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. It’s great to have you with me today. We’ve got a lot of great stuff. A quick little announcement that I wanted to make you aware of two audio recordings that we’ve uploaded to our sister podcast, The Ancient Tradition Audio Rit. So if you’re interested, you can find an audio recording of the Osiris myth. And you can also find an audio recording of the pseudepigraphal text, Joseph and Azaneth.

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We talked about that in our previous episode and we’re gonna talk about it again today. With that, let’s kind of jump right in. In our previous episode, we discussed some of the gifts of the sacred tree. And one of those gifts was the sap of the tree, that special ointment that in the ancient literature is referred to as oil or dew or honey. And this ointment was smeared on the hero to soothe and heal the wounds that he incurred in his battle with the evil dragon.

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In the ancient literature, the smearing of the sap of the tree on the body or the head or the forehead is referred to as anointing, to anoint the hero or an anointing. In the ancient world, almost all kings were anointed with a special healing ointment, which was most often a special concoction or a mixture of oil, usually of olive oil, and then fragrances from trees. And almost universally,

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The primary tree-based ingredient used in the anointing oil was myrrh, which, if you think through this for a minute, is precisely why the three wise men in the New Testament account brought myrrh as a gift to the child Jesus. In Matthew chapter 2 verse 11 it reads, And when they were coming to the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshiped him.

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And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And now you know why they brought the Christ child myrrh, because he is the Christ and as the Christ, which I mentioned before actually means the anointed one in Greek, and as the future king of Israel, the myrrh that the wise men brought actually spoke to Christ’s role as the sacred tree and the healing oil.

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that he would gift to the world. And of course, all of this is really highly symbolic. The physical, tangible murroil is really teaching us about the spiritual, intangible power of God to heal all wounds, be they cosmic and or spiritual. So this brings me to kind of the core of today’s episode. So for the past couple of episodes, we’ve been going through the key events, the stubborn bits that Forsyte and other scholars have found from examining the world’s ancient combat narratives.

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And in our last episode, we discussed the eighth event, the healing of the hero’s wounds. Once the hero’s wounds have been healed, the hero rejoins the battle with the enemy, which is the ninth event. Every last bit of the hero’s moral fortitude is tested in this climactic battle. But the enemy is no match for the hero’s convictions and the enemy is ultimately defeated. The hero triumphs over the enemy,

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10th event. Sometimes the enemy is slain, sometimes he’s imprisoned or chained or punished or banished, which is the 11th event. But in all of the cases, the hero comes off victorious. The hero metaphorically slays the dragon. It’s at this point that we have to ask ourselves, okay, so what happens next?

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Now that the beloved son or the hero or the pauper or you and me have successfully triumphed over the evil son, then what happens next? What does the hero spend the rest of his or her days doing? Well that’s when things get really really interesting. The theology the ancients teach here is quite astounding.

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So let’s take a look at the ancient record and see what the ancients taught. Let’s start with the oldest known combat narrative in the ancient world where the hero isn’t murdered. And we find this account, of course, in ancient Egypt. In the combat between the evil god Set and the god Osiris’ son. This account is found in a text called the Chester-Bady Papyri.

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It’s dated to the 20th dynasty, which was during the reign of Ramses V, who reigned from 1149 to 1145 BC. And this account is known as the Contendings of Horus and Set. In this account, as a consequence of Set’s rebellion against and murder of Osiris, a divine council, under the high god Ray’s authority,

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have assembled in a court in a divine tribunal, and they’re holding legal hearings over who now should be given the right to rule as king over Egypt. If you recall in episode number seven, the king of the four corners, Egypt is symbolic of the entire world. It represents the entire earthly realm. And the council’s deliberating over whether or not it should be the strong evil god, Seth, or the pious god, Horus, who should be given the right to reign as king.

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over the earth. They hold a series of hearings and contests which were referred to as contendings between Horus and Set. And Horus successfully wins these contests and he avenges his father Osiris and he vanquishes Set. In this scene, Set is brought before Osiris as a captive. And under this subjugation, Atum, the god Atum, questions him about his usurpation

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Osiris’s throne. And Seth concedes that Osiris should be king. And the text reads and this comes from the Alan H Gardner translation. Thereupon Isis brought set, he being made fast with bonds and as a prisoner. Thereupon Atum spake to him.

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Wherefore hast thou not allowed judgment to be pronounced upon you, but has taken away for thyself the office of Horus? Whereupon set spake unto him. Not so, my good Lord, let Horus, the son of Isis, be summoned, and let be given unto him the office of his father Osiris. It’s here we need to pause for just a second and talk about what’s happening. See,

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Horus is the royal heir of the heavenly king Osiris. This is important. And remember this, because it kind of applies to everything we’re gonna talk about in this episode. Horus as the royal heir has the right kingship over Egypt, the whole world. But only if he can defeat the dragon, the rebellious murderous set, which from this text he successfully does.

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So what happens next? What happens after Horus defeats the dragon? What happens after Seth acknowledges that Horus is the rightful heir? Let’s read. The text says, quote, “‘Thereupon they brought Horus, the son of Isis, and they set the white crown upon his head, and he was set in the place of his father Osiris.'” So,

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What happened after Osiris defeated the dragon? He was crowned a king. Now don’t underestimate the theology of what is happening here. Horus is crowned the king of Egypt, which is symbolic of the whole world. He is crowned a king and given a kingdom, the earth, over which to reign. There’s

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Let’s continue reading. Quote, and they spake unto him, thou art the good king of Tomeri. And Tomeri is T-O-M-E-R-I. The good king of Tomeri is kind of interesting here. Tomeri is actually the name the ancient Egyptians gave Egypt and the earth. So they’re saying here that Horus is the king of the earth, just like we argued, but there is more to this name than meets the eye. See,

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Ta or to, T-A, means land, and Mary, M-E-R-I, means beloved. So Ta, Mary, the name the ancient Egyptians gave the earth translates as land of the beloved or the beloved land. The ancient Egyptians loved wordplay, so this could be interpreted as the beloved land or the beloveds land.

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Whose land? This is the beloved’s land. Well, who is the beloved? Well, this is where it gets interesting. See, in ancient Egypt, just like we see in the Bible, the son of the high God was given the title beloved son. And I haven’t really gotten into this yet, but we will in the coming year. So don’t think for a second that the ancient Egyptians didn’t know what they were doing when they named Egypt or the earth Ta-Meri, which I argue likely has that double meaning

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the beloved land and the beloved’s land. And that makes complete sense when we learn that Horus, the beloved son of Ray, has just been crowned the king of the beloved land. It’s called beloved because it is the king’s, the beloved son’s inheritance for conquering the dragon. The theology here, as you’re gonna see in a couple of minutes, is really quite astounding.

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Let’s keep reading, it says, and they spake unto him, thou art the good King of Tomeri, thou art the good Lord of every land forever and ever. From this text, it appears that Tomeri, the earth, is Horus’s to govern forever. It’s an eternal inheritance, it’s an everlasting dominion. Let’s keep reading.

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quote, and Isis cried aloud unto her son, Horus, saying, thou art the good King. My heart is in joy that thou enlightened the earth. Note how Horus’s mother, Isis, is rejoicing over her son’s enthronement here and his dominion over the earth. This is gonna show up again in just a second. So from this ancient text, what do the ancients tell us happens after the hero conquers the dragon?

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The ancients tell us that he is made a king. But he isn’t just made a king. The title king is meaningless if the king doesn’t have a land or a people over which he reigns. In fact, those two things, land and people, are part and parcel to the entire definition of what it means to be a king. A king is only a king if he has a land over which he reigns and a people over which he reigns.

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And it’s very, very clear here that when Horus has made a king, he’s given a land, the earth over which to reign. And the text ends with this statement, quote, thereupon ISIS said Horus is arisen as ruler the need now a need to just remind you is the divine counsel in Egypt is in holiday, the need is in holiday, heaven is in joy. So heaven is rejoicing.

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Then they took wreaths when they saw Horus, the son of Isis, who risen as a great ruler of Egypt. The Anid, their hearts were content. The entire earth was in rejoicing when they saw Horus, the son of Isis, the office of his father Osiris, the Lord of Dedu, having been allotted unto him.” Okay, I wanna focus on the very last part. There’s a lot of great stuff in there.

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The text says, quote, the entire earth was in rejoicing. So we get that rejoicing and joy theme here. Having been allotted unto him. Okay. See the text is telling us that the entire earth was the land, which was quote allotted to Horus as his inheritance for conquering the dragon set, but paid super close attention to the verb used in the text here. It says having been allotted.

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unto him. The verb used here is allotted, which comes entomologically from the ancient practice of drawing lots. And this should give you long time listeners pause. Think about this for a moment. Where have we talked about casting lots before? If you thought of episode number 18, the High Council of 12, then you have a pretty amazing memory.

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Because yes, it was in that episode that we read an ancient Mesopotamian text titled, Enki and the World Order, in which the god Enki divided his kingdom among 12 of his sons, giving each of them individual stewardship over one twelfth part of it. And we saw the same thing when lots were used to divide up the land of Canaan amongst the 12 tribes of Israel. And when lots were used by Jesus’ council of 12 apostles,

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to decide who would fill Judas Iscariot’s vacancy. In the ancient literature, the casting of lots is often directly associated with decisions made by the council of the gods. And we get the very same idea here in this text, the Contendings of Horus and Set. The entire text takes place in a divine council setting with the gods deliberating over who should be given kingship over the earth.

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after a battle in the council, a primordial Theomache between Horus and Set. Horus triumphs and he’s crowned king. And then he’s allotted the earth as his dominion. The council allots him a world over which to reign. The theology here is jaw-dropping. See, the ancient record tells us that once the hero slays the dragon,

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absolutely monumental happens. He is made a king and of course a queen if the hero’s female. In stark contrast to modern day conceptions of heaven is this place where the good go to spend their days basically hanging out on clouds, doing nothing in particular in some sort of perpetual state of bliss. The ancients taught that something much more powerful occurs.

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They taught that those who slay the Leviathan are crowned kings and queens and are given a heavenly kingdom over which to reign. Now that’s a theology worth talking about.

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Let’s take a look at a couple more examples in the ancient texts. Let’s turn our sights now to the god Marduk in the Mesopotamian Enuma Elish in the Epic of Creation. That’s dated to scholars to around the ninth century B.C. And we’ve talked quite a bit about this on the podcast, but I’m just going to refresh your memory for a second. In the Council of the Gods, the god Marduk volunteers to battle the sea monster Tiamat.

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who has been threatening to destroy the high god Anu and the order of the heavens. This Tiamat impidimizes chaos. And then with the help of several special weapons and special armor and special utterance that had been gifted by the high god to Marduk, Marduk successfully conquers the Leviathan Tiamat. And this is what the text says. Quote.

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Face to face they came, Tiamat and Marduk, sage of the gods. They engaged in combat, they closed for battle. The Lord spread his net and made it encircle her.” And then there are a whole bunch more as mentioned. He shot an arrow which pierced her belly, split her down the middle and slit her heart, vanquished her and extinguished her life. So in this account, the god Marduk conquers the evil chaos monster and he imposes order on

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chaos. Okay, so what does the text say happened after Marduk conquered the sea monster Tiamat? Well, let’s keep reading. And this comes from tablet number five. Quote, the gods looked and their hearts were full of joy. So there’s that joy motif again, that the Leviathan’s been conquered. Lamu and Lamu and all the fathers, and these are the older gods, embraced

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And Anshar the king proclaimed that there should be a reception for him. Anu and Lil and Aya each presented him with gifts. Damkina, his mother exclaimed with joy at him. So this is almost exactly the same that we saw with Isis, right, when Isis was rejoicing over the victory of her son Horus over Set. Now we have Marduk’s mother Damkina, joying over her son Marduk’s victory over Tiamat. Quote, the Igigi,

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and that’s the divine council, assembled. And all of them did obeisance to him. The Anunnaki, which is also the divine council, collected together to prostrate themselves. They stood, they bowed. Yes, king indeed. His fathers took their fill of his manliness. They took off his clothes, which were enveloped in the dust of combat.

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Think of the dust of combat here for a second because if you remember in the Joseph and Azanath text, Azanath is in sackcloths and ashes, which is kind of an equivalent here. So they take off the dust of combat, the gods were attentive to him, with Cyprus they sprinkled his body. We’re talking about an anointing here. So they are crowning Mardukki king and part of that is sprinkling him with Cyprus. Cyprus, of course, being a tree. So we’re talking about

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the anointing here. Quote, he put on a princely garment, a royal aura, a splendid crown. He took up a mace and grasped it in his right hand, in the inner chamber of his throne, in his cellar, the gods, all that existed, Lamu and Laamu, made their voices heard and spoke to the Igigi. Previously Marduk was just our beloved son, but now he is our king.

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take heed of his command. So here we see the divine council, they anoint Marduk with the fragrance of a tree, the Cyprus, then he dresses in royal regalia, robes, a crown and a mace, a mace which we presume was made from the branch of a tree from other Mesopotamian texts. And then he’s declared by the divine council to be a king. The divine council invests Marduk with royal power.

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and then listen to what the divine council does next. It reads, quote, “‘Next they spoke and proclaimed in unison, “‘Lugal Dimr Ankiah is his name. “‘Trust in him.’ “‘So after they have enthroned them, “‘they give Marduk, the king, a new name.’ “‘Lugal’ is the Sumerian word for king. “‘Dimr’ means God.

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and Ankiah means heaven and earth. So the new name that they give to Marduk means divine king of heaven and earth. And then towards the very end of the Anuma Elish, Marduk is given some 50 new royal names. All right, the text continues, quote, when they gave kingship to Marduk, they spoke in oration for him for blessing and obedience.

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So it’s clear here that upon conquering the sea monster Tiamat, the council of the gods make Marduk a king. And it’s clear from the new name that the council give him that the land over which he will have dominion is the earth because that is his name, the king, the divine king of heaven and earth. I hope you aren’t missing the magnitude of what the ancients are teaching here.

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E.T. Mullen Jr. in his book that I love, The Divine Council and Canaanite in early Hebrew literature says this of this passage, quote, the investiture of Marduk did not make him a rival of Anu, the high god. Rather, it was a method of ritual exaltation of the champion. In other words, what we’re seeing here is that the high god Anu

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exalts or makes kings out of his sons who defeat the dragon. And we assume queens out of his daughters, which we’re gonna see in a bit. In the Mesopotamian Ansu bird myth, you’ll recall that Nunurta, the son of the chief god Enlil, engages in a fierce battle with the evil rebellious Ansu bird, the bird that stole the tablets of destiny from his father. And this is what the text, dated to the early second millennium BC says.

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And I’m reading from tablet three. Ninurta slew wicked Ansu, and warrior Ninurta regained the god’s tablet of destinies for his own hand. The wind brought Ansu’s feathers. Dagon saw his sign and rejoiced. There’s that joy again. Called all the gods and joyfully he spoke. The strong one has indeed slain Ansu on his mountain. Come.

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Let him come to us, let him rejoice, play, make merry. Okay, so pretty clear theme there of joy and rejoicing. And the text continues, quote, let Enlil bestow upon him the rites. Now rites is the R-I-T-E version again. You have one complete dominion, every single rite, R-I-T-E.

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This is interesting because it suggests that there are rites or a series of heavenly rites or rituals associated with being coronated a heavenly king. And having slain the dragon, then he is able to have those rights. The text continues, quote, “‘Give your great name, Duku, D-U-K-U, for kingship.'” Duku actually means Lord of the Holy Mount.

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And the mound that’s being referred to here is the mountain or the mound where God dwells. So his new name here is the Lord of the Holy Mound. Then like we saw with Marduk, the text then gives a whole series of new names after which the new king is to be called. We see a similar thing in the Mesopotamian Labu myth where the God Tishpak slays the serpent dragon Labu. This is what the text says, quote.

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Who will go to kill the Labu? Who will save the vast land and exercise kingship in the land? Go, Tishpak, kill the lion serpent. Save the land and exercise kingship in the land. He shot an arrow and killed the lion serpent. Forsight in the Old Enemy, which we’ve talked about several times, says this of that particular text, quote, we can tell that the victorious hero was offered

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the kingship as his prize. Presumably the kingship of heaven as in the latter Marduk Tiamat variant. The Labu monster is a dragon, not merely dragon-like and he comes from the sea, a widespread motif with many parallels in other combat narratives. So note here that kingship is the prize for conquering the dragon.

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Now let’s take a look at an example that comes from the Ugaritic or the Canaanite literature. And this is the combat between the sons of the high god El. So we have the rebellious son Yam and the beloved son Baal. And in this account, the sea monster Yam sends two messengers to the mount of El. We’ve talked about this before. And he sends them to the divine council to affirm his kingship. And Yam’s messengers insult the council and the text

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tells us that Baal does the following. And this comes from Cuneiform Tablet 1.4.17. Quote, then Baal took heart. He seized an ax in his hand, a bludgeon in his right hand. He smote the two lads. The goddess Atart stops Baal and prophesies of his victory and his everlasting kingship. And the text says, quote, now thine enemy wilt thou smite.

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Now wilt thou cut off thine adversary. Thou shalt take thine eternal kingdom, thine everlasting dominion.” We’re obviously seeing the same themes here where the God who defeats the rebellious son is gifted an eternal kingship, an everlasting dominion. So with a pair of special weapons, he takes a club named Chaser and a club named Driver, Baal defeats Yam, the serpent.

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And in this text, Yam is not permanently killed, but he’s confined or he’s bound to, quote, his proper sphere, the seas, the sphere of chaos. Mullen says this of the high God, El, the council of the gods and the appointment of eternal kingship. He says, quote, the decree and sanction for kingship comes forth from El. Who’s the high God? The

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actual choice and enthronement of a king occurs at the dwelling of El. So we’re talking about in the high god’s temple or sanctuary. In Cuneiform tablet 11.45 to 46, the high god tells his wife, Adorat, quote, here, give one of your sons and I will make him king. Mullen continues, quote, the decree of El is the decree of the gods. It

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meaning El’s decree, establishes the order of kingship within the divine realm. Only El delivers decrees that affect the rule of the cosmos. He declares kingship, grants palaces, and refuses kingships, a fact confirmed by the Phoenician account recorded by Philo when Baal, Hadu, and Atart are given dominion by the consent of El.

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Tart is Baal’s wife. So this passage refers to the high god El making Baal and a Tart a heavenly king and queen.

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In a Hirohita myth, the giant stone monster Ulikumi is ultimately defeated and his brother Teshu becomes the unchallenged ruler of the universe. In Greek myth, Zeus defeats the monstrous serpentine giant Typhon, chaining him inside Mount Etna. And then after disposing of the monster, Zeus reigns as the perpetual king of heaven. To this point in ancient texts, we’ve been talking about enthronement of gods.

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gods who have conquered the dragon, but what about earthly kings or poppers or you and me? So what do the ancient texts have to say about that? We turn to a really fascinating text. We’ve referred to this before. This is the Ramayana. It’s a Hindu text. It’s dated to around the seventh to fourth century BC. And in the text, Rama is a young man of royal lineage. And he’s also considered to be an avatar of the god Vishnu. He rescues using his special bow and arrow.

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the Princess Sita, who’s the daughter of the King Janaka, from the clutches of the demon King Ravana. And when Sita and Rama returned to Ayodhya, which is their father’s ancient home, Rama is coronated a king. So if you don’t know that much about Hinduism, the festival of Diwali, you may have heard of that. It’s actually the celebration of the victory of Rama’s defeat of Ravana or the-

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or the victory of light over darkness or good over evil and his return to his father’s home, Ayodhya. Okay, listen to this text. It’s an amazing text of when Rama returns victorious to his father’s ancient home and you’re going to hear the same theme of joy and rejoicing along with a lot of other fascinating correspondences that we see in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. All right, so this is what it says. The Ramayana reads, quote, message from returning Rama,

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righteous Bharat gave his mandate with a holy joy. Let our city shrines and cha-chas with a lofty music shake and our priests be bright immortals grateful gifts and offerings make. Let our Queens and stately courtiers step in splendor and in state. Chieftains with their marshaled forces range along the city gate and our white-robed holy Brahmins hymn and sacred mantras sing.

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offer greetings to our brother, render homage to our king. Pious priest and learned Brahmin, chief of guild from near and far, noble chief and stately courtier with the wreath and water jar. Women with their loving greetings, children with their joyous cry, tottering age and lip-sync infant hail the righteous chief and high. Tokens of thy rule and empire.

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These have filled thy royal throne. Faithful to his trust and duty, Bharat renders back thine own. Bharat’s lie is joy and gladness for returned from distant shore. Thou shalt rule thy spacious kingdom and thy loyal men once more. Thou shalt hold thy rightful empire and assume thy royal crown. Faithful to his trust and duty, Bharat renders back thine own.

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14 years of woe were ended, Rama now assumed his own, and they placed the weary wanderer on his father’s ancient throne. Vasita the bard of vidas with auspicious rights and meted placed the monarch and his consort on the gemmed and jeweled seat.” Okay, there’s so much I could talk about in here. I’m not going to talk about all of it.

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I just want to point out, right, we see the holy joy and the greetings, we see gifts again given to the king, we see also that he’s been given a crown and also that he is seated now on his father’s throne, which is super interesting, and that he then comes with his consort, his wife. So let’s continue. Now listen in this section of it where the priests wash an anoint Rama and they make him a king, just like the god Indra was, which suggests that these are heavenly rites.

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So let’s read. Guatama and Katya Vamadiva, priest of Yor, Jabali and wise Vijaya, verged in holy ancient lore, poured the fresh and fragrant water on the consecrated king. As the gods anointed Indra from the pure ethiro springs, juices from each fragrant creeper on his royal brow they place. Okay, you gotta stop there.

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So a creeper is a plant. So we’re taking the juices of a plant and they’re putting it on his brow. So we’re definitely talking about an anointing here. And I’ll continue. And his father’s crown and jewels Rama’s ample forehead grace. So he’s being crowned with his father’s crown. And as Manu first of monarchs.

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Now I have to stop here too because Manu is the legendary first man. He is the Indian Adam. So the Ramayana is saying here that the first monarch or king was Adam. This is crazy. Let me reread that for you in case you missed it and his father’s crown and jewels Rama’s ample forehead grace and as Manu first of monarchs.

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was enthroned in days of yore. So was Rama consecrated by the priests of Vedic lore. So the Ramayana is telling us that Rama was coronated a king according to the same rites, R-I-T-E, as the rites that were used to coronate the Indian atom, Manu, the world’s first king. That’s astounding, just astounding.

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All right, let’s go in look at some medieval and early contemporary legends. So we’re gonna look at the Germanic heroic legend of Beowulf. It was dated to between 975 and 1025 AD. So we jumped forward a couple of thousand years. We learned that Beowulf, he’s the hero of royal blood. And after he defeats the malevolent monster Grendel and his mom, he’s crowned the earthly king of the geats. He governs there successfully for 50 years.

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in Norse mythology in the proseda which is dated to the early 13th century AD the god Odin battles the evil frost giant Ymir who threatens chaos and destruction and so the two engage in a fierce battle that lasts for days and then upon Ymir’s death and defeat Odin reigns as the chief of the

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as the unequivocal king of Asgard. See Scott Littleton, he’s an American anthropologist out of Occidental College. He studied the widespread diffusion of this idea or motif of the kingship in heaven. And this is what he says, quote, one of the most widespread and important of all ancient old world theogonic themes, the so-called kingship in heaven theme can be documented in the Greek Hittite

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Phoenician, Iranian, Babylonian, and Norse traditions. In each of the above instances, a single theme is present. An existing generation of gods is preceded by two and sometimes by three earlier generations of supernatural beings. Each succeeding generation being presided over by a king in heaven who has usurped the power of his predecessor.

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Moreover, there is generally a fourth figure, a monster of some sort, who presents a challenge to the final heavenly ruler and must be overcome before the latter can assert full and perpetual authority, which is kingship. It’s clear from the textual evidence I’ve presented here that the ancients taught that

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Heavenly kings. Now you might be thinking to yourself, okay, but these examples in the ancient world tell of gods who slayed demonic dragons and became heavenly kings. But what about human beings? Is there any theological evidence that human beings who slay the dragon will also become heavenly kings? And is there any evidence of this theology in the Judeo-Christian tradition? The answer to both of these questions is a resounding yes. And there’s

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plenty of evidence. To start, let’s look at what John the Revelator teaches in the New Testament in the book of Revelation. In chapter 3 verse 5, Christ says this, quote, he that over cometh, and he’s talking about overcoming Satan, which John describes as a dragon in chapter 12. So he’s talking about defeating the dragon here. The same shall be clothed in white remnant.

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And remember Ramayana, he came in in white clothing. You’ll see that this shows up the same wherever we look. In verse 11, he continues, quote, hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Here Christ is associating those who overcome with having a crown. What crown? Verse 12 says, quote, him that overcomeeth, will I make a pillar in the temple of my God.

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Christ’s reference here to those who overcome as pillars is super, super intriguing because pillars, as we’ve talked about, are considered stylized trees. So Christ is essentially saying that those who overcome will become trees of life also in his temple where he dwells. I continue, and he shall go no more out, and I will write upon him my new name.

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Okay, what Christ says here is super interesting too, because where have we seen new names in this episode? Among kings, that’s right. After Marduk slays Tiamat and is crowned a heavenly king, he’s given a series of new names. In the Anzu myth, Ninurta, after he slays the monstrous Anzu bird and is made a heavenly king, he is given a series of new names. So here Christ is saying that those who overcomeeth, he will quote, write upon him my new name.

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It’s clear here when Christ links those who quote, overcometh to crowns and pillars and new names that Christ is talking about making these individuals heavenly kings. You know, I am always amazed when people tell me that they believe in Christ. But when the same people are asked if they believe what Christ actually says in the scriptures, like we see right here, then there tends to be a little more hemming and hawing. See,

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Jesus is actually saying here, just like what we saw in ancient Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia, ancient Ugarit, and ancient Phoenicia, that He will make dragon slayers, in this case heroes and poppers and you and me, human beings, if we conquer the dragon, heavenly kings and queens. And if you don’t believe me, take it directly from Christ’s mouth in Revelation chapter 3 verse 21. And Jesus

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quote, to him that overcomeeth, will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my father on his throne. That’s similar to the Ramayana too, where Rama is sitting on his father’s throne and here we have Jesus also sitting on his father’s throne. The Christian standard Bible translates the same verse this way. It says, to the one who conquers.

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I will give the right, R-I-G-H-T, to sit with me on my throne, just as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.” Now that’s a theology. I’m not sure I can fully wrap my brain around the full implications of what Christ is saying here. Thrones are for kings and queens. So here Jesus is saying that those who conquer the dragon have the right, R-I-G-H-T.

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to sit on a throne, Jesus’s throne. And let’s not forget that to be a king, one must also be given a land and a people over which to reign. There is so much here. And in case you still aren’t getting it, Christ caps off this verse in this chapter with the following statement. He says, quote, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith. So he said all this really interesting stuff about kingship. And then he’s like, if you…

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Those of you who have ear to hear, listen up. In other words, Christ is telling the reader that there’s a lot more here than meets the eye. Christ is counseling the reader to seek further revelation by study and by the Spirit. Needless to say, this casts a whole new light on the purpose of this life. There’s also another really important theological principle that Jesus is teaching here. And this is the notion of as above,

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so below. Mercea Eliade wrote this fantastic book called The Myth of the Eternal Return and in there he says this quote, the familiar paradigmatic myth recounts the combat between the hero and a gigantic serpent. Where tradition is still more or less a living thing great monarchs consider themselves imitators of the primordial hero.

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the enemies whom the Pharaoh fights are identified with the dragon Epophis, while the Pharaoh himself is assimilated with the god Rey, conqueror of the dragon. What Iliad is saying here is that the hero, the pauper, you and me, are meant to follow the pattern, the example of the primordial hero god, Marduk, Horus, Ninurta, and Christ.

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who in the council of the gods stood up and volunteered to battle the rebel god, the monster, the dragon, the god who threatened to destroy the high gods kingdom, were to emulate the archetype, the primordial god. And that’s exactly what Jesus says in verse 21 when he says, to the one who conquers, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I also conquered. We’re supposed to emulate the way he conquered.

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And for those who do, just like Christ was crowned a heavenly king, so too will they be crowned heavenly kings. And for the record, from what I’ve read in the ancient world, like the things we’ve read during this episode, I believe what Christ is saying here. And I’m not talking about a watered down, spiritualized interpretation of what he’s saying here, like so many would argue. I think Christ means exactly what he’s saying in these verses.

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because that’s the doctrine that we see all over in the ancient world. With that, I wanna return to the book of Joseph and Azanith, which we talked about in our previous episode, and read what it has to say about queen making. In our last episode, we read in that text that Azanith, the daughter of the ancient Egyptian priest of On, or Heliopolis, dresses in sackcloth and ashes, and she pleads to God to forgive her for her idolatrous ways. And while she’s praying, the heavens tear open,

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and a divine messenger in the form of a man appears before her and calls her by name. The divine messenger instructs Azanath to remove her clothes of pettance and put on a new robe, one that she’s never worn before. And he says to her in chapter 14, quote, from today you will be made new and refashioned and given new life and be anointed with the unction of incorruption.

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So what we’re reading in this text is that Azanath’s battle with the dragon is being expressed in more spiritual terms than the traditional violent combat myths that we’ve been reading. But the combat is the same. The dragon’s persuaded Azanath to worship false idols, and then by so doing, her soul is spiritually wounded. She’s breaking the laws of heaven. And then in a rather gripping oration, Azanath pleads for spiritual healing.

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And it’s then that a divine messenger appears and tells her how her wounds can be healed with the quote, unction of incorruption. The unction is the oil of the tree, the oil that produces incorruption, that restores the soul to its perfectly ordered uncorrupt state. It’s here that the divine messenger takes a honeycomb, a honeycomb that carries the beautiful fragrance of the myrrh tree, and he anoints azaneth on the forehead.

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just like we see done when any king in the ancient world is coronated. The divine messenger is coronating Azanath to be a queen. And this becomes especially clear when after the divine messenger asks Azanath to wash off her ashes and put on a new robe, that he says to her, quote, “‘Take heart, Azanath, for lo, “‘the Lord has heard the words of your confession. “‘Take heart, Azanath, your name,

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is written in the book of life and it will never be blotted out. And you shall no more be called Azanath, but city of refuge shall be your name.” So that’s so interesting, because this is just like what we saw with Marduk when he slayed Tiamat and Nunurta, when he slayed Ansu here, Azanath, after she slayed Satan, she is given a new name, a royal queenly name.

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The divine messenger tells her that her new name is quote, city of refuge. And why is this her new name, her new queenly name? Because the divine messenger says quote, for many shall take refuge in you and under your wings shall many peoples find shelter. And within your walls, those who give their allegiance to God in penance will find security.

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I wish I had more time to go into why City of Refuge is Azaneth’s new queenly name, because there’s some really fantastic stuff here. But it’s primarily because her new queenly name reflects a very important prophecy about her descendants. And I’ll have to save that for another day. For this episode, however, it’s important to note that what’s happening with Azaneth here is precisely the same pattern we see taking place in the ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Ugaritic, and Phoenician texts.

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when they give us the accounts of the heavenly coronation of the beloved son after he won his battle against the rebel son. It’s pretty apparent that the coronation of Azanath here is patterned after the heavenly coronation of the beloved son. Azanath’s newly acquired royal status is further substantiated in the text when the divine messenger commands her to change into her wedding clothing and go out to meet Joseph, her king.

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And the text reads, quote, So listen to me, Azanith, and put on your wedding robe and adorn yourself as a bride and be ready to meet him. For lo, he is coming to you today, and he will see you and rejoice. And Azanith went into her room and opened her wardrobe and took out her finest robe that shone like lightning. And she put it on and she tied a resplendent royal girdle around her waist.

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And remember in a previous episode how we pointed out that Josephus noted that the girdle represented the dead slain Leviathan. And she put golden bracelets round her hands and golden boots on her feet and a costly necklace about her neck. And she put a golden crown upon her head. And in the crown in front were the costliest of stones.

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The imagery here is clearly one of a queen going out to meet her king. And note again, her royal wedding robes shine like lightning and all of her queenly adornments are made of gold. And all of this is imagery that’s meant to convey glory, like the divine messenger who appeared to her. Azanath has become like him, a being of light and glory. And let’s not skip over the crown. If you had any doubt that the divine messenger was coronating Azanath, the queen in these passages, you don’t now.

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his Azenith’s queenship doesn’t get any clearer than when it stated that Azenith, quote, placed a golden crown upon her head, one adorned with the costliest of stones. And I haven’t mentioned this yet, but earlier in the text in chapter five, when Joseph first visits Azenith’s father, the text describes him precisely as a king. The text reads, quote, and the gates of the court that looked east were opened and Joseph came in.

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And Joseph was wearing a marvelous white tunic, and a robe wrapped around him was purple, made of linen woven with gold. There was a golden crown on his head, and all round the crown were 12 precious stones, and above the stones 12 golden rays, and a royal scepter was in his right hand. I don’t know that there could be any more kingly description of anybody.

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Joseph clearly arrives at Azenith’s doorstep, here clothed in purple and gold regalia as a divine king. And listen to this, listen to what else the text tells us that Joseph is carrying. The text reads, quote, and he held an olive branch, stretched out, and there was much fruit on it. Wow, Joseph shows up with a branch of the tree of life in his hand.

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The readers to see here that by holding a branch of the tree in his hand, that his, Joseph’s divine kingship is sanctioned by the tree of life itself, by God himself. And all of this is powerful theological imagery. The theology of the ancient tradition is teaching that one who has governed him or herself according to the laws of heaven, effectively slaying the dragon.

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has then, as Christ himself said, gained the right, R-I-G-H-T, to sit on a throne and govern others as a king in God’s heavenly kingdom. A passage in the ancient Egyptian text, the Condemnings of Horus and Set, say something kind of similar. The God Shue says, quote, “‘Righteousness is the owner of power.'” There’s a lot there.

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I wanna take a second here and talk about royal crowns before I close this out. At this point in the podcast, it should come as no surprise to any of you that are long time listeners that in the ancient world, the crown appears to have been originally made from the branches and leaves of the sacred tree, the sacred tree of life, the mythic ritual symbol of God. The king is a branch of the God most high.

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Gio Wittigrin, that famous historian of religion we’ve talked about in his really important book on the King and the Tree of Life says this quote, all interest centers around the Holy Garden of the Divinity. In this garden is found the Tree of Life, the fruits of which are eaten by men, while its oil is used for the anointment of his body and especially his head. As his rod, the branch cut

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crown twined from the shoots of the tree from its leaves and flowers. See the king is adorned in royal regalia made from the gifts of the tree and that like we’ve seen quite a bit in this episode is some pretty powerful theological imagery. In ancient Near East the practice of crowning a victor with an olive wreath was

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pretty salient in ancient Greece. And we know from a fourth century BC text that what we know today as the Olympic Games were originally known as the Sacred Crown Games. And Wikipedia gives us this very intriguing provenance for the Olympic Crown. Quote, the olive wreath, also known as Cotinos was the prize for the winner at the ancient Olympic Games.

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There was only one winner per event, crowned with an olive wreath made of wild olive leaves from a sacred tree near the temple Zeus at Olympia. Thus we see that the Olympic crown was made from the leaves and the branches of the sacred tree. The origin of the Olympic games is a bit uncertain, but according to legend, the games are patterned after Heracles’ 12 labors. Now,

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We haven’t talked too much about his labors, but this included slaying the fire breathing multi-serpent headed Hydra and acquiring the sacred golden apples from a tree in the Garden of Hesperides, a tree which was guarded, no surprise, by Lavum, a fearsome hundred headed dragon. You get the picture. The Olympic games appear to have their provenance in the ancient tradition.

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the symbolic labors that all of us must perform, aka slaying the dragon if we are to come off victors and gain the prize of being crowned with a sacred olive wreath made from the branches and leaves of the sacred olive tree. Author Kat Moon notes, quote, “‘Before the wreath was associated with Christmas, “‘it was a prominent emblem of victory and power “‘in ancient Greece and Rome.'”

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Outside of competitions, a crown of leaves or flowers was an ornament of the priest in the performance of sacrifice, of the hero on his return from victory, of the bride at her nuptials. And now you know the provenance of the Christmas wreath. So the next time you see a Christmas wreath hanging from someone’s front door, think on how it represents what happens next. What happens.

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after the hero, the pauper, or you and me defeat the dragon. It represents the theology that the victor will be crowned a heavenly king or queen in God’s kingdom. And that’s something. Before I close out this episode, I want to draw your attention to two verses in the biblical canon. In the book of Isaiah chapter nine verse six, we have the famous verse about the advent of the Christ child. It reads, and this is the King James version, quote,

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For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” Did you catch in this verse that Christ the King here is given new names? The text says, and his name shall be Wonderful, Counselor.

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the mighty God and in the text each of Christ’s new names is capitalized, capital W wonderful, capital C counselor, the mighty God, the Prince of Peace. These are Christ’s new royal names. And that’s exactly what we saw when Horus was crowned a king in Egypt. He was given five new names, the royal titlature. And what we saw in the Enuma Elish when Marduk slayed Tiamat, he was given 50 new names and we saw with Ninurta slayed the Ansoor bird.

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And this is what we see every time any earthly king like King Charles is crowned. Here Christ the heavenly king is given a series of new names. In Revelation chapter 17 verse 14, we learn of two more of Christ’s royal new names. And the text reads, quote, “‘The Lamb shall overcome them, “‘for He is,’ capital L, “‘Lord of lords,’ “‘and capital K, “‘King of kings.'”

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and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful.” After listening through this episode, you now know one of the reasons why one of Christ’s royal names is King of Kings, plural. It’s because he promises in Revelation, like we see all over in the ancient world, to make those who overcome kings just like he is. Thus, he is the King of Kings.

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plural.

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I should probably leave it there, but I just can’t resist sharing one last text with you. And this comes from the Sumerian text Enki in the World Order. We’ve discussed it on the podcast before. It has traits that harken back to the end of the third millennium BC. It says this between lines 190 and 210. And this passage speaks of the mountain where the high god dwells. And listen to what it says happens in the sanctuary or temple where God dwells. This says, quote,

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great mountain, land of heaven and earth, trailing glory, giving birth to kings, plural, who put on the good diadem, giving birth to lords, plural, who weareth the crown on their heads.” It says right in this text that the high god in his temple sanctuary, quote, gives birth to kings and lords, plural.

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And the context of the text suggests we’re talking about heavenly kings and lords here. Now listen to what else it says and see if you’ve heard this anywhere else in today’s episode. It reads, quote, your Lord, the honored Lord sits with on now on eyes on you, the high God, the king on ons dais, which is the throne. So this is like essentially saying your Lord, the honored Lord sits.

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on His Father, the High God’s throne. This is uncannily just like what Jesus said in Revelation chapter three, verse 21. He said, He that overcometh, I will grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father on His throne. Wow, it’s correspondences like that that just blow my mind.

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There’s a lot to think on here in this episode, which I hope you’ll do. That’s it for me. With that, 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.