the sky, he is able to order the cosmic geography and keep the “cosmic waters,” always connoting danger, at bay. The firmament establishes cosmic order (57).

Isn’t it strange that God doesn’t actually make anything on Day 3? He does assign functions, however.  Walton: “On Day 1 God created the basis for time; day two the basis for weather; and day three the basis for food” (59).

Days 4 to 6 in Genesis 1 Install Functionaries

Reading the text this way solves the problem of why God created light before he created the sun.  Here is where Walton’s “functional” argument is the strongest: the very point for why God created the sun/stars was to serve as signs for humans.

Proposition 7: Divine Rest is in a Temple

Walton’s functionalism fits very well with the Sabbath.  He notes, “In the ancient world rest is what results when a crisis has been resolved or when stablitiy has been achieved” (73).  This makes sense. When the Bible says “King so-and-so had rest,” it didn’t mean no one in the kingdom did anything; only that he had peace and normal operations were able to function.

God’s resting place is his temple (Ps. 132:7-8; 13-14).

Proposition 8: The Cosmos is a Temple

Standard GK Beale stuff.

Proposition 9: The Seven Days of Genesis 1 Relate to the Cosmic Temple Inauguration

Proposition 10: The Seven Days do not concern material origins

This propositions summarizes the first half of the book.  The argument follows:

1. a) Bara is functional.
2. b) the context is functional (Gen. 1:2 starts with a nonfunctional world)
3. c) the cultural context is functional.
4. d) the theology is functional (cosmic Temple)
5. e) of the seven days, three have no statement of creation of any material component (1, 3, and 7).
6. f) Day 2 could be material, but then we are left believing in a material firmament in the sky.
7. g) Days 4 and 6 have material components, but they are dealt with only on the functional level.

Criticisms

1. He overloads the evidence favoring theistic evolution.  He never engages in analysis with the strongest analysis from Intelligent Design theorists.

2. He never notes the contrast that when ancient paganism saw creation as giving a function to an already existing object, and not creating ex nihilo, it is because in paganism (like today’s Neo-Atheism), matter is eternal and only needs some Demiurge (like the god of Freemasonry) to form it.

3. He criticizes Intelligent Design for being “God of the gaps.”  Precisely what, then, is theistic evolution? Find a gap in the fossil record?  No problem. God providentially furthered evolution along. Anyway, guys like Stephen Meyer aren’t saying, “Must be a God after all.”  What they are saying is that information, especially complex information, points to an Intelligence.

4. He rebuts Behe’s argument of “irreducible complexity” by noting the eye’s structural blind spot.  Stephen C. Meyer, however, blows that out of the water: ““There’s an important physiological reason as to why the retina has to be inverted in the eye,” he said. “Within the overall design of the system, it’s a tradeoff that allows the eye to process the vast amount of oxygen it needs in vertebrates. Yes, this creates a slight blind spot, but that’s not a problem because people have two eyes and the two blind spots don’t overlap. Actually,the eye is an incredible design” (quoted in Strobel, Case for a Creator, 87).

5. His stuff on naturalism isn’t wrong per se, and there is a difference between methodological naturalism and metaphysical naturalism, but he often ends up just using the term naturalism.  He is also rather naive on the courts’ past rulings. Yes, it is true that science pretends not to make any judgment on God, but that is precisely what science then makes statements on what God does and doesn’t do in the physical realm.

5a. Further, Walton isn’t clear on what recent rulings constitute valid science: anything falsifiable, empirical, and validated by the scientific method.  Yet Walton never mentions this nor mentions the huge defeaters to this line of thinking: e.g., evolution isn’t testable by the scientific method, sometimes models for science determine the evidence, sometimes the evidence the models.

6. Walton is to be commended for rejecting Neo-Darwinism, but guess which model controls the system right now?  That’s right, N-D. N-D posits, to use Dawkins’ euphonic phrase, a “Blind Watchmaker.” If Walton’s interesting reading is to gain any credence, he must break the back of N-D.

Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh. Trans. N. K. Sandars. New York: Penguin Books, 1972.

The story is fairly straightforward. What is more interesting is exploring how many parallels to Noah, Hercules, and Nimrod they are. In that exploration we will see new light shed on the nature of Nephilim, giants, and the common interface between Hebrew, Greek, and Assyro-Babylonian cultures.

Gilgamesh is a kind of apkallu. The apkallu were the guardians of esoteric knowledge, seven in number. They are similar to the Watchers in the Aramaic and Enochian traditions. But Gilgamesh is only ⅔ apkallu. This makes him more like a Nephilim than a Watcher.

That raises another question: is Gilgamesh an analogue to Hercules or Nimrod? It’s hard to prove (or disprove!) that, but it is not an impossible supposition.

Did Moses copy the Gilgamesh epic? Even critical scholars today are backing off that. For one, it’s very difficult, especially regarding ancient material, to pinpoint a 1:1 plagiarism. Nonetheless, we shouldn’t ignore the similarities and their polemical value. Brian Godawa does a great job summarizing Gordon Wenham’s research:

1. Divine decision to destroy

2. Warning to flood hero

3. Command to build ark

4. Hero’s obedience

5. Command to enter

6. Entry

7. Closing door

8. Description of flood

9. Destruction of life

10. End of rain, etc.

11. Ark grounding on mountain

12. Hero opens window

13. Birds’ reconnaissance

14. Exit

15. Sacrifice

16. Divine smelling of sacrifice

17. Blessing on flood hero

Notes from the text:

It is interesting there are vampiric elements in this culture, as Enkidu relates his dream to Gilgamesh: “His was a vampire-face” (92).

Gordon J. Wenham, “The Coherence of the Flood Narrative,” Vetus Testamentum 28, no. 3 (1978)

A working ANE bibliography

This is largely drawn from Heiser’s More Unseen Realm site. I tried to delete multiples of the same copy, but I probably missed a few.

Cecelia Grave, “The Etymology of Northwest Semitic sapanu,” Ugarit Forschungen 12 (1980): 221-229

Nicolas Wyatt, “The Titles of the Ugaritic Storm-God,” Ugarit Forschungen 24 (1992): 403-424

W. Herrmann, “Baal,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

J. C. L. Gibson, “The Theology of the Ugaritic Baal Cycle,” Orientalia Roma 53:2 (1984): 202-219

W. Herrmann, “Baal Zebub,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

E. C. B. MacLaurin, “Beelzeboul,” Novum Testamentum (1978): 156-160

Sverre Bøe, Gog and Magog: Ezekiel 38-39 as Pre-text for Revelation 19, 17-21 and 20, 7-10(WUNT 135; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001)

William A. Tooman, Gog of Magog: Reuse of Scripture and Compositional Technique in Ezekiel 38-39 (FAT 52 Reihe 2; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011)

L. J. Lietaert Peerbolte, “Antichrist,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

J. Lust, “Gog,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

Daniel I. Block, The Book of Ezekiel. Chapters 25-48 (The New International Commentary on the Old Testament; Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997-1998)

P. Heinisch, Das Buch Ezechiel übersetzt und erklärt, HSAT 8 (Bonn: Hanstein, 1923)

L. Zalcman, “Orion,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

L. Zalcman, “Pleiades,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

Charles E. Hill, “Antichrist from the Tribe of Dan.,” Journal of Theological Studies 46:1 (1995): 99-117

G. Mussies, “Titans,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation: a Commentary on the Greek Text (New International Greek Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle, Cumbria: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press, 1999)

Geert Wouter Lorein, The Antichrist Theme in the Intertestamental Period (Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 44; London: T & T Clark International, 2003)

W.Bousset, The Antichrist Legend, London: Hutchinson, 1896)

B. McGinn, Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination with Evil (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1994)

G. C. Jenks, The Origins and Early Development of the Antichrist Myth (BZNW 59; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1991)

Mark W. Bartusch, Understanding Dan: an Exegetical Study of a Biblical City, Tribe and Ancestor(Library Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 379; Bloomsbury Publishing, 2003)

William C. Weinrich, “Antichrist in the Early Church,” Concordia Theological Quarterly 49 (1985): 135-47

William Horbury, “Antichrist among Jews and Gentiles,” in Jews in a Greco-Roman World (ed. Martin Goodman; Oxford University Press, 1998), 113-33

Frederick C. Grant, “The Eschatology of the Second Century,” The American Journal of Theology(1917): 193-211

Adylson Valdez, “Number 666 and the Twelve Tribes of Israel,” Revista Biblica 68:3/4 (206): 191-214

C. R. Smith, in “The Portrayal of the Church as the New Israel in the Names and Order of the Tribes in Revelation 7.5-8,” JSNT 39 (1990): 111-18

Nicholas M. Railton, “Gog and Magog: the History of a Symbol,” Evangelical Quarterly 75, no. 1 (2003): 23-44

Bo Reicke, The Disobedient Spirits and Christian Baptism: A Study of 1 Peter 3:19 and Its Context (Acta Seminarii neotestamentici Upsaliensis 13; Copenhagen: E. Munksgaard, 1946; reprinted by Wipf and Stock, 2005)

Ansgar Kelly, The Devil at Baptism: Ritual, Theology, and Drama (Cornell, 1985)

L. W. Hurtado, One God, One Lord: Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism (Continuum, 2003)

Guy Prentiss Waters, The End of Deuteronomy in the Epistles of Paul (WUNT 221; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006)

Sharon Pace Jeansonne, “Jeshurun,” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992)

Douglas Neil Campbell and Fika J. Van Rensburg, “A History of the Interpretation of 1 Peter 3: 18-22,” Acta Patristica et Byzantina 19 (2008): 73-96

W. J. Dalton, Christ’s Proclamation to the Spirits: A Study of 1 Peter 3:18–4:6 (AnBib 23; Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute Press, 1965)

Chad T. Pierce, “Reexamining Christ’s Proclamation to the Spirits in Prison: Punishment Traditions in the Book of Watchers and Their Influence on 1 Peter 3: 18–22,” Henoch 28 (2006): 27-42

Chad T. Pierce, Spirits and the Proclamation of Christ: 1 Peter 3: 18-22 in Light of Sin and Punishment Traditions in Early Jewish and Christian Literature (WUNT 305; Reihe 2; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011)

Douglas E. Brown, “The Use of the Old Testament in 2 Peter 2:4-10a,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Trinity International University, 2003

Erik Waaler, The Shema and the First Commandment in First Corinthians: An Intertextual Approach to Paul’s Re-reading of Deuteronomy (WUNT 253; Reihe 2; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008)

Brian S. Rosner, “ ‘Stronger than He?’ The Strength of 1 Corinthians 10: 22b,” Tyndale Bulletin43 (1992): 171-179

B. J. Oropeza, “Laying to Rest the Midrash: Paul’s Message on Meat Sacrificed to Idols in Light of the Deuteronomic Tradition,” Biblica (1998): 57-68

Bennie H. Reynolds, “Understanding the Demonologies of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Accomplishments and Directions for the Future,” Religion Compass 7:4 (2013): 103-114

Maxwell Davidson, Angels at Qumran: A Comparative Study of 1 Enoch 1-36; 72-108 and Sectarian Writings from Qumran (JSPSup 11; Continuum, 1992)

Aleksander R. Michalak, Angels as Warriors in Late Second Temple Jewish Literature (WUNT 330; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012)

Eric Sorensen, Possession and Exorcism in the New Testament and Early Christianity (WUNT 157 Reihe 2; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2002)

Kevin P. Sullivan, Wrestling with Angels: A Study of the Relationship Between Angels and Humans in Ancient Jewish Literature and the New Testament (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2004)

Graham H. Twelftree, Jesus the Exorcist: A Contribution to the Study of the Historical Jesus(WUNT 54 Reihe 2; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1993)

Guy Williams, The Spirit World in the Letters of Paul the Apostle: A Critical Examination of the Role of Spiritual Beings in the Authentic Pauline Epistles (FRLANT 231; Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009)

R. B. Salters, “Psalm 82:1 and the Septuagint.” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft103, no. 2 (1991): 225-239

Dale Basil Martin, “When Did Angels Become Demons?” Journal of Biblical Literature 129:4 (2010): 657-677

J. E. Rexine, “Daimon in Classical Greek Literature,” GOTR 30/3 (1985) 335–61

S. Ribichini, “Gad,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

N. Wyatt, “Qeteb,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

G. H. Twelftree, “Demon, Devil, Satan,” Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (ed. Joel B. Green and Scot McKnight, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992)

Donald E. Hartley, “2 Corinthians 4:4: A Case for Yahweh as the ‘God of this Age’,” Paper read at the 57^th annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, Valley Forge, PA, 2005

Donald E. Hartley, “The Congenitally Hard-Hearted: Key to Understanding the Assertion and Use of Isaiah 6:9-10 in the Synoptic Gospels” (Ph.D. dissertation, Dallas Theological Seminary, 2005)

G. F. Hasel, “The Polemic Nature of the Genesis Cosmology,” Evangelical Quarterly 46 (1974) 81–102

Luis I. J. Stadelmann, Luis, The Hebrew Conception of the World: A Philological and Literary Study(Analecta Biblica 39; Pontifical Biblical Institute Press, 1970)

Frank Thielman, Ephesians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010)

D. G. Reid, “Elements / Elemental Spirits of the World,” Dictionary of Paul and His Letters (ed. Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G. Reid; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993)

E. Schweizer, “Slaves of the Elements and Worshipers of Angels: Gal. 4:3, 9 and Col. 2:8, 18, 20,”Journal of Biblical Literature 107 (1988): 455-68

Ronn Johnson, “The Old Testament Background for Paul’s Principalities and Powers,” (PhD Dissertation, Dallas Theological Seminary, 2004)

D. G. Reid, “Principalities and Powers,” Dictionary of Paul and His Letters (ed. Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G. Reid; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993)

David E. Stevens, “Daniel 10 and the Notion of Territorial Spirits,” BibSac 157 (2000): 410-431

Aleksander R. Michalak, Angels as warriors in late Second Temple Jewish literature (WUNT 330, Reihe 2; Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012)

Ida Fröhlich, “Theology and Demonology in Qumran Texts,” Henoch 32, no. 1 (2010): 101-129

M. Mach, “Demons,” in The Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, vol. 1 (ed. Lawrence Schiffman and James Vanderkam; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 189–192

Hermann Lichtenberger, “Demonology in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament,” In Text, Thought, and Practice in Qumran and Early Christianity: Proceedings of the Ninth International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, Jointly Sponsored by the Hebrew University Center for the Study of Christianity (Studies of the Texts of The Desert of Judah 84; Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2009), 267-280

G. H. Twelftree, “Demon, Devil, Satan,” ed. Joel B. Green and Scot McKnight, Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992)

T. Elgvin, “Belial, Beliar, Devil, Satan,” ed. Craig A. Evans and Stanley E. Porter, Dictionary of New Testament Background: a Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000)

Philip S. Alexander, “The Demonology of the Dead Sea Scrolls,” The Dead Sea Scrolls After Fifty Years: A Comprehensive Assessment, vol. 2 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1998-1999): 351-353

Craig A. Evans, “Inaugurating the Kingdom of God and Defeating the Kingdom of Satan,” Bulletin for Biblical Research 15:1 (2005): 49-75

Peggy Day, An Adversary in Heaven: śā·ṭǎn in the Hebrew Bible (Harvard Semitic Monographs 43; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988)

Meira Z. Kensky, Trying Man, Trying God (WUNT 289, Reihe 2; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2010)

Zecharia Kallai, “The Patriarchal Boundaries, Canaan, and the Land of Israel: Patterns and Application for Biblical Historiography,” Israel Exploration Journal 47:1-2 (1997): 71-73

Rami Arav, “Hermon, Mount (Place),” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (ed. David Noel Freedman; New York: Doubleday, 1992)

Archaeological Sites in Israel-Banyas: Cult Center of the God Pan,” at the website for the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/IsraelExperience/History/Pages/default.aspx.

Judd H. Burton, “Religion, Society, and Sacred Space at Banias: A Religious History of Banias/Caesarea Philippi, 21 BC-AD 1635,” (PhD Dissertation, Texas Tech University, 2010)

G. Mussies, “Tabor,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

Rafael Frankel, “Tabor, Mount (Place),” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (ed. David Noel Freedman; New York: Doubleday, 1992)

John J. Rousseau and Rami Arav, Jesus and His World: An Archaeological and Cultural Dictionary(Fortress, 1995), 209-210

Chester Charlton McCown, “The Geography of Jesus’ Last Journey to Jerusalem,” Journal of Biblical Literature (1932): 107-129

Richard H. Hiers, “Satan, Demons, and the Kingdom of God,” Scottish Journal of Theology 27, no. 1 (1974): 35-47

Roy Yates, “Jesus and the Demonic in the Synoptic Gospels,” Irish Theological Quarterly 44, no. 1 (1977): 39-57

del Olmo G. Lete, “Bashan,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

W. Röllig, “Hermon,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

S. Applebaum (ed.), The Hermon and Its Foothills (Tel Aviv 1978)

J. B. Curtis, “Har-bašan, ‘the Mountain of God’ (Ps. 68:16 [15]),” Proceedings of the Eastern Great Lakes and Midwest Biblical Societies 6 (1986) 85–95

Moshe Weinfeld, “Sabbath, Temple and the Enthronement of the Lord,” Mélanges bibliques et orientaux en l’honneur de M. Henri Cazelles (ed. A. Caquot, and M. Delcor; Alter Orient und Altes Testament 212; Kevelaer and Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1981), 501–12

Daniel T. Lioy, “The Garden of Eden as a Primordial Temple or Sacred Space for Humankind,” Conspectus: The Journal of the South African Theological Seminary 10 (2010): 25–57

J. F. Healey, “Dagon,”  in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd ed. (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden; Boston; Cologne; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), 216–17

R. E. Friedman, “Tabernacle,” in Anchor Bible Dictionary (ed. David Noel Freedman; New York: Doubleday, 1992), 6:292–300

R. E. Friedman, “The Tabernacle in the Temple,” Biblical Archaeologist 43 (1980):
241–48

Victor Avigdor Hurowitz, “The Form and Fate of the Tabernacle: Reflections on a Recent Proposal,” Jewish Quarterly Review 86.1–2 (July–October 1995), 127–51

Ronald E. Clements, “Sacred Mountains, Temples, and the Presence of God,” in Cult and Cosmos: Tilting toward a Temple-Centered Biblical Theology; Biblical Tools and Studies 18 (ed. L. Michael Morales; Leuven: Peeters, 2014), 69–85

Richard J. Clifford, The Temple and the Holy Mountain,” in Cult and Cosmos: Tilting toward a Temple-Centered Biblical Theology; Biblical Tools and Studies 18 (ed. L. Michael Morales; Leuven: Peeters, 2014), 85–98

H. Niehr, “Zaphon,” in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd ed. (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden; Boston; Cologne; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), 927–29

Richard J. Clifford, The Cosmic Mountain in Canaan and the Old Testament, Harvard Semitic Monographs 4 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972)

C. Grave, “The Etymology of Northwest Semitic ṣapānu,” Ugarit Forschungen 12 (1980): 221–29

E. Lipinski, “El’s Abode,” Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica 2 (1971): 13–68

Lawrence E. Stager, “Jerusalem and the Garden of Eden,” in Cult and Cosmos: Tilting toward a Temple-Centered Biblical Theology; Biblical Tools and Studies 18 (ed. L. Michael Morales; Leuven: Peeters, 2014), 99–118

Victor A. Hurowitz, “Yhwh’s Exalted House—Aspects of the Design and Symbolism of Solomon’s Temple,” in Temple and Worship in Biblical Israel, Proceedings of the Oxford Old Testament Seminar, rev. ed.; (ed.John Day; London: Bloomsbury/T & T Clark, 2007), 63–110

Gershon Edelstein, “Rephaim, Valley of (Place),” in Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, vol. 5 (ed. David Noel Freedman; New York: Doubleday, 1992)

Duane F. Watson, “Hinnom Valley (Place),” Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, vol. 3 (ed. David Noel Freedman; New York: Doubleday, 1992)

G. C. Heider, “Molech,” in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd ed. (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden; Boston; Cologne; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), 581–85

H. Rouillard, “Rephaim,” in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd ed. (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden; Boston; Cologne; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), 692-700

C. E. L’Heureux, “The Ugaritic and the Biblical Rephaim,” Harvard Theological Review 67:3 (1974) 265–274

S. B. Parker, “The Feast of Rāpiʾu,” Ugarit Forschungen 2 (1970) 243–249

J. C. de Moor, “Rapiʾuma-Rephaim,” Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 88 (1976) 323–345

Henryk Drawnel, “The Mesopotamian Background of the Enochic Giants and Evil Spirits,” Dead Sea Discoveries 21:1 (2014): 14-38

Nicolas Wyatt, “A Royal Garden: The Ideology of Eden.” Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 28, no. 1 (2014): 1-35

Seung Il Kang, “Creation, Eden, Temple, and Mountain: Textual Presentations of Sacred Space in the Hebrew Bible,” Ph.D. dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, 2008

Menachem Haran, “The Ark and the Cherubim: Their Symbolic Significance in Biblical Ritual.” Israel exploration journal 9, no. 1 (1959): 30-38

Ronald S. Hendel, ” ‘The Flame of the Whirling Sword’: A Note on Genesis 3: 24,” Journal of Biblical Literature (1985): 671-674

Karel van der Toorn, “Nimrod Before and After the Bible,” Harvard Theological.

Ronald S. Hendel, “Of Demigods and the Deluge: Toward and Interpretation of Genesis 6:1–4,” Journal of Biblical Literature 106.1 (March 1987): 13-26

B. Becking, “Rapha,” in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd ed. (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden; Boston; Cologne; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), 687

Aharon Kempinski, “Some Philistine Names from the Kingdom of Gaza,” Israel Exploration Journal 37:1 (1987): 20–24

Aren M. Maeir, Stefan J. Wimmer, Alexander Zukerman, and Aaron Demsky, “A Late Iron Age I/Early Iron Age II Old Canaanite Inscription from Tell eṣ-Ṣâfī /Gath, Israel: Palaeography, Dating, and Historical-Cultural Significance,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 351 (2008): 39–71

E. C. B. MacLaurin, “Anak/ʾανξ,” Vetus Testamentum 15:4 (1965): 468–74

P. Kyle McCarter Jr., I Samuel: A New Translation with Introduction, Notes and Commentary, Anchor Yale Bible 8 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008)

Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel, New American Commentary 7 (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1996)

Daniel J. Hays, “The Height of Goliath: A Response to Clyde Billington,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 50.3 (2007): 509–16

G. Ernest Wright, “Troglodytes and Giants in Palestine,” Journal of Biblical Literature 57.3 (September 1938): 305–09

A. Macalister, “Report on the Human Remains Found at Gezer, 1902–3,” Palestine Exploration Quarterly 35.4 (1903): 322–26

Yossi Nagar, “Human Osteological Database at the Israel Antiquities Authority: Overview and Some Samples of Use,” Bioarchaeology of the Near East 5 (2011): 1–18

• See http://anthropology.uw.edu.pl/05/bne–05–01.pdf

Baruch Arensburg, “The Peoples in the Land of Israel from the Epipaleolithic to Present Times: A Study Based on Their Skeletal Remains,” Ph.D. diss., Tel-Aviv University, 1973

Baruch Arensburg and Y. Rak, “Jewish Skeletal Remains from the Period of the Kings of Judaea,” Palestine Exploration Quarterly 117.1 (1985): 30–34

Adrienne Mayor, The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001)

Adrienne Mayor, Fossil Legends of the First Americans (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005)

James L. Hayward, “Fossil Proboscidians and Myths of Giant Men,” Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies 12 (1984): 95–102

Taika Helola Dahlbom, “A Mammoth History: The Extraordinary Journey of Two Thighbones,” Endeavour 31.3 (2007): 110–14

Sonia R. Zakrewski, “Variation in Ancient Egyptian Stature and Body Proportions,” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 121.3 (2003): 219–29

P. H. K. Gray, “The Radiography of Mummies of Ancient Egyptians,” Journal of Human Evolution 2.1 (1973): 51–53

Michelle H. Raxter, Christopher B. Ruff, Ayman Azab, Moushira Erfan, Muhammad Soliman, and Aly El-Sawaf, “Stature Estimation in Ancient Egyptians: A New Technique Based on Anatomical Reconstruction of Stature,” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 136.2 (2008): 147–55

James Bennett Pritchard, ed., The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures, 3rd ed., with supplement (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969)

Trude Dothan and Moshe Dothan, People of the Sea: the Search for the Philistines (New York: Macmillan, 1992)

Trude Dothan, “Tel Miqne-Ekron: The Aegean Affinities of the Sea Peoples’(Philistines’) Settlement in Canaan in Iron Age I,” in Recent Excavations in Israel: A View to the West (1995): 41-60

Philip P. Betancourt, “The Aegean and the Origin of the Sea Peoples,” in The Sea Peoples and Their World: A Reassessment (University Museum Monograph 108; Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000): 297-303

Jane C. Waldbaum, “Philistine Tombs at Tell Fara and their Aegean Prototypes,” American Journal of Archaeology (1966): 331-340

Alexander A. Bauer, “Cities of the Sea: Maritime Trade and the Origin of Philistine Settlement in the Early Iron Age Southern Levant,” Oxford Journal of Archaeology 17, no. 2 (1998): 149-168

S. Wachsman, “To the Sea of the Philistines,” in The Sea Peoples and Their World: A Reassessment (University Museum Monograph 108; Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000): 103-144

Trude Dothan, “Reflections on the Initial Phase of Philistine Settlement,” in The Sea Peoples and Their World: A Reassessment (University Museum Monograph 108; Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000): 145-159

David O’Connor, “The Sea Peoples and the Egyptian Sources,” in The Sea Peoples and Their World: A Reassessment (University Museum Monograph 108; Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000): 85-102

Jonathan N. Tubb, “Sea Peoples in the Jordan Valley,” in The Sea Peoples and Their World: A Reassessment (University Museum Monograph 108; Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000): 181-196

Ephraim Stern, “The Settlement of Sea Peoples in Northern Israel,” in The Sea Peoples and Their World: A Reassessment (University Museum Monograph 108; Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000): 197-212

Aaron J. Brody and Roy J. King, “Genetics and the Archaeology of Ancient Israel,” Human Biology 85, no. 6 (2013): 925-939

A. Yasur-Landau, The Philistines and Aegean Migration at the End of the Late Bronze Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)

F. M. Cross, and L. E. Stager, “Cypro-Minoan Inscriptions found in Ashkelon,” Israel Exploration Journal 56/2 (2006): 129-159

Andrew R. George, “The Tower of Babel: Archaeology, History, and Cuneiform Texts,” Archiv für Orientforschung 51 (2005/2006): 75–95

H. Rouillard, “Rephaim,” in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd ed. (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden; Boston; Cologne; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), 692-700

Scott Noegel, “The Aegean Ogygos of Boeotia and the biblical Og of Bashan: Reflections of the same myth,” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 110, no. 3 (1998): 411-426

Karel van der Toorn, “Funerary Rituals and Beatific Afterlife in Ugaritic Texts and in the Bible,” Bibliotheca Orientalis 48 (1991) 40–66

C. E. L’Heureux, “The Ugaritic and the Biblical Rephaim,” Harvard Theological Review 67:3 (1974) 265–274

S. B. Parker, “The Feast of Rāpiʾu,” Ugarit Forschungen 2 (1970) 243–249

J. C. de Moor, “Rapiʾuma-Rephaim,” Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 88 (1976) 323–345

J. A. Emerton, “The ‘Mountain of God’ in Psalm 68:16,” in History and Interpretations
of Early Israel: Studies Presented to Eduard Nielsen (ed. A. Lemaire and B. Otzen; Leiden: Brill, 1993) 24–37

F. C. Fensham, “Ps 68:23 in the Light of Recently Discovered Ugaritic Tablets,”
Journal of Near Eastern Studies 19 (1960) 292–93

Henryk Drawnel, “The Mesopotamian Background of the Enochic Giants and Evil Spirits,” Dead Sea Discoveries 21:1 (2014): 14-38

John H. Walton, “The Mesopotamian Background of the Tower of Babel Account and Its Implications,” Bulletin for Biblical Research 5 (1995): 155–75

Martti Nissinen, “Akkadian Rituals and Poetry of Divine Love,” in Mythology and Mythologies: Methodological Approaches to Intercultural Influences; Proceedings of the Second Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project Held in Paris, France, October 4–7, 1999, Melammu Symposia 2 (ed. R. M. Whiting; Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 2001), 93–136

Beate Pongratz-Leisten, “Sacred Marriage and the Transfer of Divine Knowledge: Alliances between the Gods and the King in Ancient Mesopotamia,” in Sacred Marriages: The Divine-Human Sexual Metaphor from Sumer to Early Christianity (ed. Martti Nissinen and Risto Uro; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2008), 43–72

Russell E. Gmirkin, Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus: Hellenistic Histories and the Date of the Pentateuch, Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 433 (London: T&T Clark, 2006)

K. van der Toorn, “Nimrod before and after the Bible,” Harvard Theological Review 83.1 (January 1990)

G. del Olmo Lete, “Bashan,” in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd ed. (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden; Boston; Cologne; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), 161–63

James H. Charlesworth, “Bashan, Symbology, Haplography, and Theology in Psalm 68,” in David and Zion: Biblical Studies in Honor of J. J. M. Roberts [ed. Bernard Frank Batto and Kathryn L. Roberts; Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2004], 351–372

Menahem Haran, Temples and Temple-Service in Ancient Israel: An Inquiry into the Character of Cult Phenomena and the Historical Setting of the Priestly School (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978).

Jonathan Klawans, Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple: Symbolism and Supersessionism in the Study of Ancient Judaism (Oxford University Press, 2006)

Jonathan Klawans, “Rethinking Leviticus and Rereading Purity and Danger,” AJS Review 27, no. 01 (2003): 89-101

Jonathan Klawans, “Pure Violence: Sacrifice and Defilement in Ancient Israel,” Harvard Theological Review 94, no. 02 (2001): 135-157

Jonathan Klawans, Impurity and sin in ancient Judaism Oxford University Press, 2004

Barry M. Gittlen, Sacred time, sacred place: archaeology and the religion of Israel (Eisenbrauns, 2002)

J. E. Taylor, “The Asherah, the Menorah and the Sacred Tree,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 66 (1995) 29–54

R. W. Klein, “Back to the Future: The Tabernacle in the Book of Exodus,” Int 50 (1996) 264–76

G. A. Klingbeil, “Ritual Space in the Ordination Ritual of Aaron and His Sons as found in Leviticus 8,” JNSL 21 (1995) 59–82

R. P. Knierim, “Conceptual Aspects in Exodus 25:1–9,” in Pomegranates and Golden Bells: Studies in Biblical, Jewish, and Near Eastern Ritual, Law, and Literature in Honor of Jacob Milgrom(ed. D. P. Wright, D. N. Freedman and A. Hurvitz Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1995) 113–23

P. P. Jenson, Graded Holiness: A Key to the Priestly Conception of the World (JSOTS 106; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992

F. M. Cross, “The Priestly Tabernacle and the Temple of Solomon,” in From Epic to Canon: History and Literature in Ancient Israel (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998) 84–95

T. Frymer-Kensky, “Pollution, Purification, and Purgation in Biblical Israel,” in The Word of the Lord Shall Go Forth: Essays in Honor of David Noel Freedman in Celebration of His Sixtieth Birthday, ed. C. Meyers and M. O’Connor (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1983) 399–414

J. Gammie, Holiness in Israel (OBT; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1989)

J. E. Hartley, “Holy and Holiness, Clean and Unclean,” Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003)

R. E. Averbeck, “Tabernacle,” Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003)

D. P. Wright, The Disposal of the Impurity: Elimination Rites in the Bible and in Hittite and Mesopotamian Literature (SBLDS 101; Atlanta 1987) 15–74

D. P. Wright, “Azazel,” Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 1: 536–537

L. L. Grabbe, “The Scapegoat: A Study in Early Jewish Interpretation,” JSJ 18 (1987) 152–167

W. F. Albright, “The Furniture of El in Canaanite Mythology,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 91 (1943): 39-44

Richard Averbeck: “Sacrifices and Offerings,” Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003)

Richard Averbeck, “כָּפַר (kāpar II),” New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), 689–709

James Palmer, “Exodus and the Biblical Theology of the Tabernacle,” in Heaven on Earth (ed. T. Desmond Alexander and Simon Gathercole; Carlisle England: Paternoster Press, 2004), 11-22

Gregory Beale, “The Final Vision of the Apocalypse and Its Implications for a Biblical Theology of the Temple‍,” in Heaven on Earth (ed. T. Desmond Alexander and Simon Gathercole; Carlisle England: Paternoster Press, 2004), 191-210

Jon D. Levenson, Creation and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), especially chapter 7

Eric E. Elnes, “Creation and Tabernacle: the Priestly Writer’s ‘Environmentalism’,” Horizons in Biblical Theology 16, no. 1 (1994): 144-155

T. Stordalen, Genesis 2-3 and Symbolism of the Eden Garden in Biblical Hebrew Literature (CBET 25; Leuven: Peeters, 2000)

A. M. Rodriguez, “Sanctuary Theology in the Book of Exodus,” Andrews University Seminary Studies 29 (1991): 213-224

Shimon Bakon, “Creation, Tabernacle, and Sabbath,” Jewish Bible Quarterly 25, no. 2 (1997): 79-85

Daniel C. Timmer, Creation, Tabernacle, and Sabbath: The Sabbath Frame of Exodus 31:12-17; 35:1-3 in Exegetical and Theological Perspective (FRLANT 227; Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009)

Richard J. Clifford, “The Tent of El and the Israelite Tent of Meeting,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 33.2 (1971): 221-27

Carol Myers, “Lampstand,” Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), vol. 4:143

Carol L. Meyers, The Tabernacle Menorah: A Synthetic Study of a Symbol from the Biblical Cult(Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2003)

Menahem Haran, “The Ark and the Cherubim: Their Symbolic Significance in Biblical Ritual,” Israel Exploration Journal 9:1 (1959): 30-38

B. Janowski, “Azazel,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

Hayim Tawil, “Azazel, the Prince of the Steepe: A Comparative Study,” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 92:1 (1980): 43-59

Dominic Rudman, “A Note on the Azazel Goat Ritual,” Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 116:3 (2004): 396-401

Robert Helm, “Azazel in Early Jewish Tradition,” Andrews University Seminary Studies 32:3 (Autumn 1994): 217-226

Gerald Cooke, “The Israelite King as Son of God,” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 73, no. 2 (1961): 202-225

Adela Yarbro Collins and John Joseph Collins, King and Messiah as Son of God: Divine, human, and angelic messianic figures in biblical and related literature (Eerdmans, 2008)

Erminie Huntress, ” ‘Son of God’ in Jewish Writings Prior to the Christian Era,” Journal of Biblical Literature (1935): 117-123

Daniel T. Lioy, “The Garden of Eden as a Primordial Temple or Sacred Space for Humankind,” Conspectus: The Journal of the South African Theological Seminary 10 (2010): 25-57

M. J. Selman, “The Kingdom of God in the Old Testament,” TynBul 40 (1989), 161–183

W. H. Rose, “Messiah,” Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 565–68

T. N. D. Mettinger, King and Messiah: The Civil and Sacral Legitimation of the Israelite Kings(ConBOT 8; Lund: Gleerup, 1976)

John Day, ed. King and messiah in Israel and the ancient Near East: proceedings of the Oxford Old Testament Seminar (Vol. 270; Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013)

K. M. Heim, “Kings and Kingship,” Dictionary of the Old Testament: Historical Books (ed. Bill T. Arnold and H. G. M. Williamson; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005)

T. C. G. Thornton, “Charismatic kingship in Israel and Judah,” The Journal of Theological Studies14, no. 1 (1963): 1-11

Keith W. Whitelam, “Israelite kingship: The royal ideology and its opponents,” The World of Ancient Israel: Sociological, Anthropological and Political Perspectives (1989): 119-139

Aubrey Rodway Johnson, “Living Issues in Biblical Scholarship Divine Kingship and the Old Testament,” The Expository Times 62, no. 2 (1950): 36-42

Gregory K. Beale, The temple and the church’s mission: a biblical theology of the dwelling place of God (InterVarsity Press, 2004)

Jeffrey Jay Niehaus, God at Sinai: covenant and theophany in the bible and Ancient near East(Zondervan, 1995)

L. Michael Morales, The Tabernacle Prefigured: Cosmic Mountain Ideology in Genesis and Exodus(Biblical Tools and Studies 15; Peeters, 2011)

Ida Zatelli, “Astrology and the Worship of the Stars in the Bible,” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 103, no. 1 (1991): 86-99

A. Rofé, The Belief in Angels in Israel in the First Temple Period in the light of Biblical Traditions(Heb; Jerusalem 1969), English edition: The Belief in Angels in the Bible and in Early Israel(Jerusalem 1979)

Esther J. Hamori, “When Gods Were Men”: The Embodied God in Biblical and Near Eastern Literature (BZAW 384; Berlin: Walter deGruyter, 2008)

John Ronning, The Jewish Targums and John’s Logos Theology (Baker Academic, 2010)

Alan F. Segal, Two Powers in Heaven: Early Rabbinic Reports about Christianity and Gnosticism (reprint, Baylor University Press, 2012)

Alan R. Millard, “The Celestial Ladder and the Gate of Heaven (Gen 28:12, 17),” Expository Times 78 (1966/67) 86–87

C. Houtman, “What Did Jacob See in His Dream at Bethel? Some Remarks on Gen 28:10–22,” Vetus Testamentum 27 (1977) 337–51

Benjamin D. Sommer, The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009)

Sandra L. Richter, The Deuteronomistic History and the Name Theology: l^ešakkēn š^emô šām in the Bible and the Ancient Near East (BZAW 318; Berlin: Walther de Gruyter, 2002)

Ian Wilson, Out of the Midst of the Fire: Divine Presence in Deuteronomy (SBL Dissertation Series 151; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995)

Michael B. Hundley, “To Be or Not to Be: A Reexamination of Name Language in Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomistic History,” Vetus Testamentum 59 (2009): 533-555

Michael B. Hundley, Keeping Heaven on Earth: Safeguarding the Divine Presence in the Priestly Tabernacle (Forschungen Zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe; vol. 50; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011)

Clinton E. Arnold, “Returning to the domain of the powers: Stoicheia as evil spirits in Galatians 4: 3, 9,” Novum Testamentum 38, no. 1 (1996): 55-76

S. Bhayro, The Shemihazah and Asael Narrative of 1 Enoch 6-11: Introduction, Text, Translation and Commentary with Reference to Ancient Near Eastern Antecedents (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 322; Münster: Ugarit Verlag, 2005)

George W. E. Nickelsburg, “Scripture in 1 Enoch and 1 Enoch as Scripture,” in Texts and Contexts: Biblical Texts in Their Textual and Situational Contexts: Essays in Honor of Lars Hartman(Oslo: Scandinavian University Press, 1995), 333-54

Victor Matthews, Old Testament Parallels (rev. and exp. ed.; Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2007), 21–42

John H. Walton, Ancient Israelite Literature in Its Cultural Context (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994)

Bill Arnold and Brian Beyer, Readings from the Ancient Near East: Primary Sources for Old Testament Study (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2002)

Richard S. Hess and David Toshio Tsumura, eds., I Studied Inscriptions from before the Flood: Ancient Near Eastern, Literary, and Linguistic Approaches to Genesis 1–11, SBTS 4 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1994)

Alan Millard and W. G. Lambert, Atra-Hasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood with the Sumerian Flood Story (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2010)

Anne Draffkorn Kilmer, “The Mesopotamian Counterparts of the Biblical Nepilim,” in Perspectives on Language and Text: Essays and Poems in Honor of Francis I. Andersen’s Sixtieth Birthday, July 28, 1985 (ed. Edgar W. Conrad and Edward G. Newing; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1987): 39–44

Andrew George, The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)

Andrew George, “The Gilgamesh Epic at Ugarit,” Aula Orientalis 25 (2007): 237–54

Wayne Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1998)

Loren T. Stuckenbruck, “The ‘Angels’ and ‘Giants’ of Genesis 6:1–4 in Second and Third Century BCE Jewish Interpretation: Reflections on the Posture of Early Apocalyptic Traditions,” Dead Sea Discoveries 7.3 (2000): 354–77

John C. Collins, “Watcher,” in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd ed. (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Grand Rapids, MI; Eerdmans, 1999)

J. C. Reeves, “Utnapishtim in the Book of the Giants?” Journal of Biblical Literature 112 (1993): 110-15

Matthew Goff, “Gilgamesh the Giant: The Qumran Book of Giants’ Appropriation of Gilgamesh Motifs,” Dead Sea Discoveries 16 (2009): 221-53

Brian Doak, The Last of the Rephaim: Conquest and Cataclysm in the Heroic Ages of Ancient Israel, Ilex Series 7 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013)

Annette Yoshiko Reed, Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Receptionof Enochic Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005)

Peter H. Davids, The Letters of 2 Peter and Jude (Pillar New Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006)

Michael Green, 2 Peter and Jude: An Introduction and Commentary (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 18; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1987)

Jerome H. Neyrey, 2 Peter, Jude: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (Anchor Yale Bible 37C; New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2008)

G. Mussies, “Titans,” in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd ed. (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden; Boston; Cologne; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

G. Mussies, “Giants,” in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd ed. (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden; Boston; Cologne; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

David M. Johnson, “Hesiod’s Descriptions of Tartarus (Theogony 721–819),” The Phoenix 53:1-2 (1999): 8–28

J. Daryl Charles, “The Angels under Reserve in 2 Peter and Jude,” Bulletin for Biblical Research15.1 (2005): 39–48

George W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch 1–36, 81–108 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001)

Pieter G. R. de Villiers, ed., Studies in 1 Enoch and the New Testament (= Neotestamentica 17; Stellenbosch: University of Stellenbosch Press, 1983)

Richard J. Bauckham, 2 Peter, Jude (Word Biblical Commentary; Dallas: Word, 1998)

James C. VanderKam, “1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature,” in The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (ed. James C. VanderKam and William Adler; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996), 33–101

Archie T. Wright, The Origin of Evil Spirits: The Reception of Genesis 6:1–4 in Early Jewish Literature (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 198, second series; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013)

Loren T. Stuckenbruck, “The ‘Angels’ and ‘Giants’ of Genesis 6:1–4 in Second and Third Century BCE Jewish Interpretation: Reflections on the Posture of Early Apocalyptic Traditions,” Dead Sea Discoveries 7.3 (2000): 354-77

Ida Fröhlich, “Theology and Demonology in Qumran Texts,” Henoch 32.1 (2010): 101-128

Hermann Lichtenberger, “Spirits and Demons in the Dead Sea Scrolls,” in The Holy Spirit and Christian Origins: Essays in Honor of James D. G. Dunn (ed. James D. G. Dunn, Graham Stanton, Bruce W. Longenecker, and Stephen C. Barton; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004), 22–40

Ida Frölich, “Mesopotamian Elements and the Watchers Traditions,” in The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions (ed. Angela Kim Hawkins, Kelley Coblentz Bautch, and John Endres; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014), 11–24

Amar Annus, “On the Origin of the Watchers: A Comparative Study of the Antediluvian Wisdom in Mesopotamian and Jewish Traditions,” Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha19.4 (2010): 277–320

John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible (Baker Academic, 2006

Luist Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World: A Philological and Literary Study(Analecta Biblica, No 39; Pontifical Institute Press, 1970)

E. Theodore Mullen, Jr., “Divine Assembly,” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, vol. 2 (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 215–216

S. B. Parker, “Sons of (The) God(S),” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

E. Theodore Mullen, The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature (Harvard Semitic Monographs 24; Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1980)

Lowell K. Handy, Among the Host of Heaven: The Syro-Palestinian Pantheon as Bureaucracy(Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1994)

Matitiahu Tsevat, “God and the Gods in Assembly,” Hebrew Union College Annual 40–41 (1969–1970): 123-137

Mark S. Smith, “Astral Religion and the Representation of Divinity: The Cases of Ugarit and Judah,” Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World (ed. Scott Noegel, Joel Walker, Brannon Wheeler; University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003), 187-206

Alan Scott, Origen and the Life of the Stars: The History of An Idea (Oxford Early Christian Studies; Oxford University Press, 1994

Ellen White, Yahweh’s Council: Its Structure and Membership (FZAT 65; 2 Reihe; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2014)

• Note the date—this is not Ellen G. White of Seventh Day Adventism!
• See my review of White’s book (starts on p. 39 of the PDF file at this link)

Patrick D. Miller, “Cosmology and World Order in the Old Testament The Divine Council as Cosmic-Political Symbol,” Horizons in Biblical Theology 9, no. 2 (1987): 53-78.

David Marron Fleming, “The Divine Council as Type Scene in the Hebrew Bible (Bible).” PhD diss., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1989

Min Suc, Kee, “The heavenly council and its type-scene,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 31, no. 3 (2007): 259-273

James Stokes Ackerman, “An exegetical study of Psalm 82: a thesis.” PhD diss., Harvard University, 1966

R. B. Salters, “Psalm 82, 1 and the Septuagint,” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft103, no. 2 (1991): 225-239

Lowell K. Handy, “Sounds, Words and Meanings in Psalm 82,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 47 (1990): 51-66

Willem S. Prinsloo, “Psalm 82: once again, gods or men?” Biblica (1995): 219-228

Daniel F. Porter, “God Among the Gods: An Analysis of the Function of Yahweh in the Divine Council of Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 82,” Masters Thesis; Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and Graduate School (2010)

Mark S. Smith, “When the Heavens Darkened: Yahweh, El, and the Divine Astral Family in Iron Age II Judah’,” Symbiosis, Symbolism, and the Power of the Past: Canaan, Ancient Israel, and Their Neighbors from the Late Bronze Age Through Roman Palaestina (2003): 265.

Ida Zatelli, “Astrology and the Worship of the Stars in the Bible,” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 103, no. 1 (1991): 86-99.

S. B. Parker, “Sons of (The) God(S),” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

G. Cooke, “The Sons of (the) God(s), Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 76 (1964) 22–47

F. Lelli, “Stars,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999).

Guy Waters, The End of Deuteronomy in the Epistles of Paul (WUNT 221; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006)

Michael P. Dick, Born in Heaven, Made on Earth: The Making of the Cult Image in the Ancient Near East (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1999)

Casper J. Labuschagne, The Incomparability of Yahweh in the Old Testament (E. J. Brill, 1966)

Catrin H. Williams, “I am He”: The Meaning and Interpretation of “ANI HU” in Jewish and Early Christian Literature (WUNT 113, Reihe 2; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1999)

Nathan MacDonald, Deuteronomy and the Meaning of” Monotheism (FZAT 1, Reihe 2; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2012)

Mark S. Smith, The origins of biblical monotheism: Israel’s polytheistic background and the Ugaritic texts. Oxford University Press, 2001

Michael S. Heiser, “The Divine Council in Late Canonical and Non-Canonical Second Temple Jewish Literature.” PhD diss., UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON, 2004

Michael S. Heiser, “Should אלהים (ʾelōhîm) with Plural Predication be Translated “Gods”? Bible Translator 61:3 (July 2010): 123-136

Susan Ackerman, Under Every Green Tree: Popular Religion in Sixth-Century Judah (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992)

David Penchansky, Twilight of the Gods: Polytheism in the Hebrew Bible (Westminster John Knox Press, 2005)

Randall Garr, In His own Image and Likeness: Humanity, Divinity, and Monotheism (Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 15; Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2003)

Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar (ed. E. Kautzsch and Sir Arthur Ernest Cowley; 2d English ed.; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910), 379 (Par. 119.i.)

Paul Joüon and Takamitsu Muraoka, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (vol. 2; Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 2003), 486 (Par. 133.c.).

Bruce K. Waltke and Michael Patrick O’Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax(Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1990), 197–198.

Cyrus Gordon, “ ‘In’ of Predication or Equivalence,” Journal of Biblical Literature 100 (1981) 612-613.

Richard J. Clifford, The Cosmic Mountain in Canaan and the Old Testament (Harvard Semitic Monographs 4; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972; reprinted by Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2010)

Richard J. Clifford, “The Temple and the Holy Mountain,” in The Temple in Antiquity (Religious Monograph Series 9; ed. T. G. Madsen; Provo, Utah, 1984), 107-124

Geo Widengren, The King and the Tree of Life in Ancient Near Eastern Religion (King and Saviour IV; Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1951)

Tryggve N. D. Mettinger, The Eden Narrative: A Literary and Religio-Historical Study of Genesis 2-3 (American Oriental Society, 2007)

J. M. Lundquist, “What Is a Temple? A Preliminary Typology” In The Quest for the Kingdom of God: Studies in Honor of George Mendenhall (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1983), 205-219

J. M. Lundquist, “The Common Temple Ideology of the Ancient Near East,” in The Temple in Antiquity (Religious Monograph Series 9; ed. T. G. Madsen; Provo, Utah, 1984), 53-76

I. Cornelius, “גַּן,” New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, ed. W. A. VanGemeren (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1997), 1.875–78

Daniel T. Lioy, “The Garden of Eden as a Primordial Temple or Sacred Space for Humankind,” Conspectus: The Journal of the South African Theological Seminary 10 (2010): 25-57

I. Cornelius, “The Garden in the Iconography of the Ancient Near East,” Journal of Semitic Studies 1 (1989) 204–28

G. J. Wenham, “Sanctuary Symbolism in the Garden of Eden Story,” in “I Studied Inscriptions from Before the Flood”: Ancient Near Eastern and Literary Approaches to Genesis 1–11, ed R. S. Hess and D. Tsumura (SBTS 4: Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1994) 19–25

L. Michael Morales, The Tabernacle Prefigured: Cosmic Mountain Ideology in Genesis and Exodus(Biblical Tools and Studies 15; Peeters, 2011

John J. Collins, “Watcher,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

M. J. Davidson, Angels at Qumran. A Comparative Study of 1Enoch 1–36, 72–108 and Sectarian writings from Qumran (JSP Sup 11; Sheffield 1992), 38–40

R. Murray, “The Origin of Aramaic ʿîr, Angel, Orientalia 53 (1984): 303–317

Aleksander R. Michalak, Angels as warriors in late Second Temple Jewish literature(Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament 2 Reihe 330; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012

H. J. van Dijk, Ezekiel’s Prophecy on Tyre (Ez. 26:1–28:19): A New Approach (Biblica et orientalia 20; Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1968)

Kelley Coblentz Bautch, A Study of the Geography of 1 Enoch 17-19: ‘No One Has Seen What I Have Seen’ (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2003

James Harrell, “Gemstones,” UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 1 no. 1 (2012), 5 (Table 1, pts. 5-6)

F. Perie, “Precious Stones,” Dictionary of the Bible (vol. IV; ed. J. Hastings; New York: Scribner, 1919), 619–21

J. L. Myres, Encyclopedia Biblica (vol. IV; ed. T. K. Cheyne and J. S. Black; New York: Macmillan, 1903), 4799–4812

E. F. Jourdain, “The Twelve Stones in the Apocalypse,” ExpT 22 (1911) 448–50

Daniel Isaac Block, The Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 25–48 (The New International Commentary on the Old Testament; Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997)

Richard J. Clifford, The Cosmic Mountain in Canaan and the Old Testament (Harvard Semitic Monographs 4.; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972)

John Gray, “The Desert God ʿAthtar in the Literature and Religion of Canaan,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 78 (1949): 72-83

Ulf Oldenburg, “Above the Stars of El: El in Ancient South Arabic Religion,” ZAW 82 (1970): 187-208

Alice Wood, Of Wings and Wheels: A Synthetic Study of the Biblical Cherubim (BZAW 385; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2008

 

Naked Bible Bibliography

Heiser’s name came up on Puritanboard recently.  Despite themselves, it ended up being a good discussion.  Heiser–and students of his like yours truly–are usually laughed at for quoting Genesis 6:1-4 and the book of Jude.  But this discussion stayed on more basic topics.  Some people tried to pull the whole “he is heterodox and anything good he’s said, others have already said.”  That’s a completely useless sentence.  If you say that, you need to immediately supply a bibliography.  No one did.

So I decided to supply one.  This is from his websites.

E. Theodore Mullen, Jr., “Divine Assembly,” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, vol. 2(New York: Doubleday, 1992), 215–216

S. B. Parker, “Sons of (The) God(S),” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible(Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

Michael S. Heiser, “Divine Council,” The Lexham Bible Dictionary (ed. John D. Barry and Lazarus Wentz; Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012)

Michael S. Heiser, “Divine Council,” in the Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry, and Writings (Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 2008
E. Theodore Mullen, The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature(Harvard Semitic Monographs 24; Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1980)

Lowell K. Handy, Among the Host of Heaven: The Syro-Palestinian Pantheon as Bureaucracy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1994)

Matitiahu Tsevat, “God and the Gods in Assembly,” Hebrew Union College Annual40–41 (1969–1970): 123-137

Mark S. Smith, “Astral Religion and the Representation of Divinity: The Cases of Ugarit and Judah,” Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World (ed. Scott Noegel, Joel Walker, Brannon Wheeler; University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003), 187-206

Alan Scott, Origen and the Life of the Stars: The History of An Idea (Oxford Early Christian Studies; Oxford University Press, 1994.

asper J. Labuschagne, The Incomparability of Yahweh in the Old Testament (E. J. Brill, 1966)

Catrin H. Williams, “I am He”: The Meaning and Interpretation of “ANI HU” in Jewish and Early Christian Literature (WUNT 113, Reihe 2; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1999)

Nathan MacDonald, Deuteronomy and the Meaning of” Monotheism (FZAT 1, Reihe 2; Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2012)

Mark S. Smith, The origins of biblical monotheism: Israel’s polytheistic background and the Ugaritic texts. Oxford University Press, 2001.

Kline, M. G. “Creation in the Image of the Glory-Spirit.” WTJ 39 (1977) 250–72.

J. M. Lundquist, “What Is a Temple? A Preliminary Typology” In The Quest for the Kingdom of God: Studies in Honor of George Mendenhall (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1983), 205-219

J. M. Lundquist, “The Common Temple Ideology of the Ancient Near East,” in The Temple in Antiquity (Religious Monograph Series 9; ed. T. G. Madsen; Provo, Utah, 1984), 53-76

I. Cornelius, “גַּן,” New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, ed. W. A. VanGemeren (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1997), 1.875–78

Daniel T. Lioy, “The Garden of Eden as a Primordial Temple or Sacred Space for Humankind,” Conspectus: The Journal of the South African Theological Seminary10 (2010): 25-57

I. Cornelius, “The Garden in the Iconography of the Ancient Near East,” Journal of Semitic Studies 1 (1989) 204–28

G. J. Wenham, “Sanctuary Symbolism in the Garden of Eden Story,” in “I Studied Inscriptions from Before the Flood”: Ancient Near Eastern and Literary Approaches to Genesis 1–11, ed R. S. Hess and D. Tsumura (SBTS 4: Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1994) 19–25

L. Michael Morales, The Tabernacle Prefigured: Cosmic Mountain Ideology in Genesis and Exodus (Biblical Tools and Studies 15; Peeters, 2011

John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), 123-124, 196-198

On the Watchers in Daniel 10 and Daniel 10 more generally:

John J. Collins, “Watcher,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst; Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999)

M. J. Davidson, Angels at Qumran. A Comparative Study of 1Enoch 1–36, 72–108 and Sectarian writings from Qumran (JSP Sup 11; Sheffield 1992), 38–40

R. Murray, “The Origin of Aramaic ʿîr, Angel, Orientalia 53 (1984): 303–317

Aleksander R. Michalak, Angels as warriors in late Second Temple Jewish literature(Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament 2 Reihe 330; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012

Skinner, J. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis. ICC. 2d ed. Edinburgh: Clark, 1930

Johann Jakob Stamm, “Die Imago-Lehre von Karl Barth und die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft,” Antwort. FS Karl Barth, Zürich-Zollikon (1956): 84-98.

Barker, Margaret. The Great Angel: A Study of Israel’s Second God. Louisville, KY: Westminster / John Knox Publishers, 1992

Bauckham, Richard, “The Throne of God and the Worship of Jesus” Pages 43-69 in The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism: Papers from the St. Andrews Conference on the Historical Origins of the Worship of Jesus. Edited by C. Newman, J. Davila, and G. Lewis. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1999

Bauckham, Richard, God Crucified: Monotheism & Christology in the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998

Boyarin, Daniel. “The Gospel of the Memra: Jewish Binitarianism and the Prologue to John,” Harvard Theological Review 94:3 (July, 2001), 243-284

Boyarin, Daniel, “Two Powers in Heaven; or, The Making of a Heresy,” Pages 331-370 in The Idea of Biblical Interpretation: Essays in Honor of James L. Kugel. Leiden: Brill, 2003

Fossum, Jarl E. The Image of the Invisible God: Essays on the Influence of Jewish Mysticism on Early Christology. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1995

Gathercole, Simon. The Pre-Existent Son: Recovering the Christologies of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006

Hannah, Darrell D. Michael and Christ: Michael Traditions and Angel Christology in Early Christianity. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 109. Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1999

Hurtado, Larry W. “What Do We Mean by ‘First-Century Jewish Monotheism’?” Pages 348-368 in Society of Biblical Literature 1993 Seminar Papers. Edited by E. H. Lovering Jr. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993

Hurtado, Larry W. One God, One Lord: Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988

Hurtado, Larry W. Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003

Hurtado, Larry W. “First-Century Jewish Monotheism.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 71 (1998): 3-26

Hurtado, Larry W. “Jesus’ Divine Sonship in Paul’s Epistle to the Romans,” Pages 217-233 in Romans and the People of God. Edited by N. T. Wright and S. Soderlund. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999

Hurtado, Larry W. “The Binitarian Shape of Early Christian Worship.” Pages 187-213 in The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism, Papers from the St. Andrews Conference on the Historical Origins of the Worship of Jesus. Edited by Carey C. Newman, James R. Davila and Gladys S. Lewis, Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, ed. John J. Collins. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1999

Hurtado, Larry W. How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?: Historical Questions about Earliest Devotion to Jesus. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005

Lee, Aquila H. I. From Messiah to Pre-existent Son. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 192. Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2005; reprinted Wipf and Stock, 2009

Segal, Alan F. Two Powers in Heaven: Early Rabbinic Reports about Christianity and Gnosticism. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1977

Victor Matthews, Old Testament Parallels: Laws And Stories from the Ancient Near East

Kenton Sparks, Ancient Texts for the Study of the Hebrew Bible: A Guide to the Background Literature

Larry Helyer, Exploring Jewish Literature of the Second Temple Period: A Guide for New Testament Students (Christian Classics Bible Studies)

Craig Evans, Ancient Texts for New Testament Studies: A Guide to the Background Literature

D. deSilva, Introducing the Apocrypha: Message, Context, and Significance

Foster, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature

Foster, From Distant Days: Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia

Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others

Jacobsen, The Harps that Once … Sumerian Poetry in Translation

Ugaritic Texts:

N. Wyatt, Religious Texts from Ugarit

digital version

Gibson, Canaanite Myths and Legends

digital version

M. Coogan and M. Smith, Stories from Ancient Canaan

David L. Fouts, “A Defense of the Hyperbolic Interpretation of Large Numbers in the Old Testament,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 40 (1997): 377-387

Basics of Ancient Ugaritic

 

Williams, Michael.  Basics of Ancient Ugaritic.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2012.

While this presentation has severe limitations, in many ways those limitations aid the intermediate reader in Hebrew studies.  As is commonly pointed out, the vocabulary between Hebrew and Ugaritic is almost identical in places. This aids the Hebrew student. Further, Ugaritic concepts (or perhaps concepts common to both Ugaritic and Hebrew) shed light on sometimes ambiguous Hebrew passages.

If you study this book, you won’t be able to read cuneiform.  That’s not really a drawback, since never in your life will you be in a situation where you will need to do that.  Therefore, Michael Williams simply transliterates the cuneiform. That is valuable for the Hebrew student since he can see parallels between the two languages and cultures.

As lagniappe, I will summarize Williams’ chapter on the conceptual world of ancient Ugarit.

The Ugaritic World

Deities:

• El, father of the gods and head of pantheon.
  • Ba’al, Anat, and Mot are his children.
  • Aged deity who does not actively rule. In Ezekiel 28:2 the King of Tyre says, “I am El, king of the gods.”
  • He lives on a cosmic mountain
• Ba’al
  • His name means lord.
  • Defeats the sea god, Yamm, and the dragon Lotan.
  • Associated with the weathe.
  • He lives on Mt Zaphon
• Anat, sister and consort of Ba’al.
• Athirat/Asherah.
  • The great goddess, consort of El.
  • Worshipped in Tyre and Sidon primarily, perhaps explains Jezebel’s actions (1 Kgs 16:31-32, passim)
  • Associated with a cultic pole or phallic symbol (Deut. 16:21; 7:5).
• Yamm, the Sea
  • Son of El, enemy of Ba’al
  • Sometimes associated with Lotan (Heb. liwyatan) or Tunnan (tannin).
  • Bible mentions a cosmological battle with the Sea (Ps. 74:13. 89:9-10).
• Mot.
  • God of Death. Enemy of Ba’al.

Literary Figures

Who is Dan’el? See Ezek. 14:14, 20, and 28:3.

Lotan = Leviathan

Rephaim: these are the inhabitants of the underworld (Williams 21ff). They are rapa’uma.  The key passage is Isaiah 14:9, “The realm of the dead is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the repa’im to greet you, all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones–all those who were kings over nations.”

But they aren’t just demon kings of the underworld.  There was perhaps a parallel race above. King Og was the last of the Rephaites” (Deut. 3:11).