When you think of Zeus, you probably imagine a bearded old man with a lightning bolt — not a horned demon from the gaping pits of hell. You even see echoes of it in the Bible’s Book of Psalms, where Yahweh beats up the sea and its watery monster minions (yam in Hebrew means sea): You divided the sea by your might;you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters. Second, “poetry” is not some lesser form of literature that tolerates nonsense. That is creation language (Genesis 1:28). Likewise, the entire Exodus narrative is one big “cosmic battle” scene, something Isaiah brings out as well (the topic of my next post). Much like Hitler, the name Baal in modern culture functions as a kind of heuristic shorthand for “evil.”. BioLogos Basics Videos Recommended Books, By Type We have evidence that ancient Israelites elsewhere adopted the theomachy When it comes to the science/faith discussion, the presence of the cosmic battle motif in the Old Testament should send us a strong signal: don’t expect the Old Testament to inform, let alone guide the scientific investigation of origins. This “battle of the gods” characterizes the entire plague narrative. Endorsements, BioLogos Conferences But some are not convinced, because Psalms and Job are “just poetry.” Poetry tends to use colorful metaphors and images, so some claim that Psalms or Job don’t tell us what Israel “really” thought about creation. Astarte shouted to him by name: Hail, Baal the Conquerer! Joshua 10 is often invoked to show how the credibility of the Bible fails in the world of science, but these arguments fall short, since they read the text as a modern, rather than an ancient, text. So it’s not surprising that the Phoenicians’ most recognizable god came to be cast as a symbol of pure evil. As the Torah tells it, the Jews were native Canaanites who were enslaved by Egyptians, led to freedom by Moses, and then led back into Canaan by Joshua. Apollo and Artemis -Virginal goddess, -War and hunting goddess—bloodthirsty -Highly sexualized? Another example is the ninth plague, the plague of darkness. The Israelites clearly connected with this way of describing creation. Few other gods get such a bad rap. We typically look to Genesis 1-2 to answer this question, but other Old Testament passages have something to say about this, too. Yahweh reintroduces chaos selectively. Yahweh controls this goddess and turns her against the Egyptians. Without raising a hand, the waters scampered away and were defeated. The Hebrew stories about Canaanite/Phoenician child sacrifice become harder to dismiss as invented smears when they’re coupled with similar Greek and Roman stories about the Carthaginian practice. I also mentioned that both Psalm 74 and 77 (to give two examples) use cosmic battle language to describe the exodus. They were his slave force. Indeed, Yahweh prolonged the agony for the very purpose of showing the Egyptians—and the entire world—who is boss (9:15-16). In the ancient Middle East, storms could be unpredictable and destructive, but agriculture — and thus civilization — depended on the rain they brought. Yam and Mot represent the hostile natural forces local to the Canaanites, who lived sandwiched between the dangerous, chaotic Mediterranean Sea and the lifeless wasteland of the Syrian Desert. The Nile was the source of Egypt’s life and was also divinized by the Egyptians. Baal-Hadad’s victory over Yam also earns him his official status as Lord of the gods. At BioLogos we are trying to encourage fruitful conversations between faith and science, and especially those between Christianity and evolution. Two things: law and tabernacle; behavior and worship. How could humans have evolved and still be in the “Image of God”? In this section, we will continue with the book of Exodus by looking at two more elements that echo the cosmic battle: (1) the plagues are a reintroduction of chaos into the created order, and (2) the crossing of the Red Sea. Some examples are the following: Psalm 104:7: “at your rebuke the waters fled.” This is not talking about low tide at the beach. Book a speaker for your next event! Hail, Rider on the Clouds! Pharaoh sets himself up against the creator Yahweh, and Yahweh says, “I can play that game, too.” It is fitting for Yahweh to respond to Pharaoh by unleashing chaos against him: water turns to blood; frogs leap out of the water and invade the land; dust turns to gnats and blanket the land, as do swarms of flies; soot from furnaces turn to boils; thunder and lightning come out of a clear sky; the sun darkens. This is what all of this has been leading to, and it is the final echo of creation and the cosmic battle in Exodus. The Israelites remain in a habitable place. It is very important that we resist a common Christian misconception of the law. When Yam comes to El’s court and rudely demands he hand over Baal, El cowardly sells Baal out, and even tries to have a palace built for the malevolent ocean deity. It is also reflected in other portions of the Old Testament, like Ezekiel and Genesis 1. The first is Yam, the personification of the Sea. Likewise in Genesis 1 God inspects his creative work and “sees” (same Hebrew word) that it was good. The plagues are a drawn out “cosmic battle.” This is what indicated in Exodus 12:12. Yahweh says “multiply,” and Pharaoh says “no.” And it will help to understand that in Egyptian religion, Pharaoh was an earthly representative of the Egyptian high god—god incarnate, so to speak. Some ancient Jewish interpreters even described the bottom of the sea as an “herb-bearing plain” (Wisdom of Solomon 19:7). Which is a real shame, because this nasty reputation has obscured an ancient, long-lived religion that’s both fascinating in its own right and illuminating in its many connections to nearby cultures — including, of course, the cultures of Judaism, Greece, and Rome. Likewise, in another creation story, the Canaanite god Baal defeats the sea god Yam (Hebrew yam means sea) with similar results. This is a direct affront to the sun god Ra, the high god, and the father of Pharaoh. We need to hear what the Bible really has to say. That battle is seen clearly in several Psalms and in Job. Baal-Hadad’s character is quite different from both Persephone and Osiris, but like these Greek and Egyptian fertility deities, Baal too ends up dragged into the underworld, causing crops above to wither in drought until he re-emerges. Crucially, Marduk had been the local god of Babylon, and his ascendancy over the older deities tracks the political ascendancy of Babylon over its regional rivals in Mesopotamia. This is where Mt. The Creation Conversation, Resources by Audience Articles Yahweh defeated the powers of Egypt in order to get the people to Mt. But a “cosmic battle” between a storm god and a malevolent ocean deity is a common motif in ancient Semitic mythology. So what then is the purpose of the law if not for Israel to prove itself worthy? It’s actually not the name of a specific god. Establishing order means separating the elements of creation and putting them where they belong. Sinai? Baal wins by smashing Yam with a magical club: The club swooped from Baal’s hands,like a vulture from his fingers. Small Groups And this is where Israel’s God dwells. By trying to reduce the number of Israelites and then refusing to let them go, Pharaoh is putting himself in direct conflict with Israel’s God. With the plague frogs, he even gives Pharaoh the choice of when he would remove them (8:9). And while the ancient Israelites made it clear that their God Yahweh is against child sacrifice, their holy text does include instructions for the full-scale genocide of Canaanite communities in Deuteronomy 20:16 — “let nothing that breathes remain alive” — an act which is narrated repeatedly and glowingly throughout the Book of Joshua. One god in particular seems rather slighted by the Baal Cycle’s narrative: El, the high father god and former head of the Canaanite pantheon. The flood is not a really bad spell of rain. Deliverance from Egypt was another cosmic battle victory for Yahweh. In Exodus 40:33 we read that Moses “finished the work,” which parallels how God “finished his work” (same Hebrew vocabulary) on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2). El finally does acquiesce, reflecting the wishes of the other gods to elevate Baal. In the Baal Cycle, Baal-Hadad also achieves ascendancy over his fellow gods; he orders them to build him a palace, the mark of a king. Sinai. “The message of Yam, your lord, of your master, Judge Nahar: ‘Give up, O gods, him whom you harbor, him whom the multitudes harbor! Commentators regularly also note that the lampstand (Exodus 25:31-40) represents a tree and so likely symbolizes the tree of life, not only found in the creation story but a common ancient Near Eastern motif. This is where the plagues come in. Videos Baal’s reputation has even filtered down to people named after him. Videos What does it mean to "take Scripture seriously" in light of modern science? Board of Directors It is Yahweh saying to Pharaoh, “Fine. Audio Receive our monthly newsletter and more from BioLogos, tailored to your interests! But, nearly half of the book of Exodus takes place on Mt. 3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 22). One of the ways the Old Testament describes creation is through a conflict between Yahweh and the sea (or “waters” or one of the sea monsters, Leviathan or Rahab). The parting of the Red Sea is another act of “creation.”. Like Marduk in Enuma Elish or Ugaritic Baal, conflict ends in the building of a residence suitable for the high god. So, think of the plagues as payback. Multiplying is God’s command at creation, and it is what God’s people do—even in Egypt. Third, the cosmic battle motif is not just in poetic texts. In the Ugarit records the helpers of Yam are described as the "wiggling serpent" and the "mighty one with seven heads." It is the final stage of the cosmic battle in Exodus. The Israelites did not think, “Well, it is just poetry so we can say some whacky things we would never dare say in narrative.” The opposite is the case. The first part of the Baal Cycle closely parallels an earlier Mesopotamian creation myth, Enuma Elish. Even the magicians can introduce a little chaos (they turn water to blood [7:22] and multiply frogs [8:7]). And the question is: which “god” do the Israelites belong to, Pharaoh or Yahweh? Psalm 104:7: “at your rebuke the waters fled.” This is not talking about low tide at the beach. © 2003-2020 Chegg Inc. All rights reserved. will fare no better than the ancient sea monster (Ezekiel 29:3-5; 32:2-8; there is a lot of other creation imagery in these passages). The very beginning of the book lays out for us the conflict of the entire book. The plague narrative hints at this. But that does not mean that Genesis 1 escapes the cultural influence as we saw above. 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