A Mountain Rising From the Chaos Waters

BibleProject

BibleProject Podcast

Christianity, Old Testament, Torah, Theology, New Testament, God, Demons, Tim Mackie, Bible Study, Angels, Bible, Jesus, Spiritual Beings, Jon Collins, Religion & Spirituality, Spirit, Satan

4.8 • 18.5K Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Mountain E2 — Ancient Israel’s neighbors believed that the world originated as a mountain rising up out of the chaos waters. The gods ruled from this great cosmic mountain, fighting battles with nature and issuing decrees that kept the world in order. So how did this surrounding culture impact the cosmology of the Bible? In this episode, Jon and Tim discuss what the cosmic mountain meant in the Ancient Near Eastern context and how the biblical authors adapted and subverted this symbol in surprising ways.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Jerusalem is a fortified city high on top of a hill.
0:09.0	It's often called Mount Zion, but it isn't a large snow-capped mountain.
0:14.0	It isn't even the tallest hill in the region.
0:17.0	And if you go farther north, there's a really impressive mountain.
0:23.1	It stands four times taller than Jerusalem.
0:25.9	So high, no city can be built on top.
0:30.2	This mountain is supposedly the home of the Canaanite god of Aal.
0:34.0	Yeah, Mount Hermon is thousands of feet taller.
0:38.0	And you don't have to travel that far before you start seeing it north from Jerusalem.
0:43.3	Even farther north is Mount Zafan, another impressive mountain, the home of the gods.
0:47.1	Now with this in mind, we read Psalm 48, which says,
0:52.9	Great is the Lord, most worthy of praise in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
0:56.6	Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion in the city of our God, his holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth,
0:58.8	is Mount Zion in the far north.
1:00.5	But wait a second.
1:03.4	Mount Zion is not a high mountain in the far north.
1:05.8	That's Mount Hermon and Mount Zafon.
1:08.6	And Mount Zion isn't really that high compared to them.
1:09.9	It's actually quite short.
1:11.8	It's almost like a mystery.
1:18.1	What has to have happened for a poem like this to be written and make sense to the people who wrote it?
1:24.9	What sense does it make to assert these things about a hill in the southern hills of Judea?
	...

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