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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I’m Jack Logan. Welcome to the ancient tradition. Can’t wait to get into today’s program. Today’s episode is honestly mind blowing and maybe even a bit mind bending if we think about it in terms of its implications. And what’s even more astounding is that the ancients wrote this theology down. We can go out there and we can read it for ourselves. Thousands of years after they took their little tools and pressed it into the clay tablets.

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I want to start by saying that nothing that we discussed today is my own invention. It’s core to the theology that the ancients taught. And that theology we refer to on this program is the ancient tradition. If you’re listening to the podcast for the first time, we wholeheartedly welcome you to the program. You picked a great episode to begin with. If you’re kind of curious what we do on this podcast, it’s pretty simple.

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oldest ancient texts and we search for what I refer to as the stubborn bits, the theological and cosmological themes that inexplicably show up time and time again in the ancient record. Then we take those and we piece those stubborn bits together so that we can get a basic understanding of the theology that was taught in the world’s original religious tradition. I take the theology that the ancients taught seriously. A lot of academics don’t.

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This is really not so much an academic pursuit as it is a spiritual pursuit. The pursuit of the original religious teachings that were given to mankind as the ancients taught by God in the very beginning. The podcast is progressive, which means that each episode builds off of the previous episode. So if you’re a first time listener, you’re kind of jumping into the deep end of the pool today. That’s okay, but you might not be prepared.

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for the theology we discussed today. It might sound unbelievable, impossible, or maybe even crazy talk. For that reason, I highly, highly recommend if you have the time and the interest that you go back and listen to the episodes that preceded today’s episode, because every single episode we’ve discussed over the past year, the creation,

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the primordial waters, divine utterance, the sea serpent, the council of the gods, the primordial theomachy, and kingship play a critical role in building the theological foundation that’s necessary to comprehend the theology that we’re gonna discuss in today’s episode. In fact, I think that once you’ve listened to those episodes, you’re gonna see that the theology discussed in today’s episode is really the only logical successor.

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to the theology the ancients have taught up to this point. You can find all of the past episodes right here on this platform, or you can find it on our companion website, thea And you can also find full audio recordings of some of the ancient texts that we refer to on the program on our sister podcast, the Ancient Tradition Audio Rit. With that, let’s jump into today’s episode. It’s titled,

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In our last episode, the King of Kings, I kind of went over maybe a little bit overboard with the textual evidence. Sometimes I can get a little bit wonky. If you don’t know what wonky means, it means someone who’s characterized by an enthusiastic or excessive interest in the specialized details of a particular subject or field. And that sounds like a perfect description of how I feel about the ancient tradition.

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So I’m gonna try not to belabor the evidence kinda like maybe I did in the previous episode. Not gonna promise that, but we’ll try. And one of the reasons that I presented so much evidence in the King of Kings is because I wanted you to see that there is so, so much ancient textual evidence that the theology of the ancient tradition is a theology of heavenly kingship. In every single aspect of the ancient primordial combat narratives,

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The battle with the dragon is a battle over kingship. And it’s in those narratives that the battle takes place before the creation, before the earth is formed. The battle takes place in the council of the gods, which is held where the high god dwells in the heavens in the sacred mountain sanctuary, the heavenly temple. Desiring to usurp the heavenly throne, one of the high god’s sons rebels against the high god and the laws of heaven. Another one of the high god’s sons,

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One who abides by the laws of heaven volunteers to defend the high God’s kingdom by battling the rebellious son and the two sons engage in combat and with the help of special weapons, the righteous son slays the rebellious son, the dragon, and upon his victory, the high God crowns the righteous son, a king. And all of that is very important if we’re going to understand what happens next in the ancient accounts.

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And I want to talk about that, but before I do, I want to point out that over time, when we look at these combat narratives, the divine combat originally took place in the heavens, like we see in the ancient Egyptian combat between Horus and Set, or in the ancient Mesopotamian combat between Marduk and Tiamat, or the ancient Ugaritic combat between Baal and Yam. Those came to serve as the prototype for all types of combat narratives that we see. We can see combats between gods after the earth was formed.

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between gods and men, between earthly kings and enemies, between heroes and dragons, and then down to combats between scullery maids and evil stepmothers. The thing that links all these combat narratives together is their inexplicable tie to kingship or royalty. And I don’t think I’ve heard anyone inside or outside of the literary or mythological field ask why this is. Why is it that every time we look at combat narratives, they’re tied?

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directly to kingship or royalty. Why? Why are they always about kings and princes and princesses? Like I’ve pointed out several times on the program, we just shouldn’t see this. There should be a lot more variability in the stories that are told, but the combat kingship link shows up again and again and again. Nearly all of the combat narratives we see in the ancient world.

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on into the world’s greatest epics, on into the greatest legends of medieval times and on into the folk tales of modern day are in some way tied to the concept of kingship and royalty. And this is not by accident. It is one of those stubborn bits. The combat kingship connection should be blaringly apparent to everyone, but I think sometimes we miss what’s directly in front of us.

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Take note, for example, that in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is a king, he is king of Uruk. In Jason and the Argonauts, he is the son of Aeson, king of Locos, whose throne was usurped by Pellaeus, Aeson’s half-brother. In Beowulf, Beowulf’s the nephew of the king of Geatland, and upon the king’s death, Beowulf is offered the king’s throne. In the legend of Fafnir, the hero Sigurd,

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is the son of King Sigmund, a descendant of the high god Odin. In the legend of Arthur Pendragon, the King Arthur series, King Uther Pendragon dies and Merlin tells Arthur, someone who is a warrior renowned for killing giants and monsters, that if he can draw a mysterious sword out of a stone, then he’s going to be the next king. Arthur, of course, succeeds and becomes the new king.

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And of course we have Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida, Moana, Aurea, and Elsa. All have royal ties within their fictional universes. In Snow White, Snow White is the daughter of a king. She’s forced to flee her kingdom after her stepmother attempts to have her killed. She takes refuge in a cottage with seven.

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dwarves and note that there are precisely seven dwarves here who help her defeat her stepmother. And then you see in Sleeping Beauty Aurora she’s a princess by birth. She’s cursed to sleep for eternity by an evil sorceress Maleficent. She’s saved by the true love of a prince. In Inmulan, Princess Mulan disguises herself as a man. She takes her father’s

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and defeats the evil Shan Yu, which saves the Kingdom of China. The emperor praises Mulan and offers her a seat on the royal council. In each of these princess movies, the princess has to battle a monster, an evil stepmother, an evil sorceress, or even an evil invading army before their royal status can be fully realized.

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I could of course give you many, many, many more examples, but the point here is that within the theology of the ancient tradition, the defeat of the dragon is universally and unequivocally tied to the full realization of kingship and queenship. It is the honor that’s bestowed for conquering the dragon. To say it another way, the ancient tradition flat out attests that there is royal status in all of us.

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Like Sigurd, we’re all sons and daughters, royal sons and royal daughters of the divine heavenly king, the high god. And to achieve the full realization of that status as a royal son or royal daughter of the high god, we must first conquer the dragon. I hope you can see here that as far back as we can go in the historical record, right up to the most contemporary combat narratives we find like in the Disney princess films, there’s an unequivocal link between defeating the awful enemy.

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and the realization of royalty. And let’s not forget that most of these ancient myths are meant to teach us about the realities of spiritual things. And lots of times it’s about the realities of the spiritual realm itself. So what we’re talking about here, what these divine combat myths are really teaching us is that if we will conquer the dragon, we too will obtain the royal status of heavenly king and queen.

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Let me summarize here for a minute. At its core, the theology of the ancient tradition is a theology of heavenly kingship. Let me say that one more time. At its core, the theology of the ancient tradition is a theology of heavenly kingship. The heavenly aspect of kingship is particularly pronounced in ancient world. The entire theology,

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of the ancient Egyptian religion, which we’re gonna dive into in more detail in the coming weeks, is entirely centered on the attainment of heavenly kingship, entirely. Now lots of people think the ancient Egyptians were obsessed with death, but that’s not really a correct understanding. The ancient Egyptians, particularly the royal house, weren’t obsessed with death. They were obsessed with obtaining eternal life, which was part and parcel

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to attaining heavenly kingship. And there are proof texts for this all over in the ancient Egyptian pyramid texts, which we’ve noted several times on the podcast. Which we’ve noted several times on the podcast are the oldest compilation of religious writings anywhere in the world. The ancient Mesopotamians, as we pointed out several times on this podcast, directly state on the Sumerian King list that, quote,

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kingship descended from heaven. So we can conclude that Sumerian earthly kingship was patterned after or was a continuation of kingship in heaven. This practice of patterning earthly institutions and structures after real heavenly institutions or structures, a notion that’s captured really nicely in the Hermetic maxim, as above, so below, is

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one of the most important religious principles that we find in the ancient world. And no surprise, it’s most pronounced when we examine the institutionalization of kingship and also the building of palaces and temples. And we’re gonna talk more about that in the coming episodes. In ancient Ugaritic and Canaanite literature, we find some pretty detailed descriptions of the heavenly King El and his divine court, the Council of the Gods.

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as well as pretty detailed descriptions of the heavenly king’s character, his stewardship, his responsibilities, and his powers. And it’s in these texts that we get a pretty good idea of what a heavenly king spends his days doing. And if we take these texts seriously, then we learn that what a heavenly king spends his day doing is awesome. Awesome in the truest sense of the word. And it’s for that reason that the Ugaritic texts are some of my favorites.

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In the Judeo-Christian tradition, we find a similar emphasis on heavenly kingship. Graham Goldsworthy, who wrote the Kingdom of God for the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology said this, quote, the idea of the rule of God over creation, over all creatures, over the kingdoms of the world, and in a unique and special way over his chosen and redeemed people is the very heart.

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of the message of the Hebrew scriptures. So I’ve been reading a lot of interesting things on heavenly kingship and there’s this up and coming young scholar by the name of Vadim Yurchenko. And he wrote his thesis on Yahweh’s kingship. And this is what he says, he says, quote, God’s reign as heavenly king over the world is a fundamental feature of Christian theology.

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The grand theme of God’s kingdom functions as a framework for interpreting and organizing biblical revelation and gives biblical theology its coherence and structure. In the Christian tradition, Yahweh or Jehovah is a heavenly king, the heavenly king who is prophesied to return to the earth and reign as a king. So you can see here in each of these ancient near Eastern religious traditions,

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heavenly kingship is the dominant religious theme. And if you know what you’re looking at, heavenly kingship is also the dominant mythological, cosmological, theological, symbolic, architectural, and liturgical theme in the ancient world. I mentioned this fact a couple of months ago to one of my students at the university where I teach. A student who happens to be Jewish and

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mind you, in which thousands of prayers are recited every single day that are started with the divine appellation, blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe. And this student said to me, I think the ancients probably made the heavenly kingship stuff up as a way to control people. I think it’s important to say here that I really like this student. Her name is Abby. She’s a fantastic and smart student.

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So I don’t want to throw her comment out or dismiss it. I think a lot of young people today have great distrust in society’s core institutions, be they civil or religious. So I wasn’t really surprised by her comment. I responded by saying, Abby, you know, I’ve studied this a lot. I encourage you to do the same. But what I found is that the notion of heavenly kingship and all of the accompanying theology, cosmology, symbolism, and liturgy is so sophisticated.

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multifaceted and exceptionally morally erudite that I find it impossible to believe that a brute Mesopotamian seeking to control a city of other Mesopotamians developed such an elegant and intellectually enlightening and spiritually empowering way to do so. It defies reason. Why would a controlling person create a theology that liberates, illuminates the intellect

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empowers the spirit and inspires the soul. Those things are the antithesis of control. Mark Z. Breitler in his book, God is King, understanding an Israelite metaphor said this, quote, we must allow for the possibility that the image of God as king might have shaped human kingship rather than vice versa.

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And I agree. As I just mentioned in the Christian tradition, Christ’s heavenly kingship and Christ’s kingship over the earth constitute fundamental features of Christian theology. But I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone ask these very crucial questions. Where did Jesus get the authority, the legitimate right to rule the earth as king? And two,

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Who decreed that Jesus was the king of the world? These are serious questions. Now you might be thinking, well, Jesus doesn’t need anybody to grant him the authority to reign as king. And maybe you’re right, but that’s not what the ancients taught. In a second, we’re gonna dive into the ancient record and we’re gonna see what the ancients did teach, but think for a moment on how self-declared kingship

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play out today. If a random British gentleman stood up and declared himself to be the King of England, I think nobody in England except for maybe a few gullible people would take him seriously. Legitimate kings are not self-declared. Tyrants? Yes. True kings? No. To be the legitimate King of England, someone else has to grant that person the authority to rule as a king.

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and that someone be it God or one’s own father who had previously reigned as king or through one’s royal line, but it’s never through self-declaration. So let’s turn to some of the textual evidence in the ancient world to see if those texts can shed some light on who gave Jesus the authority to reign as a heavenly king and why that person gave Jesus the authority to reign as the king of the world. Because without the answers to these questions,

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it’s quite difficult to have a full understanding of who Jesus is and why he is a king. As we learned in our previous episode, the King of Kings, not just anyone is crowned a heavenly king. There’s strict criteria regarding who can legitimately reign as a heavenly king. In the world’s oldest combat narratives, only individuals who win the battle against the dragon can rightfully be crowned a heavenly king. And there’s

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plenty of evidence in the biblical canon, especially in Isaiah chapter 51 verse nine, that Christ gained the right to rule as a heavenly king because he conquered the dragon, the rebel son Satan. The text says this of Jehovah, quote, “‘Art thou not it,’ or some translations, the one, “‘that hath cut Rahab and wounded the dragon?’

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Recall that Rahab is the name given in Hebrew for the sea monster, which means pride or arrogance. And in Psalm chapter 74 verse 14, this is also speaking of Jehovah, it says this, quote, thou breakest the heads of Leviathan, which is the dragon, in pieces and gave us him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

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I came across this professor of psychology at Abilene Christian University by the name of Richard Beck, who makes this really insightful remark about Christ. And this is what he says, quote, many doubting liberal and progressive Christians who are drawn to Christus Victor atonement theology generally lack the warfare worldview that allows Christus Victor theology to make sense.

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Specifically, given their great skepticism about the devil, many doubting Christians have no theology of the dragon, no clear sense about what is defeated and tamed in the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth, no clear sense about why Jesus is described as victorious, because you can’t have a victory if you don’t have victory.

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dragon. It’s Christ’s victory over the dragon that justifies his enthronement as a heavenly king. And Jesus says as much himself as we read in the previous episode in Revelation chapter 3 verse 21 when Christ himself said, quote, I also overcame and am set down with my father in his throne. What’s interesting here is that in this first Christ

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directly connects his heavenly kingship, sitting on his father’s heavenly throne, to the fact that he overcame his victory over Satan. I love it when I come across Christ’s own words in the Judeo-Christian canon because you can’t get more authoritative than what Christ himself says. And here Christ tells us in his own words why he was made a king. It was because he victoriously conquered the dragon.

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prize for victory over Satan, as we’ve seen in all combat narratives, is kingship. Dragon slayers are made heavenly kings and queens. So now we know why Christ had the right and the authority to reign as a heavenly king. He’d been tested and proved and he’d come off victorious. But we still don’t know exactly why he had the right to reign over the earth.

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And for the answer to that, we need to return to the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian Epic of Creation. And the answer we’re gonna find in there is truly jaw-dropping. And in my humble opinion, it is the greatest theology ever revealed. So let’s jump in. In tablet three, we read how Marduk during an assembly of the gods volunteered, quote,

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of his own free will to confront Tiamat, the sea monster. Now listen closely to what the council of the gods, the Anunnaki, which literally means the offspring of On, On being the high god, the father of the gods, tells Marduk in tablet four. Now speaking to Marduk, this is what the council says. You are honored among the great gods. Your destiny is unequaled.

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your word has the power of Anu. Okay, did you catch what was going on here? Did you catch the reference to the quote word here? Because that’s key. The Anunnaki say quote, your destiny is unequaled, your word has the power of Anu. The council just told Marduk that he has the power to divinely utter, just like the high god Anu.

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So Marduk here has been given the power of divine utterance. Let’s keep reading. It says, oh Marduk, you are honored among the great gods. Your destiny is unequaled. Your word has the power of Anu. From this day onwards, your command shall not be altered. See, one of the things that makes the high god Anu a god

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is his ability to divinely utter, his ability to command by the word of his mouth, by way of his name, the chaotic elements, those primordial waters, to order themselves into a world. It’s by the authority of his command, his divine utterance that he makes assignments and he allots kingdoms and he establishes divine law. In today’s vernacular, we might refer to God’s power to divinely utter as his priesthood, the divine authority or power

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that he uses to govern the heavens. We covered the importance of divine utterance in episode number 12, the word that changed the universe. So if you haven’t had a chance to listen to that episode or you kind of need a refresher, be sure and give it a listen. It’ll give you some important theological background for what we see happening here. One additional point, the ancient texts tell us that divine utterance can’t be altered by anyone or anything, except the one who has the ability to divinely utter.

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In other words, all things, be they the elements or God’s offspring must abide by his divine utterance. That’s power. But we can take comfort in the fact that God, because he conquered the dragon, because he passed the tests and temptations of evil, will never abuse that power, which is why he was granted the power in the first place. So let’s return to the Enuma Elish.

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After Marduk is granted divine utterance, we read about this interesting little experiment that takes place in the divine council. And I’ve talked about this on the podcast before, so I’m not gonna rehash it, but basically the council of the gods challenges Marduk to demonstrate his newly acquired ability to divinely utter by commanding a constellation, and sometimes it’s translated as a garment, to form. And note how everything in this passage is done entirely

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by the way of voice command. The text says, quote, they, it’s talking about the council of the gods, set up in their midst one constellation and they addressed Marduk their son. May you decree, O Lord, impress the gods, command to destroy and to recreate and let it be so. Speak and let the constellation vanish.

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speak to it again and let the constellation reappear. He, this is Marduk, spoke and at his word, the constellation vanished. He spoke to it again and the constellation was recreated. I hope you’re following what’s going on here. See, Marduk now has the ability to command the chaotic primordial elements, the primordial waters.

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to order themselves to form themselves into actual physical stars. And when he does this, the council is super impressed. And this is what the text says, quote, “‘When the gods his fathers saw how effective his utterance was, they rejoiced and they proclaimed, Marduk is king.'”

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We have to stop here because this is an absolutely critical aspect of the theology of the ancient tradition. What we’re seeing in this passage here is that there is a direct relationship between being crowned a heavenly king and the power to divinely utter, the power to command the chaotic elements to order themselves. In this case, the power to command the chaotic elements to order or form themselves into actual physical stars.

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If you’re a long time listener, you may recall that we saw a similar thing mentioned in the ancient Egyptian Shabaka stone. On that stone, we read how the creator God Ptah, who’s referred to on a Ramseed stele from Dur el Medina as quote, Ptah, Lord of Maat, King of the Two Lands. That epitaph is pretty interesting because Lord of Maat implies that Ptah slayed the dragon.

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In ancient Egypt, Maat represents the concept of truth and justice and righteousness, which is the antithesis of everything represented by the awful dragon, which in Egypt was the serpent Apophis or Osiris’ malevolent brother Set. The second part of his epitaph clearly states that Ptah is a heavenly king. Note how we’re starting to see here a strong pattern between lordship, which is righteousness, and heavenly kingship,

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civil authority. In this section of the Shabbakastone it says that Ptah, by way of his heart, which in ancient Egypt was where they thought the seed of the mine was, and the use of his tongue, which is divine utterance, commands into creation everything, all the gods, all men, all cattle, everything. And the text says, quote, for the very great one is Ptah.

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who gave life to all the gods and their cause through his heart and through his tongue. All men, all cattle, all creeping things, whatever lives, thinking whatever he wishes and commanding whatever he wishes. If you wanna hear a full recording of the Shabbat Kaston, you can find that on our sister podcast, the Ancient Tradition Audio Rit. So here we’re seeing in both the ancient Mesopotamian Enuma Elish and the ancient Egyptian Shabbat Kaston,

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connection between heavenly kingship and divine utterance. Don’t miss what these texts are really saying. These texts are saying that one of the powers given to heavenly kings is the ability to create a world. The ability to create a world. That’s what these texts are saying. Now that is what I call a jaw.

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dropping theology. When you think about the power of heavenly kings to divinely utter, to command the elements to form into a world, this makes logical sense because a king cannot truly be a king without a kingdom, without a land or a territory which they can govern. To shed more light on this, we need to turn to the ancient Ugaritic texts.

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In these texts, like we see in ancient Mesopotamian texts where Anu is the high god who presides over a council of gods made up of his offspring, the Anunnaki. Here, the high god El presides over a council of gods made up of his sons, referred to as the sons of El. From these Ugaritic texts, we learn a lot about the role of the high god El. What he spends his day doing.

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as the heavenly king of the universe. And one of the first things we learn is that the high God El, like all heavenly kings, was granted his kingship because he victoriously conquered evil. E.T. Mullen, he’s the one that wrote one of my favorite books, The Divine Council, in Canaanite and early Hebrew literature. He wrote it while he was at Harvard. He says this of the high God El, quote,

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as a fierce warrior in the texts, reflecting the influence of ancient Near Eastern mythology are unanimous in their witness that he, El, attained his position through prowess in battle. Now, these texts are not talking about a physical battle. They’re talking about El’s spiritual battle against the dragon. The high god, El, like

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all heavenly kings won his kingship by winning the battle against evil. Starting to see some of the theology here. Mullen continues. He says, it is this attribute, which is the prowess as a fierce spiritual warrior of El, that places him at the head of the pantheon. The second thing that we learn about the high god El from these texts

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authority to decree what happens in his kingdom. A kingdom, which we pointed out, is entirely made up of his offspring. He doesn’t have the power to rule over someone else’s offspring. He only rules over his own. Mullen writes, the Ugaritic texts emphasize that the power of the divine decree belongs to El alone. He stands as the king over the gods, his offspring.

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As such, the high god El is the only one who has the power to determine which of his sons and his daughters qualify to be crowned heavenly kings or queens. Mullen writes, quote, The decree of El is the decree of the gods. He establishes the order of kingship within the divine realm.

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He also has the power of removing or denying kingship. From each decree concerning kingship of the gods, it is apparent that El had sole authority over the realm of the cosmogonic deities. Now, cosmogonic is the word for the power to create a world. In other words,

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In the ancient Near Eastern tradition, it’s only the high God who can declare that one is or isn’t a heavenly king. There is no self declaration of heavenly kingship. One cannot pronounce oneself as a heavenly king. Only the high God can do that. In the Ugaritic tablets, there are all kinds of examples where El’s offspring petition him.

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to be made a heavenly king or a queen. And we can see this with the god Atar in cuneiform tablet 2.3.15 to 18, and the god Mott in cuneiform tablet 6.6.23 to 29, and Yadi Yal-Hin in cuneiform tablet 6.1.49 to 52. But in each of these cases, it’s only the high god El who has the sole authority to decree whether or not they can become a heavenly king or queen.

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Mullin notes, quote, “‘L’ has the power to reject a king or to accept one. Such decisions belong solely to L.” For example, after L’s beloved son, Ball, wins his battle against his rebellious brother, Yam, it’s the high god L who declares Ball a heavenly king. Cuneiform tablet 2.4.32 reads, quote,

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Verily, Yam is dead. Ball rules. Mullen says this of this text, he says, it’s clear that Ball’s rule is solely by virtue of his defeat of Yam. So there’s that victory over evil kingship motif again. He continues, it is by the decree of El that Ball attains kingship.

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Baal’s kingship and sovereignty were legitimized only through the proclamation of the progenitor of the gods, El. That is important to note. But something else happens here too. Mullen continues, quote, “‘After Yam is defeated by Baal, he no longer receives the title Prince.’ Here the high god El demotes Yam, his rebellious son.

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a son who was once a royal prince. The high god El is the only one that can do this. He’s the only one with the power and authority to decree such actions. And we read in other combat narratives that this son is cast out and cast down out of the high god’s kingdom. This brings me to the third thing that we learn about the high god El from the Ugaritic texts. In the ball cycle in Cuneiform Tablet 2.3, the divine artisan

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Cawther Wacossus says to Baal, who has not yet slain Yam, he says to him, I tell thee, O Prince Baal, I declare, O Rider of the Clouds, now thine enemy, O Baal, now thine enemy wilt thou smite, now wilt thou cut off thine adversary, thou shalt take thine eternal kingdom thine everlasting.

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Here the divine artisan is telling Baal that if he successfully beats Yam, he will gain an eternal kingdom, an everlasting dominion. I have a couple of questions here. What kingdom? What dominion is Kother talking about? We know Baal’s reward for his victorious triumph over the sea monster, Yam, is kingship.

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what kingdom will he reign? Well for the answer to that we have to read another Ugaritic text. In Cuneiform tablet 3.3.26 to 28, Baal is enthroned on Mount Sapin and the text reads, in the midst of my mount, divine Sapin, in the holy place, the mount of my inheritance, in the loveliness of the hill of my

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I’m gonna have a lot more to say about this passage in our next episode, but I wanna focus on the word inheritance here. The passage says that Baal is enthroned on the mount of his inheritance. In Ugaritic, the word for inheritance is nalatia, spelled N-A-H-L-A-T-I-A. Mullen says this of this passage, quote,

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NHL is the feudal practice of granting property to faithful servants. In Ugaritic, the noun NHLT always refers to the domain of the god and the locus of his power. The term refers to the territory gained by the god through his victory in warfare, precisely the manner in which Baal

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Nalatu, which is inheritance. The meaning of NHLT is clear. It is the territory won by the deity through battle. Like I argued earlier, a king cannot be a king without a kingdom over which to reign. And in the Ziggurita text, the artisan god Cawther tells Baal he will receive a kingdom

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I just read, Yam is given an inheritance, which Mullen points out directly refers to a territory or property. Well, what would that heavenly property or territory that Baal inherits be? Mullen writes, quote, El’s most vivid role in the texts is that of dispenser of kingdoms. El’s function as the god who dispenses kingdoms

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is reflected in the Synkaniathan. The Synkaniathan are writings that were written sometime before 1200 BC by a Phoenician author. And Mullen says this, quote, in the Phoenician theogony, El divides the land among the various gods as their territory. El is clearly in charge of the distribution of the kingdoms of the gods, allotting their portions.

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L distributes the rule of the cosmos to his sons. Here, Mullen is telling us that in the Ugaritic texts that the high god L’s quote, most vivid role is that of dispenser of kingdoms. He divides the land up amongst the gods and there’s that word allotted again. And we’ve talked about the word allotted previously on the podcast, but

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Here again, we see that the Ugaritic high god, like we saw in the Mesopotamian text, Enki in the world order, and like we see by the Greek high god Zeus, allots a portion of his kingdom to his offspring as an inheritance for winning the battle against the dragon. Again, I have the question, what land exactly is Baal allotted as his inheritance?

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What land is Baal given by the high God to be his kingdom? And the same goes for Marduk after he slayed Tiamat and Christ after he slayed Satan. What land were they allotted as their inheritance? What land were they given as their kingdom? Well, for the answer to that, we have to return to our discussion on divine utterance. We read in the Enuma Elish, tablet five, that upon defeating the chaos monster Tiamat, Marduk

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did the following with Tiamat’s dead carcass. It says, quote, he placed her head heaped up, opened up springs, water gushed out. He opened the Euphrates and the Tigris from her eyes, closed her nostrils. He piled up clear cut mountains from her utter. He set her high to make fast the sky. With half of her he made a roof. He fixed the earth. All right, so what’s going on here? That’s a little hard to follow.

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This text is telling us that after Marduk slayed the sea monster, he made the heavens out of half of her carcass and the earth out of the other half. He made the lands and the rivers, the waters and the mountains from her dead body. But don’t miss what’s taking place here. After slaying the sea monster, Marduk created a world, a new land, a new territory,

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Kingdom. We’ve talked about this on the podcast before. To most of this, this doesn’t make sense. How and why would Marduk make the earth out of the sea monsters carcass? If you haven’t listened to episodes 11 to 15, or you need a refresher, I’d recommend going back and listening to those episodes because it’s in those episodes that we cover the theology of what’s happening here. I’ll see if I can do my best to give a brief explanation here though.

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The sea monster represents the high gods son who before the earth was formed, rebelled against the high god and all of the laws of heaven. Wherever the rebellious son is allowed to dwell in the universe, the effects of his presence are felt right down to the very arrangement of the elements themselves. In scientific speak,

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The effect of his presence on our universe is the second law of thermodynamics. His presence causes all of the elements to go from a state of order to a state of disorder, from a state of incorruption to a state of corruption, from a state of life to a state of degradation, decay, and death.

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In the ancient writings, the ancients universally refer to the primordial state of the elements as primordial waters. And the ancients always describe these elements in the same way, as a dark, lifeless, amorphous mass of chaotic elements. And the ancients teach us that the hideous dragon dwells in these waters, which is why he’s almost always described in the ancient record as an awful sea serpent or awful marine monster.

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He dwells in the bottom of the soupy, chaotic mass of elements, which are the effect of his rebellion against the laws of heaven. What this means is that when Marduk triumphed over Tiamat, he not only slayed her, but he also slayed the chaotic effects of her presence. Where there had been chaos, now there could be order. Where there’d been death, there could now be life.

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So to say that Marduk made the earth out of her dead carcass is just another way of saying that because the dragon had been slain, death itself had been slain. And now life and ordered flourishing life filled earth could now be formed. But how was this done? Well, those elements would stay in a perpetual state of chaos unless someone, someone

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who did abide by the laws of heaven or Maat, came along and commanded the elements to order themselves into a world, which is exactly what we saw happen in the Shabaka Stone when the Lord of Maat, the King of the two lands, Bataa, commanded the elements by divine utterance to form a world. And it’s also what we saw when Marduk, a heavenly king, commanded the stars to form by divine utterance.

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when he stood in the council of the gods. See, Marduk and Bataa, because they conquered the dragon, because they proved themselves to be faithful followers of Ma’at, truth, justice, and righteousness, were crowned heavenly kings. And as heavenly kings, the high god gave them the power and authority to command the elements through divine utterance. The newly crowned heavenly kings then

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used that power to build a world, a world that would be their inheritance, the kingdom over which they would rightfully reign for having conquered the dragon. Now that is a theology. Mullen says this, quote, Marduk’s victory is followed by an account of his creation of heaven and earth.

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creation by nature involves the defeat of the forces of chaos as its beginning. Indeed, the containment of the sea, which is the dragon, is creation. The battle and creation motifs must be seen as belonging together from the earliest times. I agree with Mullen, but I’d amend his words by adding heavenly kingship to the mix. I’d argue that the battle, heavenly kingship,

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and creation motifs must be seen as belonging together from the very earliest times. All of this brings me back to the Judeo-Christian tradition and the question that I asked at the onset of today’s episode. Who gave Jesus the authority to reign as a heavenly king? From what we’ve seen in the ancient record, it seems pretty clear that Christ, like we see in the Ugaritic, Mesopotamian, and Egyptian records.

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had to have been given the power and authority to reign as a heavenly king from the high god, the king of the universe, his father. From everything we see in the ancient world, heavenly kings are not self-declared. They are appointed. They are appointed by the high god after they have victoriously conquered the dragon.

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Now, I recognize that this goes counter to what is taught in the creeds. The creeds state that there is one God, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one being. And needless to say, my study and research over the past 20 years has led me to take issue with a lot of what was voted on in the creeds. And let me point out that the creeds came way, way thousands of years later.

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In particular, take issue with the creed that the Father and the Son are one being. Such a statement would mean that Christ would have to have had declared himself a heavenly king. And that’s problematic, especially after everything we’ve covered on heavenly kingship in this episode. And furthermore, such a belief would require one to believe that as the Christ, which we pointed out before means the anointed one, would have to have anointed himself king as well as a god.

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crowned himself king. After reading all the ancient texts I have, including the biblical canon, this does not mesh. Not to mention that there’s plenty in the biblical canon said by Christ himself that leads one to question this particular creed. It makes much, much more sense that God the Father and Jesus Christ are two, two separate beings. That God the

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actually Christ’s actual father. It makes much more sense in terms of where Christ got his power and authority to reign and by whom he was anointed and crowned a king. All of this got me thinking. I wondered if there was anywhere in the biblical canon where we see the same thing we see in these combat narratives. Anywhere in the canon where defeating the dragon, kingship, and creating the earth are linked together.

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And holy cow, there absolutely is. If you turn to Psalm 89, it’s all there. Like we see in a lot of the ancient combat narratives, Psalm 89 takes place in the council of the gods before the earth was formed. The author is searching for a strong, mighty member of the council. Verse six reads, quote, who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?

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Here we have the sons like we see in all the other combat narratives and they’re looking for one out of the sons who is strong and mighty, one who can defeat the dragon. In the Enuma Elish we see a similar search for a mighty son who can defeat Tiamat. In tablet two we read quote, will no god come forward? Will no one go out to face Tiamat? Then the god Ea points the gods to Marduk and the

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perfect one, whose heart is perfect, the mighty heir who was to be his father’s champion, who rushes fearlessly into battle, Marduk the hero. Then in verses 9 and 10 of Psalm 89, right after pointing out that none of the members of the Council of the Gods are comparable to Jehovah, the text tells us how Jehovah won the battle against the dragon.

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The verses read, quote, “‘Thou rulest the raging of the sea. “‘Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces as one that is slain.'” Now, you’ll never guess what the very next verse says. And keep in mind that this verse comes right after we learned that Jehovah slayed the dragon in verse 10. In verse 11, we’re told how Jehovah created

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the earth. Yep, that’s exactly what it says. Verse 11 reads, speaking of Jehovah, quote, the heaven is thine, the earth also is thine. As for the world and the fullness thereof, thou hast founded them. Founded here of course refers to creating, to creating the earth. So here we learn that Christ after slaying the

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the earth. And don’t miss the other really, really interesting thing said in this verse about the earth. The verse says, quote, the heaven is thine, the earth also is thine. Thine here is possessive. This verse is telling us that the earth is Jehovah’s. The earth is his. The earth is Jehovah’s kingdom. The earth is his inheritance. And why? Because

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created it. Vadim Yurchenko, the young scholar I mentioned earlier in the episode says this, quote, Yahweh’s act of creation provides natural justification for his position as king. And then he goes on to say, it is reasonable to suggest that the concept of Yahweh’s kingship is rooted in and stems from the creation of the heavens and the earth. Yurchenko goes on to argue

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The creation is kingdom building. But what about kingship in Psalm 89? Are there any references to kingship? We have the divine council, the battle with the dragon, and the creation of the world, but what about kingship? Well, Psalm 89 does not disappoint. Verse 18 reads, quote, the Holy One of Israel is our King. And why is Jehovah the King of this world?

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Well, now you know he’s the king of this world because he slayed the dragon, was given the power to divinely utter, which we see in John chapter 1 verses 1 to 3 where we’re told Jehovah is the word and that by the word, quote, all things were made by him. And because he made the world, it is his. He is the rightful king. It’s his inheritance. It is his kingdom over which to rule, which I argue was allotted to him.

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by his father, the King of the universe. And all of this is in complete conformity with the other combat narratives that we’ve read in the ancient world. I know this is a lot to think about, but I want to give you one more thing to ponder before I close out this episode. If as a heavenly king, Christ has the power and authority to command the elements, to form a world, what precludes Christ from forming another world?

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and another world and another world. If you recall in the Ugaritic Baal cycle, Baal was told that his inheritance for gaining the victory over the dragon would be a quote, eternal kingdom, a quote, everlasting dominion. The exact same thing is said of Christ’s kingdom in Psalms 145 verse 13.

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Verse 13 reads, quote, thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and thy dominion enduring throughout all generations. According to Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary, an everlasting kingdom is an eternal kingdom. It’s a kingdom that goes on and on and on and never ends. From this definition, it’s impossible to see this earth as being Christ’s only creation.

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If so, his kingdom would be very, very small, especially considering how incomprehensible, immense our universe is. Astronomers estimate that there are between two and 25 times as many planets in the known universe as there are stars. And if we low-balled it, and we estimated that there were only two planets per star, there would still be more than four trillion planets in the observable universe.

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If this scripture truly means what it says, then Christ must have created millions and millions and millions of worlds like ours, and must still be creating millions and millions of worlds. That would truly be an everlasting eternal kingdom. His would be a cosmic kingdom, and he would be a truly cosmic Christ.

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And let me throw one more wrench into your thinking. Don’t forget that Christ promised the same thing in Revelation chapter three, verse 21, to all human beings who conquer the dragon. To all who overcomeeth, he promised to make heavenly kings and queens and to sit on his throne with them. And you can’t be a king or queen without a kingdom. Now, if you think on that,

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It should blow your socks off. That’s it for me. If you liked today’s episode, take a second and leave a rating, write a review, post a link to this episode on your social media accounts so that all might learn about the greatest theology ever revealed. As always, I leave you with the words of William Shakespeare, knowledge is the wing we’re with when we fly to heaven. I’m Jack Logan.

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