naturenihilist

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Posts by naturenihilist

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  3

  God's first Creation

  by peacefulpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the first of god's works was..........behemoth.

  job 40:19 he is the reshit (firstling) of the ways of el; he, his maker, can approach it with his cherev (sword).. ok, where to start.

  first of all, yes the word in context does imply 'first'.

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  naturenihilist

  Perfect topic, I was just thinking about this today - especially in the context of the story of a battle of Yahweh against Leviathan that seems to survive in reference alone. I am so saddened to think of the stories we have lost to time - I think there certainly must have been a story of Yahweh's battle with Leviathan just like Marduk's battle with Tiamat, whether it was only ever oral or written, that is casually referenced in Job as if the audience is already familiar with the tale. Compared to the Enuma Elish, the creation story in Genesis 1 is much more austere, but hints at what I personally believe to be the very same chief inspiration for the Enuma Elish - the ancient fear of the sea.
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  6

  Yahweh the Angel

  by peacefulpete in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  a small thread that may be of interest to some.

  in short, there are 3 occasions in the ot where yahweh is identified with the epithet "angel".

  (mal ak).

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  naturenihilist

  I tend to find this well summarized by Daniel McClellan as he does in his blog here, and he's talked about it numerous times in many interviews as well. Definitely agree with the above that it's a later - even if only a few centuries at most - interpolation. I think calling Yahweh an angel in certain passages also helped move along the increasing distance and grandness of the deity that was still evolving at that time - no longer a personal god that walked the earth, as in Genesis, but growing ever more unseeable, unreachable, unknowable, such that it was favorable for the "angel of the Lord" to be portrayed doing certain things instead of Yahweh himself, yet, it still seems to be the case in a careful reading that the angel actually was Yahweh (as in Genesis 32 and later referred to in Hosea 12). https://danielomcclellan.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/the-angel-of-yahweh-in-early-hebrew-bible-narrative/