tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post7899496206543714592..comments2024-03-27T17:15:37.606-04:00Comments on Triablogue: The divine councilRyanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17809283662428917799noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-46328497079344218342015-03-07T02:01:30.133-05:002015-03-07T02:01:30.133-05:00Maybe I'm just getting paranoid in my old age ...Maybe I'm just getting paranoid in my old age :)Dominic Bnonn Tennanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03103838704540924679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-2930657466481357752015-03-07T00:54:05.114-05:002015-03-07T00:54:05.114-05:00This post wasn't specifically directed at eith...This post wasn't specifically directed at either you or Heiser. stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16547070544928321788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-24634136332150048172015-03-06T22:03:46.756-05:002015-03-06T22:03:46.756-05:00Jeremiah makes good comments.
I can't speak f...Jeremiah makes good comments.<br /><br />I can't speak for Heiser; perhaps you're engaging with his position better than I am. But your comments seem to strike at right angles to my own position.<br /><br />For example, while the Bible undeniably borrows certain language from pagan culture (usually for polemical purposes), I have never assumed that borrowing language implies borrowing concepts. I've never assumed that Ugarit, for instance, is the conceptual source for the divine council imagery in the Bible. On the contrary, I tend to assume that Ugarit is a bastardized version of an original source, presumably going back to Adam. And of course, as Jeremiah observes, both Canaanites and Israelites inhabited the same real world, so inasmuch as spiritual events played out in that world, they would share similar stories—even if one was forced into a monistic pagan paradigm.<br /><br />Moreover, I tend to assume the parallels between theological motifs like the divine council, and family, royalty, institutional religion, the military, and the natural world, are due at least in part to God creating the world to reflect those common themes.Dominic Bnonn Tennanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03103838704540924679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-7242939562528335532015-03-06T21:51:35.841-05:002015-03-06T21:51:35.841-05:00The theophany in Ezk 1 is a good example. From a d...The theophany in Ezk 1 is a good example. From a distance it looked like a desert storm. Or at least it looked more like a desert storm than anything else Ezekiel had seen. But as it drew closer, it was clearly far more than a desert storm. God was using enhanced natural media. Something that initially resembled lightning and thunder, but had a much more specific emblematic appearance as it came into close range. stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16547070544928321788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-6629721224666360292015-03-06T19:27:00.156-05:002015-03-06T19:27:00.156-05:00Good post!
I am frustrated when believing scholar...Good post!<br /><br />I am frustrated when believing scholars sometimes seem to bracket their belief in the factuality of the historical record of scripture when trying to explain scriptural phenomena, specifically ANE parallels. <br /><br />E.g. Why is both Baal and YHWH mentioned in connection with storm theophanies?<br /><br />For the unbelieving critic, the Israelites simply copied from Baal literature.<br /><br />But for the believing scholar sometimes the answer is equally dissatisfying. The Israelites' polemically appropriated ideas about Baal. God inspired the writers of scripture to use the true things in the literature of the surrounding cultures. But the enterprise usually stops there. <br /><br />But this seems to me to not go back nearly far enough. For if God truly is who the Bible says He is, then God has in fact appeared in storm theophanies. It seems to me that a real memory of these things would be what is ultimately underlying every cultures' similar ideas about their deities. This (while not convincing to liberal scholarship) often has better explanatory power than simple literary borrowing. Especially when there is no known propinquity between the authors for any borrowing to have happened.<br /><br />If you are a believing scholar then you must acknowledge that both the people at Ugarit and the Israelites inhabited the same REAL world, not just literary worlds.JeremiahZhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13021879988630319753noreply@blogger.com