Israelite Religion

This chapter examines some of the assumptions that are typically employed when dealing with the development of the Hebrew Bible. The first part of the chapter is a critique of the very term "Jewish Bible." It points out some of the problems with the term and make a plaidoyer against being politically correct. The second part focuses on what it means to explain the "development" of the Hebrew Bible and suggests that diachronic analysis alone cannot fully explain its formation. In this author's view, proper understanding of the development of the Bible requires drawing upon intellectual and literary models more commonly associated with the period of the “reception of scripture” than with conventional composition history.

This work analyzes Iron Age graffiti from the site of Kuntillet ‘Ajrud, Israel from a form critical perspective, drawing upon parallels in the corpus of Egyptian dedicatory graffiti. I also discuss the tension between orality and literacy in ritual performance, and the evolving importance of writing in Ancient Israel and Judah.

An updated version, with the addition of one paragraph. I also recommend that you read the Tree of Life (1st and 2nd Part), which is now also published here in Academia. This is a post on my blog, and also a supplement to my last book titled, The Torah of the Messiah.

Here is my blog: http://secretofbereshit.blogspot.com/

Winner – 2021 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise. Reviewed in:
Vetus Testamentum, 72, no. 2 (2022): 348–350.
https://brill.com/view/journals/vt/72/2/article-p348_13.xml
Review of Biblical Literature (05/2022):
https://www.sblcentral.org/API/Reviews/13524_72038.pdf
Review of Biblical Literature (03/2022):
https://www.sblcentral.org/home/bookDetails/13524
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 45, no. 5 (Book List 2021) :
https://doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1177/030908922110017
Rivista Biblica Italiana 69, no. 2 (2021), 277–82
https://www.academia.edu/77359238/Recensioni_03_Bianchi_J_Rhyder_Centralizing_the_Cult_The_Holiness_Legislation_in_Leviticus_17_26_FAT_134_Mohr_Siebeck_T%C3%BCbingen_2019_
Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 83, no. 1 (2021): 131–33.
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/781558
Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 133, no. 2 (2021): 288–89.
https://doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.1515/zaw-2021-2007
AJS Review, 44, no. 2 (2020): 414–16.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0364009420000148
Old Testament Abstracts, 43 (2020): 885–86.
Zeitschrift für altorientalische und biblische Rechtgeschichte 26 (2020): 321–24.
https://doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.13173/zeitaltobiblrech.26.2020.0321

This work provides new insights into the relationship between the Holiness legislation in Leviticus 17–26 and processes of cultic centralization in the Persian period. The author departs from the classical theory that Leviticus 17–26 merely presume, with minor modifications, a concept of centralization articulated in Deuteronomy. She shows how Leviticus 17–26 use ritual legislation to make a new, and distinctive case as to why the Israelites must defer to a central sanctuary, standardized ritual processes, and a hegemonic priesthood. This discourse of centralization reflects the historical challenges that faced priests in Jerusalem during the Persian era: in particular, the need to compensate for the loss of a royal sponsor, to pool communal resources in order to meet socio-economic pressures, and to find new means of negotiating with the sanctuary at Mount Gerizim and with a growing diaspora.

https://books.google.ch/books?id=h_u1DwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

A new analysis of the cult places in Palestine and Transjordan of the first millennium B.C. has been performed despite the many existing studies on the history and archaeology of Iron Age Palestine and Transjordan and on the religion of this period. This research was carried out in attempt to identify the main architectural development trends (it is difficult to say typologies) of Iron Age sacred architecture based on the documentation and analysis of all the cult places brought to light in the Southern Levant.
According to the Old Testament, the Israelites settled in Palestine during the Iron Age (ca. 1200-586 BC). They established the monotheistic cult of Yahweh and fought against their neighbours over territorial as well as cultural and religious issues. The Bible has been, and still is of great historical and political importance for the reconstruction of the roots of our civilisation, so much that even today biblical texts are considered historical documentation. The main issue is to verify the historicity of the events described by the Bible and to build, if possible, a history of Iron Age Palestine and Transjordan based on archaeological documentation independent from biblical tradition. The aim of this work is to be instrumental in developing a historical analysis of this subject and attempt to provide an objective archaeological documentation of the Iron Age cult places of Palestine and Transjordan.
The first part of the book illustrates the archaeological evidence. Data are arranged site by site, along with a brief history of the excavations. It also reports different interpretations by archaeologists of the material discovered based on re-examination of the documentation of past excavations, and, in some cases, contains additional remarks by the author. In this way, the available data and possible interpretations are kept apart, thus providing readers with a clear documentation and allowing them to choose the interpretative course they wish to pursue.
An initial difficulty encountered in this research is the inaccuracy of the data produced by the excavations. Archaeology is not an exact science, since human interpretation is always inevitably superimposed on documentation. Data provided by excavations of the first half of the 20th century are often confused in many respects, as there were no modern technologies of stratigraphic investigation and the current knowledge of the characteristics of pottery assemblage of every single period was not available. This documentation must be re-examined in the light of recent information, such as stratigraphic sequences obtained from new excavations at the same sites, or from comparison with recently discovered materials at other sites. Nonetheless, also data collected by recent archaeological researches can be distorted by the historical perspective of the archaeologists who dug and published the materials and structures that were brought to light.
The sites included in the analysis are grouped into four main geographical areas: Northern Palestine, Southern Palestine, the Southern Palestinian coast and Transjordan. It is inevitably an arbitrary subdivision, followed mainly to provide an initial idea of the geographical distribution of Iron Age cult places brought to light by archaeological excavations. No distinction was made between historical territorial areas, such as Philistia, Judah, Israel, Ammon, Moab and Edom, because these political organizations varied in extent considerably over the course of time and also rose at different times. Therefore, this approach prevented structures of a definite site phase from being attributed to a kingdom or a culture the site did not belong to, either because the kingdom or culture had not risen yet, or because its borders had shifted.
The documentation in the first part of the book is the outcome of a first important choice reached using criteria that help to identify what can be regarded as a cult place. The remains of Iron Age cult places in Palestine and Transjordan are in effect fairly poor, there being only few monumental structures whose architectonical and spatial plan, as well as use and function in the community, are clear. Diversely, there are many poorly preserved small buildings or simple installations whose sacred nature is much more difficult to define. For example some cult activities could share the same space used for other daily activities (such as in domestic sacella), thus producing difficult to interpret documentation. On this subject the teachings of Colin Renfrew have proven very useful to single out some elements of the archaeological context that can show the occurrence of sacred rituals. The presence of some of the indicators mentioned by Renfrew reveals a cult space even when it is clearly not a temple building that is easily identified by its architectonic plan and the materials collected inside. Other two elements that can help to identify a sacred place are the uninterrupted use of the same area for ritual purposes and the possible analogy of architectonic plan, characteristics and disposition of sacred furniture with other obvious cult structures. As M.D. Coogan observed, the religious sphere is in general conservative, so in multi-periodical sites the sacred area was possibly maintained on the same location for a long time, and cult structures followed traditional typologies.
The second part of the book tried to distinguish the presence of architectural and spatial typologies adopted in Iron Age cult places in Palestine and Transjordan, and hence to identify the common architectural traditions in the area. This level of research widened the reference geographical area and historical period and included some structures of Bronze Age sacred architecture (in particular buildings of Late Bronze Age) of Palestine and Transjordan, as well as some temples of the neighbouring lands connected with the Southern Levant during the Iron Age, i.e. Cyprus, Phoenicia, Syria, northern Mesopotamia and Egypt. This broadened horizon explained the origins of many characteristic elements of architectonic typologies documented in the area, whose development often did not strictly adhere to local customs but absorbed suggestions and accepted the architectonic and spatial traditions of neighbouring civilizations.
Many scholars have studied the sacred architecture of this period. In particular, Y. Shiloh’s analysis of the cult spaces of Palestine during the Iron Age stressed the presence of small cultic corners placed inside residential buildings as well as sacred structures like temples and sanctuaries, which, until then, had been regarded as almost the only examples of cult places existing in Iron Age Palestine. This consideration undermined the previous idea of a religion that was strictly organised within official public sacred areas and shed light on the presence of a variety of cult places with different functions and appearances.
The perspective proposed by A. Mazar paved the way to research on the comparison of architectonic traditions in the areas surrounding Palestine, in particular Cyprus and Syria. His conclusions sparked off a lively debate and are still a starting-point for future research.
J.S. Holladay’s analysis of regions ruled by the kingdoms of Judah and Israel during the Iron Age II provides many useful elements for understanding the complexity of cult forms and their architectonic expressions. The distinction between domestic and corporate cult places is particularly interesting and, within the latter, between sacred areas devoted to an established worship and those devoted to a “nonconformist” worship. The identification of a plurality of sacred spaces helped to reconstruct a more complex and complete picture of peoples’ religious life than the one offered by biblical accounts.
The third and last part of the book reviews the conclusions made in the previous two sections within a wider historical perspective, analysing the distribution of different cult place typologies during the various historical phases of the Iron Age. On one hand, the archaeological data gathered so far provide important data on the reconstruction of the religion, society and culture of the areas studied, while, on the other, the historical events themselves help to confirm the value of some interpretative hypothesis. Why particular typologies of cult place arose and what their function was in the societies of Palestine and Transjordan during the Iron Age, or why and how architectonic traditions and suggestions from other regions of the Near East and Mediterranean were adopted, can only be understood within the framework of a wider historical context. The extraordinary variety of cult spaces documented in this research seems to become readable and to make sense if the particular historical, social and political situation of the area is taken into account. The pattern of sacred architecture during the Iron Age appears to be coherent with the division of the Palestine-Transjordan region during this period into many political and cultural “niches” that were nevertheless open to suggestions coming from a wide international scenario (Egypt, Cyprus, Phoenicia, Syria, Assyria). There was neither a common cultural tradition in the region nor was there a dominant strong power, and this hindered the development of a coherent and univocal architectonic language, a tradition. And, the various “niches” of the area often adopted architectonic solutions that had been conceived by the neighbouring civilisations, i.e. in the coastal plain of Palestine, where elements of Cypriote architecture were often accepted, in Judah, where the Solomon temple followed a well established North Syrian tradition and some Phoenician inspirations, and in other areas of Palestine and Transjordan that were influenced by neo-Assyrian architecture.
This research identified some characteristic features of the whole area. In the first place, the articulation of populations’ religious life on several levels is evident, as previously mentioned by Holladay. The religious experience was not limited to participation in public official ceremonies, nor to private worship in the houses, but also took place in different cult spaces spread throughout the settlements, for example in quarter-sanctuaries or cult installations placed in public squares or next to fortified gates, or also in extra-urban sanctuaries. Secondly, it was possible to recognize the constant cohabitation of official worship and “Nonconformist” religion: the former generally took place in temples built by government institutions, while the latter was performed in simpler cult structures which often were less codified in their architectonic and spatial plan. Lastly, another feature shared by the numerous cultures documented in Palestine and Transjordan during the Iron Age was the persistence of a polytheistic religion, only partly stemmed by the emergence of some national gods, like Yahweh in the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, Milkom in Ammon, Kemosh in Moab and Qos in Edom. A strict monotheistic doctrine developed mainly in Judah and Israel, yet it did not manage to wipe out the other popular cults.
However, local originality and a new architectonic language can only be found in unofficial cult structures, in smaller temples, and in extra-urban and regional sanctuaries. These include the Iron Age temple of Tell ‘Arad, and the Hellenistic and Persian temples of Lakish and Beersheba based on the “Four-Room House” plan typical of Iron Age Palestine, the road-sanctuaries of Ḥorvat Qitmit and ‘Ain Ḥazeva and other extra-urban sanctuaries which followed a functional architectonic plan designed to delimitate a sacred area suitable for corporate rituals and to receive the offerings of travellers journeying along the trade roads.

If AIPAC involves itself in religious conflicts and takes stands on issues unrelated to Israel's security, it will narrow its base of support. AIPAC deserves the wholehearted support of every Jew. As we enter the Three Weeks, during which traditional Jews observe acts of mourning to remember the destruction of the Temple, I am reminded of an incident that occurred 56 years ago at this time. Rabbi Moshe Sherer, the legendary leader of Agudath Israel of America, was invited to meet with president John F. Kennedy regarding an upcoming vote in the United Nations that was unfavorable to Israel.

התערוכה 'דיוקנאות קין: ייצוגים של "אחרים" באמנות העכשווית בישראל' עסקה בפעולת הסימון בחברה הישראלית, באחרות, דיכוי וחפצון, כשנקודת המוצא לדיון זה היה האירוע התנ"כי של רצח הבל על ידי אחיו, קין. המאמר "המצאת המוות" עוסק בראשוניות מעשה לקיחת החיים, כפי שהדבר מובא במקור התנ"כי, ובביטויו והשפעתו על עיצוב זהויות הקרבן והפוגע באמנות הישראלית.

"...  the negative attitude to 'idolatry' in the Old Testament is not informed by any single pre-occupation or belief. The story of Micah demonstrated at least a perception that some worshippers of Yahweh might employ cult statues, of the sort used by other religions to enable and ensure the presence of their deities on earth; the infamous calves created by Jeroboam are possibly to be understood in these terms. The tradition of aniconism, however, does seem to have been firmly ingrained within Yahwism, and for much of the biblical literature the worship of idols is condemned simply as apostasy: such worship is identified with the cults of other religions, and forbidden to Yahwists. This aniconism ... probably does not reflect an inherently different concept of divinity or divine presence. In such institutions as the ark and the Bread of the Presence, indeed, the cult of Yahweh probably showed itself to conceive of such matters in a very similar way.
  Principally in quite late texts, however, we do find a series of polemics against idolatry which are concerned not so much to condemn or deter apostasy, as to prove the superiority of Yahweh by denigrating the gods or practices of other religions. It is reasonable to speculate that these focus on idolatry largely because its aniconism was one of the most distinctive traits of Yahwism, and images in other religions were thus a visible and obvious point of attack. In any case, the texts deploy a variety of arguments against the use of cult images, sometimes misrepresenting, wilfully or otherwise, the rationale behind such use...
  I do not want to become extricated in the thorny problem of Old Testament monotheism, but I think that what we are seeing here is one aspect of a process in which foreign deities are not rejected as non existent, so much as demoted from their divine status. At the risk of over simplifying, one might say that Yahweh becomes the only god, because the definition of 'god' is altered to fit only Yahweh"

This book contributes to the theory and practice of Biblical interpretation by engaging in an interpretation of Psalm 24 inspired by a particular understanding of Brevard Childs' "canonical approach": an understanding centred on the concept of "theological substance."

Sumpter shows how the literary, historical, and theological dimensions of Psalm 24 cohere into a single vision by reading the text according to the a dialectic between "witness" and "reality." An initial "synchronic" analysis of the psalm's poetic structure is then related to a "diachronic" reconstruction of the tradition history that lead to the final form. The question is then posed concerning the primary forces at work in this history of composition, a question which leads to reflection on the Trinity, first in se and then pro nobis. This latter dimension takes us back to the text, as its "Davidic" nature is further analysed in relation to the books of Samuel, the Psalter, and Isaiah. Finally, a contemporary actualization of the Psalm by Eberhard Jüngel is compared to its interpretation in Patristic exegesisin order to probe deeper into the mysterious subject matter of the text.

Con questo primo volume si inaugura la nuova edizione interamente rinnovata di un’introduzione sulla quale si sono formate generazioni di studenti e di cultori della Bibbia. Nella nuova versione l’autore della prima parte, riservata all’archeologia e alla geografia (Joaquín González Echegaray) è lo stesso della versione precedente, mentre le altre due parti sono state affidate ad autori nuovi (Francisco Varo si è fatto carico della storia, Ignacio Carbajosa è autore della sezione dedicata al testo e alla critica testuale).
La parte che tratta dell’archeologia si arricchisce ora anche di utili carte geografiche; la parte storica espone la storia dell’Israele antico secondo i criteri interamente ripensati nella ricerca dell’ultimo ventennio, mentre la terza e ultima parte è opera di uno specialista del settore che illustra – anche con dovizia di esempi – la problematica e l’utilità dello studio critico dei testi e dei materiali originari per una lettura della Bibbia che miri a una consapevolezza libera da pregiudizi e al piacere del testo antico.

Judean pillar figurines are one of the most common ritual objects from Iron II Israel. These small terracotta females have received a great deal of scholarly attention, appearing in
discussions about Israelite religion, monotheism, and women's practice. Yet the figurines are still poorly understood. Modern interpreters connect the figurines with goddesses, popular
religion, and females but often base their arguments on the presumed significance of the figurines' breasts and the Hebrew Bible. In contrast, archaeological context is frequently
overshadowed or oversimplified. In an attempt to address these problems and to understand figurine rituals in Jerusalem, Erin Darby evaluates relevant Near Eastern texts, archaeological
context, biblical texts, and Near Eastern iconography. She also explores changes in figurine iconography, the function of the figurines in rituals of healing and protection and the gender of
figurine users.

Excavations conducted on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority at Tel Lachish exposed the southern half of the six-chambered gate in Level III. In the eastern chamber, a gate shrine was uncovered. The shrine was split in two: a larger northern room and a smaller southern room. The southern room, which served as the holy of holies, had a niche in its southern wall in front of which a double altar was placed. Dozens of bowls and oil lamps were revealed inside the shrine. At some point, evidently prior to the destruction of Level III by Sennacherib in 701 b.c.e., the shrine was desecrated and sealed. This act was evident in the breakage of the altar’s horns and the placement of a latrine in the holy of holies. The available data suggests that the desecration of the shrine should be associated with Hezekiah’s cultic reform (2 Kgs 18:4).

The narratives of the Old Testament are rich with characters full and complex. This is one of the geniuses of the authors of Scripture, that though they relate historical events, places and people, they still take time to colour in the rich complexity of the characters involved. Indeed, only in Scripture will you meet people as vastly deep and complex as Abraham, Moses, Samson, Esther, David, Solomon, Ahab, Manasseh, Herod, Pilate, Peter, Paul, and a host of others. And yet the depth and complexity of the characters of Scripture are never shared simply for the sake of literary excellence. These are historical people being described to us. Human as we are. And the literarily shaped narratives in which they are found are given to us by God for our salvation and edification.

This paper will cover the portrayal of just such a character – Josiah, king of Judah from 640-609BC. It will be asked, what is the author trying to convey through his portrayal of Josiah in the narrative of 2 Chronicles 34-35.

The characteristically Isaianic term אליל for other gods does not have its roots in an earlier Semitic adjective, as has often been thought. Rather, it was adopted from Akkadian Illil/Enlil into Hebrew because it reflected the rhetoric of Neo-Assyrian rulers. As in Akkadian, it was used in an extended sense to refer to major divinities; and it was retained in the Isaianic tradition presumably because it was a useful term for »false gods«—readily comprehensible even as a new coinage, yet distinct from the terms used for Yhwh. As anti-idol polemics became increasingly prominent and vicious, the latest Isaianic tradents avoided אליל, preferring more overt terms for idols. Eventually, it came to be reanalyzed as an adjective and used as a mere insult: »worthless«.

Within a literary ontology, YHWH in the Hebrew Bible is technically also a fictional entity or object. In Hebrew Bible scholarship, a variety of philosophical issues surrounding fiction have received sustained and in-depth attention. However, the mainstream research on these matters tends to focus on the philosophical foundations of or backgrounds to a particular literary theory, rather than on metaphysical puzzles as encountered in the philosophy of fiction proper. To fill this gap, the present article seeks to provide a meta-theoretical overview of the main contemporary philosophical perspectives on the metaphysics of fictional objects. Three views (and their sub-currents) are discussed, namely possibilism, (neo-)Meinongianism and (literary) creationism. Each view’s theory is introduced and critically appropriated with reference to what is implied to be an answer to the question of what exactly the biblical character YHWH can meaningfully be said to be in the context of the metaphysics of fictional objects. In this way, the present study also goes beyond the traditional concern with the nature of God in Old Testament theology.

Egyptians used tree imagery over a long period of ancient history in mythological portrayals of revivification in the afterlife, and this aspect of Osirian religion can be distinguished from other manifestations of trees in afterlife texts, including tree goddesses. Classical myths, amuletic finds, and onomastic data all confirm that Osirian religion had an impact in the Levant during the period of Job’s composition. The Book of Job shows a general awareness of Egyptian religion, and the biblical book’s specific constellation of images related to trees and the hope for renewed life are most plausibly to be associated with the Egyptian mythemes described above. The recognition that Job toys with Egyptianizing ideas enriches the reader’s sense of his theological audacity and complexity as a character.

This volume introduces ancient Israel's Scriptures, or the Hebrew Bible, commonly called the Old Testament. It also traces the legacy of monotheism first found in the pages of the Old Testament. Where pertinent to the message of the Old Testament, the book explores issues of history, comparative religions, and sociology, while striking a balance among these topics by focusing primarily on literary features of the text. In addition, frequent sidebar discussions introduce the reader to contemporary scholarship, especially the results of historical-critical research and archaeology. Along the way, the book explores how the Old Testament conceptualized and gave rise to monotheism, one of the most significant developments in history. • Pays unique attention to the origins of monotheism, the common heritage of Jews, Christians, and Muslims • Includes generous number of illustrations, 20 freshly created maps, and frequent sidebar discussions in each chapter, as well as concise chapter summaries and glossary of terms • Has a web component that includes study guides, flashcards, PowerPoint lecture slides and a test bank

Pays unique attention to the origins of monotheism, the common heritage of Jews, Christians and Muslims
Includes a generous number of illustrations, twenty freshly created maps, and frequent sidebar discussions in each chapter, as well as concise chapter summaries and glossary of terms
Has a web component that includes study guides, flashcards, PowerPoint lecture slides and a test bank

Contrariamente a quanto si verifica nella maggior parte delle società moderne, l’ubriachezza come tale non possiede nel mondo antico connotazioni necessariamente negative. In linea generale, queste ultime appaiono allorché l’ordine sociale può essere minacciato da tipi di condotta liberi o favoriti appunto da uno stato di ubriachezza. E’ a questo punto che sorge la stigmatizzazione e talvolta la punizione. Quando questo non è il caso, lo stato alterato di coscienza provocato dall’uso di bevande può addirittura risultare incoraggiato, specie in contesti regolamentati e controllati. L’ubriachezza in quanto condizione speciale alla quale l’individuo accede può inoltre rivestire un valore “magico”, sacro, e il fatto di bere in eccesso può divenire un atto di enorme importanza culturale.
Curiosamente, i fondamenti delle concezioni negative del fatto di bere riposano in gran parte su antiche prevenzioni e, nel caso delle società occidentali, si ricollegano in ultima analisi all’antica tradizione vicino-orientale mediata dai testi biblici e dalla lunga storia della loro interpretazione. Questa circostanza pone in ombra e snatura il ruolo che il bere e, soprattutto, il bere fino all’ubriachezza, aveva nel Levante, presso le culture di Siria e Palestina, che servono da base e da contesto alla documentazione fornita dalla Bibbia ebraica.
Come in molti altri casi, i testi rinvenuti nell’antica città di Ugarit ci permettono per contro di penetrare direttamente in questo retroterra e quadro culturale. Gli archivi ugaritici hanno fornito testimonianze preziose sul bere e sull’ubriachezza nelle culture del Levante mediterraneo. Qui sembra essere esistita un’ubriachezza cosciente e voluta, culturalmente integrata in un più vasto sistema di valori. Alcune di queste testimonianze possono inoltre essere messe in rapporto diretto con il testo biblico, la cui comprensione si chiarisce e si arricchisce di conseguenza.

In The Oracle, 2019, ( Lake Mary, Frontline)  Cahn presents his prophetic interpretation of the modern restoration of Israel and Jerusalem using the story plot defined by Christopher Booker in his Seven Basic Plots as the Quest. A traveler goes on a quest to find the truth of what are called Jubilean mysteries.  He meets a man on a mountain top who had previously been in search of what he calls “the fingerprints of God”. These are defined as “The signs, the markers, the witnesses in the world of the purpose behind everything that it’s [History, life, existence…] not an accident” (p.13). The man on the mountain top then describes for the traveler his vision and his journey to find answers to many mysteries and his encounter with a character called the Oracle who explained his vision and the various mysteries to him. He uses a Jubilee measure besed on the  solar year and reading history unlike the Jubilees in the King is Here of Michael Adi Nachman of a forty nine year cycle with a 50th year inside the 49th year starting at Yom Kippur.

The Noahic Deluge is commonly understood to have resulted from the infiltration
of chaos waters into the ordered universe from two sources: one situated above the
Rāqîaˁ and one underground. This interpretation does not find support in the HB
and contradicts the precepts of the cosmological worldview of the ANE. According
to Gen 6:17 Yahweh uses one single source of water to flood the land, referred to as
הַמַּבּוּל מַיםִ , “the well of waters.” There was a common belief in the ANE that there was a
vast reservoir of fresh water in the underworld on the eastern horizon, beneath the palace
of the sun god. The waters of Life (Ḥayya/Ea) therein, which must be distinguished
from the saline primordial waters of chaos, were used for divine judgement. In spite
of the consensus view that the chaos waters were permitted to enter the cosmos, not
only during the Deluge but every time it rained, it is more likely that Yahweh lifted the
waters of the well beneath his mountain-palace to execute justice and restore order
to the land.

The mention of YHWH's " nostrils " (ʾapayīm) in the Bible is classically interpreted as a metonymy of the face and/or a metaphor for anger. The reference to their length and even to their elongation, however, rules out any entirely satisfying explanation in this semantic context. If this term is construed as a tuyère, as is identified in Dan 10:20, the use of ʾapayīm in Ex 15:8 becomes clear. This interpretation also explains the denotation of patience and loving-kindness as ʾerek ʾapayīm (the so-called " long nostrils " of YHWH) because the air pressure generated by a blast from a tuyère (=its power) decreases proportionally to its length. Accordingly, the liturgical formulae that includes this expression (Ex 34:6; Num 14:18; Joel 2:13; Jon 4:2; Pss 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Neh 9:17) praise YHWH for the forbearance of voluntarily restraining the power of his reaction to annoying events on earth. This interpretation also clarifies the use of ʾap/ʾapayīm in Isa 48:9; Jer 15:15, and Nah 1:3. Furthermore, these last-mentioned instances reveal that beyond their metaphoric meaning, the divine ʾapayīm evoke an essential attribute of YHWH. The significance of these findings is discussed in view of the duality of anthropomorphic and aniconic representations of YHWH in ancient Israel.

During the civil war in the United States 620,000 people died, because a kingdom had been divided. The nation divided politically, over the issue of slavery, and the northern states fought a long bloody war to end slavery forever in the USA. In the end they were victorious, but the cost was more than half a million lives. Americans can be pretty stubborn right? Even today we see our nation just as divided, if not more divided ideologically than even during the civil war. Jesus said a house divided against itself cannot stand. And we'll see today, that the splitting of the kingdom of Israel, between Judah and the northern kingdom would be a crippling blow to the nation.

The Contents of the book,
Book of Secrets of Creation / Sefer Sod Bereshit :
1. The First Day (0-1000 of the Hebrew Calendar)
2. The Second Day (1000-2000)
3. The Third Day (2000-3000)
4. The Fourth Day (3000-4000)
5. The Fifth Day (4000-5000)
6. The Sixth Day (5000-6000)
7.
8. Genesis 2 & 3 Commentary
9. The Truth About the Christ/Messiah - Part I. Genesis 4 Commentary
10. The Truth About the Christ/Messiah -Part II. The Messiah, Son of David
11. Questions

Overall, including the title of the book, there are only 12 short pages.This book contains the truth that exists since the beginning.

(Zechariah 3:9) "See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,' says the LORD Almighty,..." What you are seeing here now is the same as that one stone with seven eyes. This book contains wisdom on the 7 days of creation.

For anyone willing to accept that ancient Israel's presence and burdened subjugation in Egypt could be historical, the question arises as to who this unnamed pharaoh might be, and why he remained unnamed. By comparing the biography of the exodus-pharaoh with the reign of Amenhotep II, the pharaoh who would have sat on Egypt's throne at the time (based on a proper synchronization of Israelite and Egyptian history), an evaluation can be made as to whether this pharaoh fits the many detailed requirements that must be true of the exodus-pharaoh. This paper may represent the most thorough effort yet attempted to identify the exodus-pharaoh with a historical ruler of Egypt.

Though metallurgy is approached today as no more than a technical domain, it had a central cultural importance in the past. This point is illustrated here by the deep metallurgical background of the cult of YHWH, the god of the Bible. This is reflected by the outstanding status of the smiths in Ancient Israel, by the central importance of metallurgy in the Biblical myths of origin, by the symbolism of the Jerusalem temple, by the strong metallurgical affinities of YHWH, revealed by his volcanic theophany, his residence in mining areas and his celestial domain envisioned as a giant furnace. These features reveal that the Israelite religion emerged as the extension to an entire people of beliefs previously belonging to the Canaanite metalworkers. This means that a substantial part of our cultural values are rooted in metallurgical traditions that remain to be rediscovered, investigated and clarified.

A comparison of Aegean and Biblical sources reveals striking similarities between Dionysus and YHWH: both are characterized by the same symbols, the same mode of action and the same theophany; both provoked a comparable doubt concerning their divine nature and/or their actual powers; and both had the same subversive effects with regard to the official pantheon. The homology between YHWH and Dionysus is confirmed by their common vestigial link to copper metallurgy. From Greek literary sources and reflections about the continuous metallurgical influence of Canaan on the Aegean world, it is concluded that during the Bronze Age, Dionysus was probably the Aegean counterpart of YHWH, the mysterious Canaanite god of furnace metallurgy. Further examination suggests that the popularization of the cult of Dionysus in Greece, from the ninth Century BC, underwent a similar process leading in Canaan to the emergence of the Israelite alliance. These findings open new horizons of investigation, both of the Ancient Aegean civilization and of the nature of the popular cult of YHWH in Canaan prior to the monotheistic reform.

I have decided to edit this paper and share it here. As I am not very `Academic ambitious` I`ve never tried to publish this paper on a pro.journal. And yet, I find it useful for a future research. The paper deals with Judaism, `Isralism`, Israeli rock music and its relationship with religion. The paper focuses on Gabriel Balachsan, an Israeli artist & musician. may he rest in peace.

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