Ancient Near East

And there's quite a bit that attests to the fact that the general belief is that the reason they're rebuked is precisely because they were worshipping or adoring some form of serpent, or that the object itself was a serpentine magical object.

And I even was going into reading ancient Near Eastern theories of staff magic, right? Like Aaron's staff, Moses' staff that turns to a snake and whatnot.

And the Johnny's and John Murray's, their staff that turns into a snake and whatnot.

So there is, you can think about the caduceus too in a similar way, but those are essentially non-Christian pagan usage of this symbol or this image.

So that's a huge knock, I think, against especially the evangelical Protestant tradition, which is anti-liturgical for the most part.

Crosses and images of crosses were venerated since the early days of the church.

The ancient Near Eastern world honored signets, battle standards, statues, cups.

And if they were iconoclasts, we would have seen the early church adopting that very clear stance.

Mm-hmm.

But if you were to say, based on very careful reading of the conversation that was going on in ancient Near Eastern literature, and what were the kind of questions that they were seeking to answer about the nature of the human condition, and what were the images and metaphors that got used to create the kind of stories that were trying to answer the questions they were asking, not the questions that we're asking – To base someone's commitment to orthodoxy on their best read of that ancient Near Eastern literature and the place of Genesis within it, I think it's a mistake, if not an indication of bad faith.

Well said.

You and Tremper also talked about, and again, this is in light of the conflict in the Middle East, can be a sensitive topic for people.

And God sees her.

Hagar is the only woman in all of ancient Near East literature, not just in the Old Testament, but in all of ancient Near East literature, called by name by a god.

This slave woman, driven out into the wilderness, mistreated, unchosen, abused, exiled.

God calls her by name.

One, give us the kind of non-Divine Council, non-Duramean 32 worldview approach.

Like, if you did not have that in your mind, you're not reading the Hebrew Bible in the context of its ancient Near Eastern context or the New Testament in the context of its Greco-Roman and Hebraic reads as well.

Like, What would be the typical way to teach or preach this? And what does the Divine Council worldview actually help us uncover and see and why does it matter? So are you talking about with just Psalm 89 itself? Yeah, well, you can go wherever you want.

Psalm 89, or even, you know, Jesus preaching at the gates of hell, like the location leading to incessant Philippi being, you know.

In this program, we've got Black Sheep Scout with us, and we're going to be discussing all kinds of fun stuff.

Ancient Near East is going to be a fun program.

You guys stay tuned.

Hey guys, welcome back to the wonderful world of Remnant Radio.

Today we've got a guest with us who goes by the name of Black Sheep Scott, and we're going to be tackling today, man, all kinds of fun stuff, ancient Near East.

We're going to be talking about some of the Nephilim stuff, demon stuff.

It's going to be an interesting program for us today, as always.

And now his physical condition mirrors the blindness that already existed internally.

Ancient Near Eastern warfare often involved public humiliation of defeated enemies.

Prisoners could be mutilated, paraded, and mocked before crowds.

For the Philistines, Samson’s downfall was more than military victory.

No. Yeah, so I know.

I mean, we're, we really are, in this part, whole part, we're up against the fact that the Bible is written for us or, but not necessarily to us, so we have to put in our Ancient Near Eastern frame of reference.

So we have, what, 7,000 sheep, so we have our, a massive amount of flocks.

So this is, we're talking wool and milk here.

I'm a university brat, so that's just where I am.

And then he has, and he has a household to cover it, so the many servants here.

Again, put on our Ancient Near Eastern eyes here, and that's a different issue entirely.

I mean, this is a guy who is, he really is, and I li- I like the example of Solomon here, sort of putting this in that patriarchal period context.

So what comes out about revenge in those compositions?

So one thing that became very striking when I started studying the ancient Near Eastern ethics and narratives is that the stories are occurring in what I would call an honor culture.

And in such a culture, a person's or God's standing depends very heavily on how that individual is perceived by others and acknowledged by others.

So an insult is not simply an unpleasant experience.

But, okay, so honor is really important and therefore has to be defended actively, publicly in the public eye.

Okay, go ahead.

I think what you just mentioned about Barrett and Hamilton with their teams is something that I also saw again and again in these ancient Near Eastern stories, that the question is not just, you know, as you said, who hurt me and who's diminished my standing and how do I restore it? But it's also who's on my team? Who's got my back? And so in all of these stories, there are allies that help arrange and plan and plot the revenge for And there's also a team or an elder or a parent or something that the Avenger will go to for permission and or advice.

So sometimes the formal counsel, sometimes it's just a mentor or a parent or some other authority figure.

Good place.

And Master of Philosophy and PhD, Bible and Ancient Near East, Hebrew Union College.

Whoa.

So this, this- Hmm ...