The Ancient Tradition

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Music

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You’re listening to The Ancient Tradition. A Wonk Media Production. Music provided by Joseph McDade. He is your host, Dr. Jack Logan.

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Welcome to The Ancient Tradition. I’m your host, Jack Logan. If this is your first time listening to The Ancient Tradition, it’s great to have you along with us. You’re in for a potentially life altering experience if you’re genuinely interested in the theology of the ancients. See, the ancients taught that a unique, unadulterated religious tradition was revealed either directly by God or his emissaries to human beings from the very onset of time.

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And what’s so interesting about this ancient religious tradition is that deep threads of it run through and make up the core religious doctrines of nearly every single religious tradition that we see today. And what’s more, this religious heritage not only shows up in the world’s religious traditions, it shows up all over in what we would consider to be highly secularized aspects of society. From our banking system to the regalia that we see at graduation ceremonies to

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Asclepius’ Rod, which is used to symbolize the healthcare industry, to the eagle atop American flagpoles, to the Christmas tree, to the Seven Days of the Week, to the coronation of kings and queens, and to what might appear to be a trivial pack of playing cards. It’s literally everywhere if only you know what you’re looking at and if you understand the religious heritage that underpins it.

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For that reason on this podcast, we dig into the world’s oldest sacred writings, which are found almost universally in the ancient near East, in ancient Egypt, in ancient Mesopotamia, which today is modern day Iraq, Turkey, Iran, northeastern Syria, and in ancient Persia, Anatolia, the Arabian peninsula and in the Levant, which is modern day Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Cyprus.

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This region of the world is widely considered by scholars to be the cradle of civilization. What we find when we dive into the ancient record of these cultures is that they share not only the same cosmological conception of the earth and its place in the cosmos, but they also share the same fundamental religious theology, which strongly suggests that they are the offspring of one original source.

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in his book, I’ve talked about him before, The Temple and the House, said this of the world’s earliest religious tradition, quote, As strong is the case for the single origin of inventions and discoveries, it is stronger still for the single origin of rites, customs, and beliefs. I have said that in my view, these formed part of a complex religious system which came

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in the ancient east. For my research, I concur. It definitely seems to have originated in the ancient near east or at least our best records of it come out of that region of the world. He continues, we’ve seen that some of the features of the ancient cult have been preserved in the religions of today. These features have probably descended in an unbroken tradition from very early time.

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Again, I concur with Lord Raglan. It appears that key theological features of, as he calls it, the ancient cult were passed on intact from generation to generation and culture to culture. And these are the stubborn bits that I always refer to. If, as the ancients claimed, these key theological features represent the original truths that God revealed to human beings from the very onset of time, then these literally are the most important and

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consequential religious tenets known to man. The truth theology, the truth about the nature of the spiritual realm, the truth about the creation of the earth, the truth about why we are here, the truth about how we obtain our highest potential. And it’s these truths that make studying the theology worth our time. Nothing could be more important than to learn about and understand and

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the original theology. And when we do, as the doctrines themselves teach, when we gain greater and greater knowledge and abide by its precepts, the trajectory of our life can change, forever altering our eternal destiny. If you’re a first time listener though, you have a bit of homework to do. This podcast is progressive, which means each episode builds off of the previous episode.

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So that means that when you get the time, you’ll definitely want to go back and listen to the episodes that you’ve missed if you truly want to begin to understand the full theology. It’s definitely worth your time though. If you’re a long time listener, I love having you back. We have a lot of great stuff in today’s episode. We’re gonna pick up where we left off in our previous episode, where we were talking about the types of wounds that the enemy or rebel son of God inflicted on the cosmos.

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and on the beloved hero’s son, or subsequently on the king or the hero of myth or you and me. There’s a considerable amount of theological depth in today’s episode, some of which I’m going to point out, but some of which I just won’t have time. So I hope and I also encourage you to ponder what you learn in this episode on your own. You may even find it useful to re-listen to the episode so you don’t miss any of the truly marvelous

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cosmological and spiritual theological principles that are inherent in the theology we find among the ancients. In today’s episode we are still talking within the context of the great primordial Theomache, the great battle that took place in the heavens before the earth was formed. We learned in our last episode that during the battle the beloved son of the high God be he named Osiris, Marduk.

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Horus, Baal, or an Inerta is severely wounded in his combat with the rebel son of the high god. In some cases, he is even killed during the battle. We haven’t had the chance to talk about the Osiris myth in depth yet. So let’s take a minute and talk about it here. Most Egyptologists consider the Osiris myth to be the most important and the most influential in all of Egypt.

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Jan Aschmann, the famous German Egyptologist, I keep quoting, tells us that the Osiris myth shows up in more ancient texts in ancient Egypt than any other myth. And I don’t find this surprising since we find that similar divine battles in Mesopotamia and Canaan constitute the central mythologies in those regions because this is core material. Because it was so popular and widespread, multiple versions of the Osiris myth rose up. Sometimes they contradict each other in their

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And this is an important point to make too, because it illustrates how original material or original religious doctrines can become corrupted over time. But somehow they still maintain a few of those stubborn bits across the various versions. And that allows us to paint a fuller picture of the original. We can find the very first illusions to the battle between Osiris and Set in…

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Ancient Egypt’s earliest corpus of religious writings, which you should know by now, are the pyramid texts. They’re dated to the 24th century BC. So that makes them about 4,400 years old. The fact that the Osiris myth is in the earliest of texts tells us that the Osiris myth was a core myth from the outset of dynastic Egypt, and likely even earlier. We can find references to the myth in

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all of the major pyramids where pyramid texts can be found in the pyramid of king unis king tete king pepe the first and king pepe the second and in several of the instances that we have the texts refer to how the enemy god set murdered the god osiris in pyramid text 532 which is found in king pepe the first pyramid it says this quote they found osiris

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after his brother Set threw him down in Nedit. Now, Nedit is the name that the ancient Egyptians give to the place where Set killed Osiris. In Pyramid Text 576, which is also in King Pepe’s Pyramid, it reads, quote, Osiris was placed on his side by his brother Set. Placed on his side, of course, refers to Osiris’s murder at the hand of Set.

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Although we see reference to the murder of Osiris by set in these very early texts, we don’t find a full narrative of the event until the Greek writer Plutarch sat down and wrote the myth around 120 AD, which is very, very late. Based on what Donald McKenzie could find, he’s a Greek folklorist. He basically went out and tried to find every possible thing he could find about the Osiris myth and then he compiled it together into a historical narrative.

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and put it in his book, Egyptian Myth and Legend, which was first published in 1907. This is the account that he gives of the myth. When Osiris was born, a voice from out of the heavens proclaimed, now hath come the Lord of all things. When Ra, who’s the high God, grew old and ascended unto heaven, Osiris sat in his throne and ruled over the land of Egypt.

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Men were but savages when he first came amongst them. Evil were their ways and their desires were sinful. Osiris ushered in a new age. He made good in binding law. He uttered just decrees, and he judged with wisdom between men. He caused peace to prevail at length over the land of Egypt. Isis was the queen consort of Osiris.

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and she was a woman of exceeding great wisdom. Osiris taught the people to worship the gods, to erect temples and to live holy lives. Set, who regarded with jealous eyes the good works of his brother, for his ear was full of evil and he loved warfare better than peace. He desired to stir up rebellion in the kingdom. He plotted to overcome Osiris with guile.

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which is cunning and craftiness and deceit and trickery. A royal feast was held and Set came to make merry. And with him, his fellow conspirators, he brought a shapely and decorated chest, which he had caused to be made according to the measurements of the King Osiris’s body. All men praised it at the feast, admiring its beauty. When hearts were made glad with beer drinking, Set proclaimed that he would gift

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the chest unto him whose body fitted its proportions with exactness. There was no suspicion of evil design, so one after another entered the chest on that fateful night, until it seemed that no man could be found to win it for himself. Then Osiris came forward. He lay down within the chest, and he filled it in every part. Ere he could raise his body,

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The evil followers of Set sprang suddenly forward and shut down the lid, which they nailed fast and soldered with lead. So the richly decorated chest became the coffin of the good King Osiris, from whom departed the breath of life. Set commanded his followers to carry away the chest and dispose of it secretly. As he bade them, so did they do.

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They hastened through the night and flung it into the Nile. So ended the days of Osiris and the years of his wise and prosperous reign in the land of Egypt. So in this version of the myth, the evil God Set nails Osiris into a chest, solders the seams with lead, making it impossible to breathe. And as McKinsey says, the breath of life departs from Osiris.

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It’s clear in this myth that the wounds Osiris sustains are catastrophic. By all accounts, it appears as though Osiris, the righteous king, who as McKenzie noted, quote, uttered just decrees and quote, judged with wisdom, a king who abided by the laws of heaven, Maat, is dead. It appears as though his evil, profane brother, the God Set, has won the battle.

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And as we pointed out in our previous episode, Forsyte, Prop, and Fontanrose discerned that the wounding or initial defeat of the hero was a regular, and I would argue, extremely important event in the ancient combat narratives that they studied. It marks the sixth event in Forsyte’s table. So it’s at this point in the combat narratives that we see the enemy god, the dragon, temporarily ascend. This is the seventh event.

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He’s successfully wounded the beloved son of the high god or the earthly king, the hero or the popper or the sclury maid or you and me. It appears as though all is lost. The kingdom is dark. The wounds are grave. The enemy reigns over the kingdom, which is not his. He’s blowing his poisonous breath over the land, causing further wounds to the people and to the kingdom. Nearly all hope of victory is lost.

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It’s at this point in the narratives that we see the eighth event, the healing and the recovering of the hero. Like we saw in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is paralyzed or he’s in some type of coma caused by the monster Humbaba. It appears as though, like in all horror films, he’ll be consumed by the monster, but Gilgamesh somehow recovers from his wounds and he rejoins the battle. Okay, this is all well and good.

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It’s easy to envision the healing of a physical wound, or perhaps even a spiritual wound. But how is it possible for the hero Osiris in this case to quote, recover from physical death? I mean, that seems pretty final. By nature, his wounds are referred to as fatal because there is no recovery. There’s no healing the wounds and then returning to battle. He’s dead. This doesn’t seem to be a quote, an initial defeat.

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It seems much more like a permanent defeat. So how can Osiris possibly overcome or be healed of the wounds of physical death itself? It seems impossible. Well, for the answer to that, we have to return to our discussion of the types of wounds the enemy inflicts. If you recall in our previous episode, I argued that the dragon has the ability to inflict basically two types of wounds, cosmic wounds and spiritual wounds.

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Wounds that are the direct consequence of breaking or rebelling against the laws of heaven or Ma’at. So let’s talk about cosmic wounds for a minute. Cosmic wounds are wounds that disrupt the very fabric of the cosmos. And to understand this, we have to understand that God is a God of order. He strictly abides by the laws of heaven, Ma’at, which enables him by way of power and authority

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command the elements, which he does via divine utterance. His utterance is efficacious precisely because he abides by Maat. When he commands the elements to order themselves into a world or worlds or into a universe of worlds, the elements, because they honor his righteous power and authority, order themselves into a world or worlds or a universe of worlds. And keep in mind that these are not my thoughts.

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The ancients taught this over and over and over again, like we saw in the Shabbakah stone and like we saw in the book of Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 where we’re told that Jesus quote upholds, which is keeps in order, quote, all things by the word of his power. It’s right there in Holy Writ. It’s God’s power and authority as a righteous divine king that keeps the universe in an ordered state.

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And this is really interesting because we find that ancient peoples all over the world, from the ancient Egyptians to the Hopi Indians of Northeastern Arizona, were and continue to be preoccupied with doing whatever they can in a ritual sense to help God maintain the order of the universe. They recognized that the rebel sun was and is a constant threat to the ordered state of the universe. And this is where the enemy sun or the ancient Egyptian enemy God Set comes in,

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He used his moral agency in the primordial realm to rebel against every single law of heaven. Those laws that enabled one to order the elements. He has absolutely zero power or authority to order the elements to form a single thing. He has no creative power. He can only affect its cosmic opposite, chaos, disorder, degeneration, and destruction. Those are the wounds that he affects.

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on the cosmos. Wherever and whenever God allows him to rule and reign, and this is an important point too, God has the ability to restrict where and when the enemy God can operate in the cosmos, we see the consequences of his presence. We see cosmic wounds, which are best represented by the second law of thermodynamics, which is that over time, heat energy molecules become more and more disorganized.

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and dispersed, they become chaotic. And in so doing, they lose their ability to convert heat energy to work. And when this happens, our cells degenerate, we age, our bodies weaken, we’re subject to disease and to sickness and to death. In other words, the enemy God, because of his chaotic effect on the very elements that constitute the fabric of the cosmos,

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disease, pain, and death in the world. And this also means that it’s by the cosmic wounds he inflicts that we experience very real physical wounds during our earthly experience. Last night I got a pretty severe burn on three of my fingers and I was reminded quite poignantly that the pain I was experiencing I would not be experiencing in a cosmic realm where the enemy God was not allowed to rule and reign.

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The next time you slam your fingers in the car or you fall down the stairs or you cut your finger, don’t blame the high God. Blame the rebel sun. In a future episode, we’ll talk about why God allows the rebel sun to temporarily reign on Earth. But for our purposes here, it’s important to recognize that the enemy God is the cosmic antithesis of God. The ancient record teaches us that the laws of heaven, Maat, are and always will be

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more powerful than anything the enemy can do by way of rebelling against those laws. And this is an unbelievably important point because what this means is that no matter what the rebel sun does to the fabric of the cosmos, God has the power to directly reverse or counter the destructive effect or cosmic wounds the rebel sun causes. What this means is that

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Although the rebel sun has the ability to cause ourselves to degenerate, God has the power to order ourselves to regenerate. God has the power and authority to command the elements, not to move to a state of degeneration. God has the power to reverse the second law of thermodynamics, where everything inexorably moves towards decay, degradation, degeneration, corruption, disintegration, and death.

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you know what this means? It means God has the ability to stop the aging process. The aging process is the result of the rebel sun’s cosmic wounds. Once we are purely under God’s cosmic authority, we will never age. The ancients knew this or they knew of this. They knew that near a sacred mountain somewhere, which we know what that is now, was a quote fountain of youth.

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A fountain from which if one drank, they would no longer be subjected to the aging process. A fountain which would make older people young again. They would live in perpetual youth and beauty. Think on that too. Wrinkles, acne, thinning hair, all the effects of the rebel sun. And if you aren’t feeling particularly beautiful today, now you know why. What this also means is that although the rebel sun has the ability to subject the cells

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the destructive chaotic elements of disease and sickness, God has the power to order the cells of our body to restore themselves to an ordered state of health. God has the power to reverse sickness, disease. God has the power to reverse sickness, disease, blindness, deafness, and physical deformities of every type, all of which are the cosmic consequences of the rebel sun’s effect.

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on the elements. When the rebel sun is no longer allowed to reign, we will have bodies that are immune to every type of sickness, disease, or deformity. The ancients knew this too. They knew that one of the chief characteristics of God was his ability to heal physical wounds. And now we understand why he can. Because the elements honor his power and authority, which was granted to him because of his strict adherence to the laws of heaven.

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What this also means is that although the rebel son has the ability to subject the elements of our body to degeneration and ultimately death, God has the ability to reverse death. He has the power to raise the dead, to resurrect one who has physically died. He has the power and authority to command the elements to order themselves back into their original non-degenerated state. The ancients knew this too.

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They knew that again, on a sacred mountain somewhere, that there was a special plant or tree there, which if one consumed or drank of it, known as the elixir of life, they could live forever and never die. We find evidence of God’s power to reverse the second law of thermodynamics, to heal the sick, raise the dead, and affect eternal life all over in the ancient world. So here are just a couple of examples. In the Epic of Gilgamesh,

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Gilgamesh seeks a plant, which I argue is akin to the Tree of Life. This plant grants eternal youth and immortality. After a perilous journey, Gilgamesh finds the plant at the bottom of the Apsu, the primordial waters. And no surprise, after retrieving the plant, while he’s bathing in the waters, a sea serpent lurking in the waters smells the plant’s beautiful fragrance.

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Did you catch that? Did you notice that this plant or tree has a beautiful fragrance? And if you don’t know why this fragrance is important, check out episode number eight, the fragrant dew of paradise. The serpent stealthily swoops up and steals the plant. And as a result, Gilgamesh fails to attain eternal youth and immortality. We should note in the story how Gilgamesh did not conquer the serpent here.

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which is why Gilgamesh was unable to obtain eternal life, which makes the Epic of Gilgamesh ultimately a tragedy. Eutnapishtim, the Mesopotamian Noah in Tablet 11 tells Gilgamesh this about the plant or tree, quote, let me reveal a closely guarded matter, Gilgamesh, and let me tell you the secret of the gods. There is a plant whose root is like camel thorn.

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whose thorn-like roses will spike your hands. If you yourself can win that plant, you will find rejuvenation.” When Gilgamesh heard this, he opened the pipe. He tied heavy stones to his feet. They dragged him down into the Apsu, which is the primordial waters, and he saw the plant. He took the plant to himself. It spiked his hands. He cut the heavy stones from his feet.

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The sea threw him up onto its shore. Gilgamesh spoke to him, to Ur-Shanabi the boatman. Ur-Shanabi, this plant is a plant to cure a crisis. With it, a many may win the breath of life. I shall take it back to Uruk to the sheepfold. I shall give it to an elder to eat. And so try out the plant. Its name shall be, quote,

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an old man grows into a young man. I too shall eat it and turn into the young man that I once was. Here we see a clear connection between God who is represented by the plant or tree and the ability of God to reverse the cosmic wounds inflicted by the serpent. This plant has the ability to grant eternal youth and immortality.

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In the Christian New Testament, we see a number of examples of Christ reversing the cosmic wounds inflicted by the serpent when he heals the sick and diseased, enables the lame to walk, restores sight to the blind, raises Lazarus from the dead. For example, in the book of Matthew chapter 4 verse 23, it reads, quote, And Jesus went about all Galilee, healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

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And now you know why Jesus had the power to heal all types of sickness and diseases among the people. Because as one who strictly abided by the laws of heaven, he had the power and authority to command the elements to, quote, order themselves back into their perfect state. The elements honored his commands. And that’s pretty neat. In Matthew chapter eight, verses two and three, it reads, quote, and behold, there came a leper and worshiped him saying.

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Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” Did you notice here how Jesus helped the leper directly by divine utterance? The text says, and Jesus put forth his hand and touched him saying, I will be thou clean. He’s commanding the elements here to return

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an ordered state. In what does the text say happened? It says, quote, and immediately his leprosy was cleansed. The elements immediately honored his command and returned to their ordered state. See, Jesus, the beloved son of the high god, has the power and authority to reverse the cosmic wounds caused by the great dragon. For those who understand, this ability is a clear witness of his divinity. Here’s one more.

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though there are many, many great examples in the New Testament. In John chapter five, we read of a man who had had an infirmity for 38 years. He’s standing near the pool of Bethesda, hoping to be healed by the waters when this happens. Quote, when Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, wilt thou be made whole? Jesus saith unto him, rise, take up thy bed and walk.

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and immediately the man was made whole. So note again how right after the command, the man’s body is restored to a perfect ordered state. Jesus has reversed the cosmic blows of the rebel son. Now of course he can do this because of the power that comes from abiding by the laws of heaven, which will always be more powerful than rebelling against those laws.

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In the ancient Egyptian pyramid texts in pyramid text 422 in Pepe the first pyramid it reads and this is speaking of King Pepe who has physically died it reads quote you do not perish you do not come to an end it’s a clear reference to immortality there in pyramid text 436 and 437 also in king pepe’s pyramid raise yourself

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Pepe. Raise here refers to rising from the dead. You have not died. Raise yourself as Osiris. Egyptologist Jan Asman says this of this text. He says, quote, resurrection is a proper term for this idea because the dead king is constantly summoned to, quote, rise. Quote, raise yourself is the typical address to the deceased. And it means not only to get up, but to ascend.

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heaven. So again, this is a clear reference to overcoming physical death. And in Pyramid Text 537, we read, quote, Ho, Pepe, stand up and sit down on Osiris’s chair, which is his throne. Your flesh is complete as a tomb. Stand up and you will not end. You will not perish. The dead King Pepe’s flesh is

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fully restored. His flesh is now, quote, complete. His physical body is no longer dead. He’s been restored to life in a whole resurrected body. We see evidence of God’s ability to reverse or heal the cosmic wounds caused by the dragon all over the place in the ancient record. And this is ultimately why the physical death of Osiris is not a permanent defeat. It’s only an initial or temporary defeat. It only looks like the dragon set has won.

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But in fact, the righteous King Osiris, because of his adherence to Maat, has greater power than Set. He has the power to order or restore the fabric of the cosmos, which ultimately will ensure the dragon’s defeat. And this is exactly what we see happen in the rest of the Osiris myth. Let’s pick up right near where we left off. Says, quote, Set commanded his followers to carry away the chest and dispose of it secretly.

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As he bade them, so did they do. They hastened through the night and flung it into the Nile. The current bore it away in the darkness. And when morning came, it reached the great ocean. It was driven hither and thither, tossing among the waves. Note here for a second that Osiris’ coffin is in darkness. It’s being tossed to and fro on an ocean. These images of darkness and water are.

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references to the primordial waters of chaos to suggest that Osiris has lost. He’s in the grasp of chaos. He’s under Set’s reign now. From here, Osiris’s consort, Isis, is distraught with grief and she searches high and low for his body. The text continues, quote, meanwhile Set, the usurper, ascended the throne of Osiris and reigned over the land of Egypt.

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Men were wronged and despoiled of their possessions. Tyranny prevailed and great disorder. So here we’re seeing the temporary ascendancy or reign of the enemy as foresight outlined. His works are clearly that of darkness and destruction. From here, Isis gives birth to a son, Horus, and the coffin of Osiris eventually comes ashore. And the text continues, quote.

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The coffin of Osiris was driven by the waves to Syria, and it was cast upon the shore. A sacred tree sprang up and grew round it, and the body of the dead ruler was enclosed in its trunk. All right, you know I have to stop here. We have a sacred tree growing around the dead body of the righteous King Osiris? Could the ancients give us a clearer clue that the sacred tree is meant to represent God?

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I think not. This is about as overt as we get in the ancient world. Note too how Osiris’ coffin is enclosed in the trunk. He is meant to be understood as the trunk of the tree. This is hugely significant and we’ll definitely get to it as the podcast progresses. For now, just note the association between the God, King Osiris and the sacred tree. The text continues. The king of that alien land marveled great.

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at the wonderful tree, because that it had such rapid growth, and he gave command that it should be cut down, as he desired so it was done. Then was the trunk erected in his house as a sacred pillar.” So again, take note here of the connection between gods, trees, and pillars, like we’ve been pointing out. Let’s continue. From here, Isis asks the king for the sacred pillar.

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it reads. Then she asked the king that the sacred pillar be given unto her. The boon was granted, and she cut deep into the trunk and took forth the chest which was concealed therein. Embracing it tenderly, she uttered cries of lamentation that were so bitter and keen. Then she consecrated the sacred pillar, which she wrapped in linen and anointed with myrrh, and it was afterwards

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placed in a temple. Did you notice the anointing with myrrh oil there? There’s so much to say here, but I’ll stay on task. From here, Isis takes the coffin, holding Osiris’s dead body, to Egypt, where the evil set finds the chest. It reads, He said, caused it to be opened, and the body of Osiris was taken forth and rent into fourteen pieces.

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which he cast into the Nile so that the crocodiles might devour him. But these reptiles, now think those sea monsters here, had fear of Isis and touched them not. And they were scattered along the riverbanks. The heart of Isis was filled with grief when she came to know what Set had done. She had made for herself a papyrus boat and sailed up and down the Delta waters, searching for the fragments of her husband’s body.

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and at length she recovered them all. From here, Isis gravely laments, and it continues, quote, the lamentations of the goddesses were heard by Ra, who’s the high god, and he sent down from heaven the god Anubis, who with the assistance of Thoth and Horus united the severed portions of the body of Osiris, which they wrapped in linen bandages. Thus,

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had origin the mummy form of the God. Then the winged Isis hovered over the body and the air from her wings entered the nostrils of Osiris so that he was imbued with life once again. So here the gods restore Osiris’ body to its proper order. And the god Isis with her power and authority reverses the cosmic wounds of death

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inflicted by Seth and imbues him with the breath of life. He is resurrected to a perfect state. Osiris is not defeated. Ultimately, the tyrannical god Seth is dethroned by Osiris’ son Horus, and Osiris lives on as the judge and king of the dead. Much of ancient Egypt ritual is

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resurrection and the kingship of Osiris. Note that in these accounts that everything the beloved son of the high god does or the gods do directly reverses or counters the cosmic wounds inflicted by the rebel son. We don’t have time to get into this now but the beloved son of the high god does the same thing for spiritual wounds. The wounds that come about when we yield to the dragon’s

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Such spiritual wounds make us unholy or unclean or unworthy to reside in the holiest of realms where God resides. These wounds are sometimes referred to as spiritual death in part because being outside of the presence of God feels akin to death. The ancients attest that God has the power and authority to reverse or counter every

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and spiritual wound caused by the rebel sun. The ancients attest that God, through his ability to quote, order the elements, keeps the planets rotating, the sun burning and the plants growing. But he also, for some really important purposes, allows the enemy God to maintain some of his chaotic cosmic power. In fact, this is what it says in the book of Genesis chapter three verse 15.

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where God tells the serpent in the Garden of Eden, quote, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his heel. In other words, God is telling Adam and Eve that he’s going to allow the dragon to have some level of power during their earthly experience. They are going to have to fight the dragon

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to just like the beloved son. But don’t forget, God doesn’t expel them from the Garden of Eden until he has gifted them special armor, and we assume a couple of special weapons, which brings me full circle to those special weapons again. Now that we know what those special weapons have to have the ability to do, they have to have the ability to either thwart or reverse the wounds the dragon has the ability to inflict, we’re better prepared to figure out.

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what it is. So what does the ancient record tell us this sacred weapon is? Well, for the answer to that I need to take you to the ancient city of Mari. Mari was an ancient Semitic city-state which is located today in Syria. Between 2900 and 1759 BC it thrived as an important trade center because it was located right on the banks of the Euphrates River.

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And in 1933, a French archeologist by the name of André Perrault headed up an excavation that led to the discovery of 20,000 cuneiform tablets or fragments in the royal palace of King Zimri Lim. Among the tablets were hundreds of royal letters, correspondences between the king and various individuals. In one of these letters, we learn what this special weapon is.

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1968, King Yadun Lim receives a letter from a prophet of Adu. In the letter, the prophet reminds the king that the god Adad gave him his position as king, anointed him, and gave him a special weapon. The letter reads, quote, To my lord say, thus nor sin your servant.

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the Lord of Aleppo. He came to me and thus he said, says Adad, the land in its entirety I have given to Yadun Limh, and with my weapons and equal he did not encounter. This sounds like it could come right out of the legend of Fafnir. A sword, if you recall, the text said, quote, he never bore in hand a better sword than this.

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But of course the text here was written a couple of thousand years before the legend of Fafnir. And this is remarkable. I continue. Yet when he abandoned me, the land which I had given him I gave to Samsi Adad, Samsi Adad Lakuna. Let him restore you. On the throne of the house of your father I returned you. The weapon with which I struck the sea.

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I have given you.” All right, so what is the special weapon that is inherited by the servants of the Lord? This Mari letter tells us that it is, quote, the weapon with which I struck the sea. This is super, super interesting. The prophet of Edu is telling the king that the special weapon that he was given, which we guess was symbolized by a scepter or a staff, because that’s the weapon we see all kings hold.

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is the same weapon that God used to strike the sea. Okay, what sea? You should know this. We’re talking about the primordial sea, the primordial waters. The king was given the same special weapon that God used to strike the primordial waters. The weapon that stirred up the chaotic primordial waters and allowed him to form a world. This weapon was the weapon that God used

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conquer the primordial waters. And do you remember what that weapon was? It was wind, a wind that brooded over the waters. Unfortunately, I have to leave it there, but think on that. We’ll pick it up right here in our next episode. Until then, I’ll leave you with the words of William Shakespeare, knowledge is the wing we’re with we fly to heaven. I’m Jack Logan.

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You’ve been listening to the Ancient Tradition. A Wonk Media Production.