I do feel he is misreading Mark's article or not reading it at all.
Either you are hurt somewhere by what I wrote or upset, because it is obviously apparent that I did read it. I quoted from it, remember?
Because of your "vampire" title and because of it's Catholic theme on creation, I had to even call someone who told me he was sure I knew Mark (we were in the same room at several events and he just never introduced me).
Mark is quite clear he sees a related parallel myth to the Ugaritic.
I also ended my comments on the article saying it was related to this myth, commenting on how after my discussion with my scholar/translator friend it was explained to me that the idea was that the Psalm might be advancing some inner hymn to a third cosmological creation mythology.
Like Judaism, Catholicism also holds that the Genesis story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is allegorical, so this makes these references equally so.
But since in Catholicism there is great richness in the Garden of Eden allegory, Psalm 8, being a Messianianic/Christological hymn in Catholic liturgy, the idea that it has cosmological creation allegory is important to Catholics. This last part is what I knew I was missing from the article, and was a central point. But being Jewish I needed help since I didn't get it.
The idea that you think Mark is a Catholic apologist like Jimmy Akin makes me realize why you would think I don't know what I don't know what I am talking about. You are still not outside the world of the Witnesses in some ways, despite how many years you have between them or what you have studied. You are thus working hard and perhaps struggling to create your own worldview, which I forget can be difficult to do. Sometimes we feel we can be there only to suddenly realize, no, not yet. Other times we feel like we will never make it to shore. It isn't our fault. We are cast out to see by a system controlled by the Governing Body and I don't think the outside world knows how hard it is to build a person from scratch afterwards.
For many I've met, leaving the Watchtower has meant seeing God as a monster. Why? Because that religion is controlled by monsters. It ruins people's lives. So anything in any form of academic paper that highlights a connection with God as something monstrous or grotesque becomes appealing in a way to sort of say: "See? Here's the proof! I was right. God is a monster."
In reality, Judaism and its writings are quite modern. It is just as much of a false story as what the Jehovah's Witnesses offer, but there was never a Governing Body or masters of one's faith. Instead of a monster at the head, there was status and reward. Instead of a visible idol, our God was invisible. There was no idol to care for in a shrine. The myths could not be verified. There were tons of laws, but they were designed to keep a person Jewish in a world where identity was valuable. God was in the stories of the past. There was no one looking over your shoulder. Judaism was practiced in our home where the doors were closed.
The reward for keeping the rules was eternal, true, but even better for now, there was a feeling of superiority over your Gentile neighbors who you could look down upon for being idol worshipers and stupid. A monster God could not be at the center of all this. Something more "human" had to be there.
The Levitical priesthood was intelligent enough to create a Deity unlike the gods of the nations. The stories may have been distant in time, but the character of the God of Abraham was definitely not. YHVH may have created us in his image, but the Levitical priesthood created God in the image of man. God feels, loves, gets jealous, debates, saves, gets angry, wages war, etc. YHVH is relatable unlike the gods before him. Still not a perfect "image-less" God, but monotheism was on its way.
This was late in the era of Babylon's existence. This is why there is a Babylonian Talmud. The Jewish sages took residence there even after most returned to Jerusalem and created a great center of learning. From the time of the Exile onward, the Levites began developing their system of cultural preservation, and at the center of it was a new and improved God, unlike anything seen before, even unlike anything they worshiped before the Exile.
You cannot recreate something that did not come from your culture and your language. You cannot tell Native American people that they got their myths wrong or Japanese that you know more about Shinto than they do, especially when you don't read or understand their languages or lived their lives or practiced their religions. Can you imagine what you must sound like to me?
But I understand that you are trying to make sense of things, struggling to find a path of knowledge. I will stop trying to convince you of something that you don't want to hear.
Along your way way in life, however, don't accuse people of not reading things they have. You don't know what they know. And especially when it's the works and mythology of their own culture in the native language that they speak in everyday. Especially right now when it's tough to go outside and just be who you are. The "vampire" comment right now isn't helping.
