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October 23, 2020 - February 26, 2021
the Hebrew phrase behind John’s Greek transliteration of our mystery Hebrew term is actually h-r-m-ʿ-d.
Psalm 48 makes a bold theological statement. It evicts Baal from his dwelling and boots his council off the property. The psalmist has Yahweh ruling the cosmos and the affairs of humanity, not Baal. Psalm 48 is a backhanded smack in the face to Baal. So is Isaiah 14. Both of these passages are textbook examples of how biblical writers adopt and then repurpose material found in the literature of other (pagan) cultures—in this case, Ugarit—to exalt Yahweh and to slight lesser gods.
When John draws on this ancient Hebrew phrase, he is indeed pointing to a climactic battle at Jerusalem. Why? Because Jerusalem is a mountain—Mount Zion. And if Baal and the gods of other nations don’t like Yahweh claiming to be Most High and claiming to run the cosmos from the heights of Zaphon/Mount Zion, they can try to do something about it.
Armageddon is a battle for all the supernatural and earthly marbles at Jerusalem.
The armies of heaven who witness the final demise of antichrist and his hordes are a combination of Yahweh’s elohim and humans made divine:
In the ancient Hellenistic Graeco-Roman world of Paul, there was a belief that the afterlife dead had bodies that were not flesh and blood, but which were composed of “a finer, purer substance.”3 Many people during this time referred to this substance as aether, and believed that stars were also composed of it. This explains in part the propensity in extrabiblical writers to assert that the afterlife dead became stars or like stars. Since stars were thought to be divine members of the realm of the gods, the idea makes sense in its own context.
The book of Revelation frequently describes believers as those who “overcome” the assault of evil described in the book by retaining their faith in Christ, the Lamb of God who is the beginning and the end. On six occasions the term is used in conjunction with the reward of eternal life. The imagery invoked is unmistakable, as it is drawn from Old Testament descriptions of sacred space—first Eden, then the ark and the tabernacle, then the heavenly abode inhabited by the new, resurrected high priest, Jesus himself. To live in the new Eden means to occupy sacred space reserved for God and his
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According to Second Temple Jewish writings, manna was considered the food of angels and of the sons of God.
the white stone was a symbol of legal acquittal or a token of membership among the righteous. The meaning is therefore very similar to conquering believers receiving white robes referenced in Revelation 3:5,
the tree of life is specifically now for “the healing of the nations,” a clear reference to the reclaiming of the nations turned over to lesser gods at Babel (Deut 32:8–9).
The Old Testament alludes to the reversal of the curse and the coming global kingdom in striking ways that echo the Edenic conditions: •All those formerly sick or disabled will be restored to full health (Isa 29:18–19; 30:26; Mic 4:6–7). •All will enjoy a supernatural abundance of milk, honey, fruit, and produce (Isa 4:2; 7:21–22; 25:6–9; 30:23–24; Joel 3:18; Amos 9:13–15). •There will be peace throughout all creation (Hos 2:18; Isa 11:1–10; cf. Ezek 34:25–28); and all Israel (Isa 10:20; 52:6; Ezek 39:22). •All nations (Isa 19:19–25; cf. Ezek 38:23) will know that Yahweh is God.
In the ancient world the sea was a thing of dread. It was unpredictable and untamable. It was a place upon which humans couldn’t live. Consequently, the sea was often used as a metaphor for chaos, destruction, and death. The power and chaotic unruliness of the sea was symbolized in both the Old Testament and a wide range of ancient Near Eastern literatures with a dragon or sea monster, variously known as Leviathan and Rahab (e.g., Pss 74:14; 89:10).11 Sea imagery conveys these ideas from the very beginning of the Bible. The waters of the primeval deep (Gen 1:2) must be calmed and restrained by
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1.Let the Bible be what it is, and be open to the notion that what it says about the unseen realm might just be real.
2.The content of the Bible needs to make sense in its own context, whether or not it makes sense in ours.
3.How the biblical writers tie passages together for interpretation should guide our own interpretation of the Bible.
4.How the New Testament writers repurpose the Old Testament is critical for biblical interpretation.
5.Metaphorical meaning isn’t “less real” than literal meaning (however that’s defined).
We might say prophets speak for God, but even more broadly than that, a prophet is someone God views or calls as his chief representative among the population of his human imagers.
There is no single verse in the Old Testament that contains the word mashiach that one could point to and discern the scope of what Jesus did in the New Testament.
