Caleb Vigilant (Chronicles of the Nephilim) (30 page)

[1]
John H Walton,
Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary
(Old Testament): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 344.

[2]
David M. Fouts, “A Defense Of The Hyperbolic Interpretation Of Large Numbers In The Old Testament,”

JETS
40/3 (September 1997), 378.

[3]
I discuss this fact and its ramifications in my book
Word Pictures: Knowing God Through Story and Imagination
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009).

[4]
A significant author of this view is Mark S. Smith,
The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts
(Oxford: Oxford University, 2003).

[5]
A significant author of this view is Gleason L. Archer,
A Survey of Old Testament Introduction
(Chicago: Moody Press, 2007).

[6]
Avraham Negev, “Ugarit,”
The Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land
, 3rd ed. (New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1996).

[7]
Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter Willem van der Horst,
Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible
(
DDD
), 2nd ext. rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 132.

[8]
N. Wyatt,
Religious Texts from Ugarit
, 2nd ed., The Biblical Seminar, vol. 53 (London: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002), 36-39.

[9]
“Baal,”
DDD,
134.

[10]
Judges 6; 1 Kings 18; 2 Kings 10.

[11]
Judges 2:13; 1 Samuel 12:10; Jeremiah 2:23.

[12]
“Baal,”
DDD,
136.

[13]
Judges 2:11; 3:7; 8:33.

[14]
Stephanie Dalley, trans.,
Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh and Others
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1989, 2000, 2008), 154-62. The Sumerian version can be found in Jeremy Black, trans.,
The Literature of Ancient Sumer
(New York: Oxford University Press
2004, 2006
), 65-76.

[15]
Alexander Heidel, trans.,
The Babylonian Genesis
(Chicago: University of Chicago, 1942, 1951, 1963), 14.

[16]
C.
Jouco Bleeker and Geo Widengren, eds.,
Historia Religionum I: Religions of the Past
(Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1969), 134.

[17]
John D.
Currid,
Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament
(Grand Rapids: Baker; 1997), 83.

[18]
Fred E. Woods,
Water and Storm Polemics against Baalism in the Deuteronomic History
, American University Studies, Series VII, Theology and Religion (New York: Peter Lange Publishing, 1994), 32-35.

[19]
The abbreviation
KTU
stands for “Keilalphabetische Texte aus Ugarit”, the standard collection of this material from Ugarit.

[20]
All these Ugaritic texts can be found in N. Wyatt,
Religious Texts from Ugarit
, 2nd ed., The Biblical Seminar, vol. 53 (London: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002).

[21]
Aloysius Fitzgerald, “A Note on Psalm 29,”
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
, no. 215 (October 1974), 62. A more conservative interpretation claims a common Semitic poetic discourse.

[22]
This also sheds light on Jesus’ prophecy regarding his coming judgment on Israel at the destruction of the Temple: “
and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt 24:30).

[23]
The Hebrew word for “Highest One” used in Daniel 7 is
Elyon
, which is the Hebrew equivalent of
Aliyan
in Ugaritic - another frequently used epithet of Baal! “Aliyan,”
DDD
, p 18.

[24]
Hermann Gunkel first suggested this theme in
Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzdt und Endzeit
(1895).

[25]
Bruce R.
Reichenbach, “Genesis 1 as a Theological-Political Narrative of Kingdom Establishment,”
Bulletin for Biblical Research
13, 1 (2003).

[26]
Clifford,
Creation Accounts
, 8, n. 13.

[27]
Samuel Noah Kramer,
Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C.
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944, 1961, 1972), 77-78.

[28]
“Charioteer of the Clouds” also appears in these texts: KTU 1.3:4:4, 6, 26; 1.4:3:10, 18; 1.4:5:7, 60; 1.10:1:7; 1.10:3:21, 36; 1.19:1:43; 1.92:37, 39.

[29]
KTU 1.2:4:27-32.

[30]
See KTU 1.5:1:1
-35.

[31]
KTU 1.5:1:1
-4.

[32]
Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.
,
The Ugaritic Pantheon
(dissertation) (Ann Arbor, MI: Brandeis University, 1973), 212.

[33]
See also Isaiah 51:9; Ezekiel 32:2; Revelation 12:9, 16, 17.

[34]
Psalm 89:9-10; Isaiah 51:9-10; Job 26:12-13. Psalms 18, 29, 24, 29, 65, 74, 77, 89, 93, and 104 all reflect
chaoskampf
. See also Exodus 15, Job 9, 26, 38, and Isaiah 51:14-16; 2 Samuel 22.

[35]
H.
Niehr, "Zaphon", in
Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible
, ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking and Pieter W. van der Horst, 2nd extensively rev. ed., 927 (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999).

[36]
Rami Arav, “Hermon, Mount (Place),” ed. David Noel Freedman,
The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary
(New York: Doubleday, 1992), 158.

[37]
Michael Heiser, “The Mythological Provenance of Isaiah 14:12-15: A Reconsideration of the Ugaritic Material” Liberty University
[38]
H.
Niehr, "Zaphon", in
Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible
, ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking and Pieter W. van der Horst, 2nd extensively rev. ed., 929 (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999). Also see Job 26:7; 37:22; Ezek. 1:4 where the word “north” is used as a spiritual reference, more allusion to the divine mountain Saphon of Canaanite belief.

[39]
John H. Walton,
Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible
(Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006), 21.

[40]
Curtis Chang,
Engaging Unbelief: A Captivating Strategy from Augustine to Aquinas
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 26.

[41]
Ibid., 27.