Nephilim: Noah Primeval Part 29

[51] Michael S. Heiser The Myth That is True, p 169. Available online at www.michaelsheiser.com.

[52] Hermann Gunkel, Heinrich Zimmern; K. William Whitney Jr., trans., Creation And Chaos in the Primeval Era And the Eschaton: A Religio-historical Study of Genesis 1 and Revelation 12 (Grand Rapids: MI: Erdmans, 1895, 1921, 2006), xvi.

[53] "He cast down her carca.s.s and stood upon it.

After he had slain Tiamat, the leader...He split her open like a mussel into two parts; Half of her he set in place and formed the sky... And a great structure, its counterpart, he established, namely Esharra [earth]."

(Enuma Elish, Tablet IV, lines 104-105, 137-138, 144 from Heidel, Babylonian Genesis, 41-42) [54] Heidel, Babylonian Genesis, 14.

[55] W.W. Davies, The Codes of Hammurabi and Moses: With Copious Comments, Index, and Bible References (Berkeley, CA: Apocryphile Press, 1905, 2006), 17.

[56] John Day, G.o.d's Conflict with the Dragon. Day argues that the Canaanite Baal cycle implies a connection with creation, since it is a ritual fertility festival (cyclical creation) falling on the New Year, traditionally understood as the date of creation. But his strongest appeal is the argument in reverse that the Canaanite myth makes a connection between creation and Chaoskampf because the Old Testament does so.

[57] "Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations and say, 'Thus says the Lord G.o.d to Jerusalem, "Your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite, your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hitt.i.te." (Ezek. 16:1-3) [58] Most recently, David Tsumura has argued against any connection of such mythic struggle in the Biblical text in favor of mere poetic flair: David Tos.h.i.+o Tsumura, Creation And Destruction: A Reappraisal of the Chaoskampf Theory in the Old Testament (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2006).

[59] Bruce R. Reichenbach. "Genesis 1 as a Theological-Political Narrative of Kingdom Establishment." Bulletin for Biblical Research 13.1 (2003).

[60] Clifford. Creation Accounts; footnote 13 p 8.

[61] Samuel Noah Kramer. Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944, 1961, 1972; p 77-78.

[62] The Return of Ninurta to Nippur, Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Robson, E., and Zlyomi, G., The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Oxford 1998-. < http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/myths/texts/ninurta/nippurninurta.htm=""> [63] "Ugarit," Avraham Negev, The Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land. 3rd ed. New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1996.

[64] Wyatt, RTU2, pp 69-70.

[65] In Wyatt, RTU2, pp 79. Charioteer of the Clouds also appears in these texts: KTU 1.3:4:4, 6, 26; 1.4:3:10, 18; 1.4:5:7, 60; 1.10:1:7; 1.10:3:21, 36; 1.19:1:43; 1.92:37, 39.

[66] KTU 1.2:4:27-32.

[67] Though this verse is spoken by the G.o.ddess Anat, Baal's sister, as if she accomplished these exploits, it is described as Baal's actions in other texts (KTU 1.5:1:1-35) that lead scholars to conclude that Anat's claims are a kind of sympathetic unity of action between her and Baal.

[68] KTU 1.5:1:1-4. Wyatt RTU2, p 115.

[69] Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. The Ugaritic Pantheon (dissertation). Ann Arbor, Mich: Brandeis University, 1973, p 212.

[70] Michael Fishbane, Biblical Myth and Mythmaking, Oxford University Press, 2003, 39.

[71] Mitch.e.l.l Dahood S.J., Psalms II 51-100 The Anchor Yale Bible (Yale University Press, 1995) 24.

[72] Odes of Solomon 22:5. James H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament, Volume 2: Expansions of the "Old Testament" and Legends, Wisdom, and Philosophical Literature, Prayers, Psalms and Odes, Fragments of Lost Judeo-h.e.l.lenistic Works (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1985).

[73] See also Isa 51:9; Ezek 32:2; Rev 12:9, 16, 17; [74] An Akkadian equivalent of "Rabu" can be found on the Babylonian Map of the World describing a sea serpent. Wayne Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, Winona Lake; IN: Eisenbrauns, 1998, 35; "Rahab," DDD, 684.

[75] Psalm 18, 29, 24, 29, 65, 74, 77, 89, 93, and 104 all reflect Chaoskampf. See also Exodus 15, Job 9, 26, 38, and Isa 51:14-16; 2Sam 22.

[76] John Owen, Works, 16 vols. (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1965-1968), Vol. 9 134.

[77] See also Psa. 77:16-20; 136:1-22.

[78] N.T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of G.o.d (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1992), 306-307.

[79] James H. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Volume 1, 1 En 18 (New York; London: Yale University Press, 1983).

[80] The book that opened my mind to the Mesopotamian cosmography in the Bible was Evolutionary Creation: A Christian Approach to Evolution by Denis O. Lamoureux, Eugene; OR, Wipf & Stock, 2008. I owe much of the material in this essay to Mr. Lamoureux's meticulous research on the ancient science in the Bible. But one need not accept his evolutionary presuppositions to agree with his Biblical scholars.h.i.+p.

[81] Othmar Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World, Winona Lake; IN: Eisenbrauns, 1972, 1997, 16-59.

[82] Wayne Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, Winona Lake; IN: Eisenbrauns, 1998, xii-xiii.

[83] Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, 25-27.

[84] Photo is public domain (Courtesy of the British Museum). Ill.u.s.tration is my own based on Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, 21.

[85] Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, 320, 334. This interpretation continued to maintain influence even into the Greek period of the 6th century B.C. (41).

[86] A Sumerian hymn to the G.o.d Enlil, Lord of the Wind, represents these ends of the earth within the context of the G.o.d's rule over all the earth: "Lord, as far as the edge of heaven, lord as far as the edge of earth, from the mountain of sunrise to the mountain of sunset. In the mountain/land, no (other) lord resides, you exercise lords.h.i.+p. Enlil, in the lands no (other) lady resides, your wife, exercises ladys.h.i.+p." Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, 331.

"Circle of the earth" in Egyptian understanding meant the disc of the earth unto the horizon "(These) lands were united, and they laid their hands upon the land as far as the Circle of the Earth." "Inscription on the second pylon at Medinet Habu," J.H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Four, University of Chicago, 1906, p 64.

[87] Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, 195-97, 334.

[88] "g" Harris, R. Laird, Robert Laird Harris, Gleason Leonard Archer, and Bruce K. Waltke. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. electronic ed. Chicago: Moody Press, 1999, p 266-67.

[89] Even the Septuagint (LXX) does not translate the Hebrew word into the Greek word for sphere. "Isaiah 40:22," Randall Tan, David A. deSilva, and Logos Bible Software. The Lexham Greek-English Interlinear Septuagint. Logos Bible Software, 2009.

[90] "The Firmament And The Water Above: Part I: The Meaning Of Raqia In Gen 1:6-8,"

Paul H. Seely, The Westminster Theological Journal 53 (1991) 227-40.

[91] Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, 98, 124, 308-12, 336-37.

[92] Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, p 348-362 [93] "Sheol," DDD, p 768.

[94] "Abaddon," DDD, p 1.

[95] "Hades," DDD, p 382.

[96] "They then conducted them [the t.i.tans] under the highways of the earth as far below the ground as the ground is below the sky, and tied them with cruel chains. So far down below the ground is gloomy Tartarus...Tartarus is surrounded by a bronze moat...above which the roots of earth and barren sea are planted. In that gloomy underground region the t.i.tans were imprisoned by the decree of Zeus." Norman Brown, Trans. Theogony: Hesiod. New York: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1953, p 73-4.

[97] 1.25 [tartaroo] Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament : Based on Semantic Domains. electronic ed. of the 2nd edition. New York: United Bible societies, 1996. Bauckham, Richard J. Vol. 50, Word Biblical Commentary : 2 Peter, Jude. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2002, p 248-249.

[98] Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, p 334-348.

[99] The Epic of Gilgamesh XI:40-44. The Ancient Near East an Anthology of Texts and Pictures. Edited by James Bennett Pritchard. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958, p 93.

[100] Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, p 337.

[101] "[Leviathan] regards the netherworld [Tartauros] of the deep [Abyss] like a prisoner. He regards the deep [Abyss] as a walk." Job 41:34, Tan, Randall, David A. deSilva, and Logos Bible Software. The Lexham Greek-English Interlinear Septuagint. Logos Bible Software, 2009.

[102] "The Firmament And The Water Above: Part I: The Meaning Of Raqia In Gen 1:6-8,"

Paul H. Seely, The Westminster Theological Journal 53 (1991) 227-40. http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hildebrandt/OTeSources/01-Genesis/Text/Articles-Books/Seely-Firmament-WTJ.pdf [103] Quoted in The Science in Torah: the Scientific Knowledge of the Talmudic Sages By Leo Levi, page 90-91.

[104] Seely, "The Firmament," p 236.

[105] Robert G. Bratcher, and William David Reyburn. A Translator's Handbook on the Book of Psalms. Helps for translators. New York: United Bible Societies, 1991, p 280. Psalm 29 takes place in heaven amidst G.o.d's heavenly host around his throne.

[106] Seely, "The Firmament," p 228.

[107] Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography.

[108] Othmar Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World, Winona Lake; IN: Eisenbrauns, 1972, 1997, 56-57.

[109] John H. Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (Downers Grove: IL, InterVarsity Press, 2009), 23-36.

Other books by the Author.

Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films with Wisdom.

and Discernment (Intervarsity Press).

Word Pictures: Knowing G.o.d Through Story and Imagination (Intervarsity Press).

Myth Became Fact: Storytelling, Imagination.

& Apologetics in the Bible.

Chronicles of the Nephilim.

Noah Primeval.

Enoch Primordial Gilgamesh Immortal.

Abraham Allegiant Joshua Valiant.

Caleb Vigilant.

David Ascendant Jesus Triumphant.