I just wanted to give you all a heads up. I’m pretty much on a holding pattern until after December 22. After that, I plan to write some things here that will give you all an idea of how things need to change for me to be more productive for all of you, my real audience. I’ll be sketching out (in a fair amount of detail actually) what needs to happen and how you can help — short term and long term. Some exciting possibilities.
Stay tuned.
Thank you for all the time, effort and work product you have given us.
Merry Christmas.
(…ya, I saw the astronomy video.)
Thanks/Best.
Alright…sign me up!
I see that Supernatural is available on Audible (!)
Is Unseen Realm far behind?
wow – didn’t know that! (Really). Yes, an audio version of Unseen Realm has been created. I just haven’t been told to blog about either yet – so thanks for the info! I’ll still wait to post on this though.
We certainly have felt your hold up and busyness. Take a breath; you’ve done some hard work. Hopefully, some people and scholars will interact with your book. It’s been a bit boring lately in the Biblioblogosphere.
Have you written anything on the Pentecostal Church? My brother has joined and now we can’t agree on most things so we rarely speak at all. I consider him to be in a cult and he rejects what I say when I quote your work because you don’t speak in tongs or use charismatic influence ECT. I am worried for him. Any info on this topic to help my understanding would be invaluable.
I haven’t. Just keep taking him to the text. Pentecostalism is like anything else — it has a fundamentalist wing while others are less militant.
Daniel,
We had somewhat similar situation in our family years ago. While I don’t have any experience with Pentecostalism, I would suggest if I may that aside from reasoning and letting your brother know that you honestly can’t agree with anything he says, let him also know that you love him and he will always be your brother no matter what. Stay in touch with him even if he upsets you and keep talking to him. It is important that people in a “cult” stay connected to the relationships outside of the cult. Love and kindness are very powerful tools, with prayers, in helping people in a spiritual trouble.
(On a lighter note, Mike speaks in tongues – Hebrew, Greek, Ugaritic, Aramaic, Egyptian, Akkadian…. that’s why he knows what the text says.)
I’d like to see some rhythmic gymnastics. Even some figure skating.
Man, would that be ugly.
Thanks For all your hard work at making academic materials accessible to “normal”folk.
On the local flood idea, have you considered Graham Hancock’s books Underworld and Magicians of the Gods? They actually paint the background of Genesis as the end of the last ice age … a season of worldwide flooding that reached a high point with Noah’s Ark.
I haven’t but it’s interesting you should mention this. I just bought (yesterday) the only two scholarly book-length sources I’ve been able to find on global flood stories.
On a science note, given that no one disputes an ice age and that many scientists would dispute evidence for a global flood, I’m wondering if Hancock addresses the scientific issues (and who he quotes for that).
I’ll cut to the base of the chase, “What are the ‘correct’ presumptions to bring to the table when beginning your original research on global flood stories?”. Presume a age of local floods due to rising ocean levels. Presume the beaches were at the place where the continental shelf meets the continental slope, a somewhat uniform 460 ft below current sea level. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_shelf very basic article on these terms) It is most interesting that God takes control of the balance between land and land covered by water on the third day. In Rev 22 the sacred space encompasses all the land to the degree that there is no land covered by water, sea. There is no need of the sun, moon, and stars for light because the people live from the paradigms emanating form the Holy City.
A book length global flood story to consider adding to your collection might be Before the Flood by Ian Wilson published 2001, a year after Robert Ballard collected pictures and samples from the bottom of the Black Sea. The historical narrative includes over 50 pages of notes, bibliography and documents. It is a great model of what I have concluded are the correct presumptions.
Graham Hancock, as you already know, has a “possie” of about 30 academic scholars that defend anything he writes. Underworld is based on inundation maps and years of his own diving experiences. Problem: All his materials are from 75-150 feet; nowhere near the original old beaches but 300 feet above this level. Good luck with retrieving anything more that 10,000 years old buried 460 feet down.
Magicians of the Gods reads a lot like Velikovsky’s Worlds in Collision and Earth in Upheaval. Both presume a couple of rounds of comet interaction and find evidence to support the claim. Both are primarily journalists that spin a great story, but many of the “scientific” or “cultural” facts are correct … we will reserve comment on some of the interpretations.
Stepping back, global flood stories could also imply this has happened several times. God’s promise to “never again” flood the earth. Are we in the 5th created order as the Vedas or Mayans would presume? Why is God grieved about making mankind, Gen 6:7? Why “destroy them with the earth”, Gen 6:17? Is it about the defilement of sacred space? The solution is a covenant box housing a viable remnant from all of the beasts/nations;(if someone were to attribute a date to the text where this type of thinking was “normal”)
What if there was a Divine Council meeting just before Gen 1:1 where Psa 89 was read and the ten things God said over the next 7 days were the implementation of the paradigms to bring it about? Is the first release of male and female imagers ruling the entire world Gen 2 where control of access to the seats of the Divine Council is given into the hands of mortals who have had the Spirit of God breathed into them? As a by product, there is also control of access to the tree of provisional eternal life on a planet full of mortals.
Presume a terrorist attack took out the infrastructure of the Federal government at Washington D.C. except for 8 elected officials on Air Force One. How much authority would the States give to these individuals? Would the same Federated Government be restored? The flood of Noah is this same story after God removes Eden and the surrounding garden with a local flood that marks the end of an age of rising ocean levels.
This would make Babel the attempt by the Godly remnant all over the world to restore that system … God says not now! The rest of Genesis is about restoring the an updated Divine Council to a world class level. While the sons of Jacob are multiplying to a national level in Egypt, God is also raising up a remnant among the offspring of Esau … it’s called the book of Job from the LXX perspective.
The sacred space is already restored under Melchizedek, Abram joins by supporting it with a tithe. The sacred space is already restored under Jethro at Midian, Moses joins it along with a nation. The sacred space around Jerusalem is finally restored to a sacred nation under David; the same space Abram was brought to witness the Divine Council meeting where the one God appeared as a flaming torch and smoking pot. Abram was not a party in the covenant, but the beneficiary. Are these a few implications of the Divine Council world view?
This is too scattered for much of a reply. It would basically take 50 pages to adequately discuss the things you ask about.
I’d like a list of scholars who defend Hancock other than Robert Schoch (seriously — it would be helpful). Schoch’s own work, of course, has come under criticism (for both method and data that it doesn’t consider). If you have 100 field experts look at his work and 95 of them say it’s misguided, that’s far more telling than the handful who might say he’s on to something. The isn’t that counting noses tells you who is right. Rather, it’s that having a few scholars defend *something* Hancock might say isn’t impressive. Do they defend the crucial points of his thesis or something peripheral? (And pardon me if I’m dubious about that many being on board with him). I genuinely would like a list of names and (even better) some publications where they specifically defend him (as opposed to Hancock taking something from their work and drawing the conclusion “this guy agrees” (as we’ve seen elsewhere on this blog with respect to all Egyptians being black, people can draw conclusions from someone else’s work and be totally wrong about whether the source would agree their data is being used legitimately.
On the global flood stories from all over the world, I finally tracked down and bought the major academic work on the subject: The Flood Myth, by Alan Dundes. It’s an edited volume, with experts in the primary sources of each culture writing the respective essays. This sets it apart from books written by popular writers like Ian Wilson. He isn’t an expert in primary sources in any specific area.
Years ago “scientists?” were discussing the wooly mammoths in Siberia that were flash frozen and had meat that was being carven off and eaten. I remember the scientists had contacted a tv dinner company and asked how cold it would have to be to perfectly freeze an animal the size of an elephant instantly. The answer was -400 degrees F. At that temperature ice is magnetic? The theory they put forth was ice comets hit the earth and broke up. Half the ice/snow went to the north pole, and half went south. Some comets hit the earth and the waters of the deep opened. Instant ice age and flood. The world has been slowly warming ever since. I don’t remember who came up with this theory, it makes the most sense of any I have heard.
Just finished both books and found it a pleasure to finally see and read your many years of hard study so well done. Digging through the companion site now.
Now, is it possible to get outline forms from the Pastor who is using the material to teach his congregation?
Nothing fancy nor techy, just an old follower who’s enjoyed the Myth that’s true. Eyes wide open looking forward to what’s new.
The primer to Unseen Realm (written in Q & A format) is coming. I think in February. To light a fire under Lexham you should email them about it. http://www.lexhampress.com. A digital version may be available sooner.
Glad you liked the books!