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Noah as an “heir” and “herald” of righteousness by faith (Heb. 11:7; 2Pet. 2:5).
the term “righteous” in the Old and New Testaments was not a mere description of a person who did good deeds and avoided bad deeds.
Righteousness was a Hebrew legal concept that meant, “right standing before God” as in a court of law.
It was primarily a relational term.
the righteous man is the man who is said to “live by faith,” not by perfect good deeds
being a man of faith doesn’t mean a life of perfect consistency either. Look at David, the “man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22), yet he was a murderer and adulterer and more than once avoided obeying God’s will.
The very name Israel means “to struggle with God.”
All the heroes in the Hebrews Hall of Faith (Heb. 11) had sinful moments, lapses of obedience and even periods of running from God’s call or struggling with their Creator.
this strangest of Bible passages as referring to supernatural beings from God’s heavenly host who mate with humans resulting in the giant offspring called Nephilim.
Mesopotamian cosmology of a three-tiered universe with a solid vault in the heavens, and a flat disc earth supported on the pillars of the underworld, the realm of the dead.
The purpose of the Bible is not to support scientific theories or models of the universe, but to tell the story of God through ancient writers.
Those writers were people of their times just as we are.
the primary purpose of mythology is to embody the worldview and values of a culture.
Sumer’s Noah was Ziusudra, Babylon’s Noah was Utnapishtim, and Akkad’s was Atrahasis.
my speculation that the gods of the ancient world may have been real beings (namely fallen “sons of God”) with supernatural powers.
nephesh, God’s own breath.
These were the bene ha Elohim, the “sons of God.”
smaller temple district called Eanna for Inanna, the goddess of sex and war, and consort of Anu.
The Eanna district was devoted primarily to cult prostitution and other deviant whims of the goddess.
Each city-state was an independent entity with its own governing authority ruled over by a god.
Anu considered it a pleasure to mock the Most High with his own hierarchy of power.
Scribes often referred to the arrival of the gods and their rule in the past as “when kingship descended from heaven.”
primitive version of a “ziggurat,” a new development in temple building that operated as a “holy mountain,” a connection between heaven and earth.
“stairway to the heavens” by the plebeians.
They always wanted blood. It was the food of the gods and they were ravenous.
how could the supreme human ruler of the city ever find a woman he could trust amidst this crowd of sycophants, manipulators, and usurpers?
All the servants of the gods and their entourage practiced head binding.
Like all royal servants, Lugalanu was completely hairless. Not a hair on their head, not an eyebrow or a single nose hair was allowed. It was a sign of perfection to transcend humanity by freeing oneself from the most mammalian of physical traits, hair.
It made one look more like the sleek hairless gods he worshipped.
bird-men soldiers. These chimeras with bodies of men and heads of hawks and falcons stood at perfect attention, motionless as statues.
Guarding either side of the gateway were two immense Nephilim.
Nephilim were giant warriors ten to fifteen feet tall, demigods created by the mating of the divine sons of God with the human daughters of men.
Their bodies were covered in occultic tattoos...
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From the perspective of the gods, they were a strategic achievement of intermingling the human and the divine. From the perspective of Elohim, they were pure evil, a corruption of creation.
bull or lion, and the bearded heads of a human being — more occultic results of the gods’ genetic tinkering with creation.
The gods were resplendent in their royal finery. They were eight feet tall with shimmering blue lapis lazuli reptilian pupils.
They had elongated heads, which the head-binding of their servants sought to mimic. Anu and Inanna would tolerate nothing less than human serfs molded into their likeness.
Their ophidian avian presence
She wore heavy makeup and pierced her body all over with rings, studs, spikes and other garish ornaments.
forced pain that she pleasured in.
when their passions flared for good or bad, their shining would increase in brilliance giving the impression of flashes of lightning, thus warranting the description, “the Shining Ones.”
ever since her colossal failure in the war of the titans called the Titanomachy,
“the revelation” was brought up. Fear was healthy; dread was self-destructive.
“Yes, ‘the revelation,’” Inanna shot back.
“A ‘Chosen Seed’ who will end the rul...
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Anu’s real name was Semjaza, and Inanna’s, Azazel. These divinities were not gods like Elohim.
There were two hundred of them and they were called “Watchers,”
masquerading as gods of the land,
sought to usurp the throne of Elohim and draw human worship aw...
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Mankind was created as Elohim’s representative image on earth, to rule in his likeness.
