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 all of you listening in. It’s been a very long couple of days for me. I’m glad to be back on the program and to talk about things that I think are fascinating about The Ancient Tradition. If you’re a new listener and this is the first episode that you’re listening to, Hardy, welcome to you. I wanna tell you about two things. First of all, I wanna tell you about our companion website, thea If you go there, you can check out transcripts and some pictures and some of the things

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are related to each episode. So check that out and you can also check out our sister podcast, the Ancient Tradition Audio Rit. We talk about a lot of ancient texts on this program and for some of them, you can find full audio recordings of them. So if you’re interested in that, you can check out that podcast as well. I have a lot to go over today. It’s a little bit longer than usual. So I wanna just jump right in. We’re gonna start where we left off last time. From the ancient texts that we’ve examined to this point in the podcast,

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we’ve learned that the beloved son of the high God, be he Osiris or Marduk or Baal or Ninurta or Christ or some of the others that we’ve discussed on the program, is crowned a heavenly king and he’s given by the high God as his inheritance, a cosmic kingdom for having slain the rebellious dragon. And it’s at this point that we find the beloved son looking over what is to become his new kingdom.

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Before him in every direction is an endless ocean of chaotic, unorganized elements. An ocean that’s brimming with potential. But at this moment, nothing has yet been built. And I can only imagine what this moment must have been like for him, to look out and know that he had the power and the authority to build anything that his heart desired. All of the building blocks needed to build a magnificent cosmic kingdom.

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are before him. We learned from the ancient texts that we examined in the previous episode that as the beloved son looked over the infinite expanse, that he was in lassitude, that he was still weary from his battle with the dragon, and that he desired above all else a place to rest, a place that would be completely devoid of the dragon’s presence and influence, a place from which he could reign

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over his newly found kingdom in peace. So now it’s time for the beloved son to get to work, to get to building his kingdom. So what do the ancient texts tell us that he decides to build first? For the answer to that, we need to return to the Finnish epic poem, the Kalevala. If you recall, in that text,

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We read about a beautiful till bird that hovered over the primordial waters, looking for a place to rest, but it could find nowhere to do so. The text said, not a spot, however barren, where her nest she could establish or a resting place could light on. For today’s episode, it’s what the till bird thinks about doing next that’s very important.

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The text tells us that the bird considers building its nest right on the waters. Now imagine for a moment that an actual bird actually builds a nest directly on the top of the ocean. I mean, could you imagine the waves would thrash it to pieces in just a matter of seconds? It would never survive. So obviously this is not a great idea, which is exactly what the bird concludes. Keep in mind that all of this imagery is meant to point us

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to the reality of spiritual things. The text reads, quote, “‘And she pondered and reflected, “‘if my nest in wind I establish, “‘or should rest it on the billows, “‘then the winds will overturn it, “‘or the waves will drift it from me.'” Remember, the tillbird is symbolic of the beloved son. So this account is an account of how the beloved son gave

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due consideration to how he planned to establish his nest in kingdom. He realized that if he built it directly on the waters, remember these are waters that represent the chaotic wicked realm of the rebellious dragon. He knew if he did that, that it would not survive. He recognized that he needed to build his kingdom on solid ground, on a firm foundation.

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to protect it from the onslaught of the chaotic waters and the rebellious monsters that lay in the deep. So the first thing, the bird, who again symbolizes the beloved son, decides to create a solid foundation on which to build his nest. This theme, this theme of creating a solid foundation on which the creator can build his home and in which he can rest is a…

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prevalent motif in the ancient world. We see it in a text known as the Keshe Temple Hymn. Now this is an amazing text because this text is the oldest surviving religious text found anywhere in the world. This is the oldest religious text. This is it. This is as far as we can go. During the 19th century archaeologists were excavating an ancient sumer in the ruins of Nippur which

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in the modern day is located near the city of Afek in Iraq. It’s about a hundred miles southeast of Baghdad. And they found this text in the rubble of the temple library and it was on a clay cuneiform tablet. And it’s known today as the Keshe temple hymn. And scholars believe that this tablet was written as early as 2600 BC, which would make it 4,600 years old.

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The ancient city of Nippur where it was found was an important city, not only because it was located right on the Euphrates River, but because it was the religious center of Sumer during the third and second millennium BC. And it served as the seat of the Sumerian god Enlil, which if you remember was one of the sons of the high god Anu. It was here that Enlil lived in Ikor, also known as

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the mountain house where the gods held assembly in the garden of the gods. Ikor was considered by the ancient Sumerians to be the center of the earth and the sacred location were on. Now on-an which here refers to the heavens and ki the earth. So on-ki meaning heaven and earth. So dur-on-ki meant where

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It’s in this text, the Keshe Temple Hymn, that we find several references to the importance of the firm platform or foundation upon which a temple must be built. In the first section between lines 22 to 30, it reads, quote, Good house, built in a good location, the platform of all the lands.

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This text refers to the foundation on which the temple is built as the quote, platform of the lands. The platform is the foundation stone. And we learned from Wayne Horowitz in his book, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, that quote, the lands in plural here is one of the Mesopotamian names for the earth, because it refers to all of the lands on the earth. So the platform on which the temple is built,

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is understood to be the platform or foundation upon which the whole world is built. Between lines 10 and 20 and lines 31 to 43, we’re told that this platform or foundation is securely fastened or anchored in the Apsu, the primordial waters. The lines read, referring to the mountain temple, quote, growing as high as the hills,

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growing as high as Ikor, lifting its head among the mountains, rooted in the Apsu. The second text reads, house, great crown reaching to the heavens, house, rainbow reaching to the heavens, whose foundations are fixed in the Apsu. So as we can see from these lines,

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The ancient Mesopotamians placed important emphasis on the fact that the temple, or great house as they sometimes called it, was built on a firm foundation, one rooted or fixed in the Apsu, which you know are the primordial waters, and firmly established it out of the previously unordered elements. It’s important to note in these texts that the foundation is always built firmly out of the water, so the foundation is always seen as above.

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or on the Primordial Waters. If you’re interested in listening to a full audio recording of the Keshe Temple Hymn, you can find it on our sister podcast, the Ancient Tradition Audio Rit. It’s very short, it’s not that long, but you can find it there. In Sumerian, the temple was referred to as Egal, E-G-A-L, Egal, which literally means big house. And scholars believe the Hebrew word for temple,

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and the Arabic word for temple, haykal, are etymologically derived from the Sumerian word, egol. What’s interesting is that in Sumerian, egol often appears in conjunction with the word temen, T-E-M-E-N, which translates as foundation pegs. In a text known as the building of Nen-gir-su’s temple, now, Nen-gir-su is just another name for an Inurta,

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Remember, he’s one of the beloved son archetypes we’ve discussed on the program. We read, and this is beginning in line 551, quote, in the house, the temple, Enki drove in the foundation pegs. The Anuna gods stood there full of admiration.

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Scholars who study Mesopotamian temple construction contend that the very first step in the temple construction process began by placing temin, these foundation pegs, into the ground. In a 2500 BC relief and in subsequent Assyrian cuneiform, four pegs are shown, which suggest a symbolic connection to the four corners of the compass. The pegs could also symbolize, because we’re talking about the number four here,

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which you long time listeners know represents geographic totality, that the foundation serves, as the Keshe Temple hymn directly tells us, as the platform for quote, all the lands. The platform or foundation for the entire geographic totality of the earth, which obviously would be symbolic. In fact, one of the temples dedicated to Marduk is named E. Teminaki.

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which means temple of the foundation of heaven and earth. If we break down the name, it’s pretty easy to see here because E, that’s egol, the great house or temple. And then you have temin, which is the foundation pegs. Then you have on, which is heaven, and key, which is earth. So this then, when you put them all together, creates etemenaki, which means the great house of the foundation pegs of heaven and earth.

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foundation cylinder with an inscription from King Nabapaloser. He was the first king of the Neo Babylonian Empire and he reigned from 626 to 605 BC and he reminds us in this text that the temple of E. Teminaki was built on a firm foundation. This is what he says, quote, at that time my Lord Marduk told me in regard to E. Teminaki

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the ziggurat of Babylon, which before my day was already very weak and badly buckled. Through the wisdom of Aya and Marduk, I purified that place and made firm its foundation platform on its ancient base. In its foundations I laid out gold, silver, gemstones of mountain and sea. In this text, King Nabopiloser makes a point.

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of stressing that he firmed up the foundation platform and then he decorated with gold and gemstones. I’m guessing that you can already guess where this is probably going, to foundation rituals. Foundation rituals that we still have today. Have you ever attended a groundbreaking ceremony or a cornerstone laying ceremony or a building dedication ceremony or even opened a time capsule? Well, these building rituals are the legacy.

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temple building rituals that were performed in the ancient world. They have their genesis in the ancient tradition. In Gidea cylinder A, it’s a terracotta cylinder that dates to 2125 BC. It’s currently housed in the Louvre, so if you’re one of those people that’s lucky enough to visit Paris, check it out because it’s in the Louvre. We read of the construction of Nen-Gir-Su. Again, this is

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On this cylinder sill, we learn that it’s actually the god Enki, one of the sons of the high god Ane, who actually drives the foundation pegs. In cylinder A, between lines 551 and 561, it talks about how the foundation of the temple was measured out with a rope, and then the pegs were driven. It reads, quote, he stretched out lines in the most perfect way.

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He set up a sanctuary in the Holy Uzgah. In the house, Enki drove in the foundation pegs. It’s very, very important to point out here that the foundation pegs were driven in, not by a human being, but by the son of the high God, Enki. And this is an incredibly important point that we’re gonna see again here in just a minute in ancient Egypt. If we turn to tablet five of the Enuma Elish,

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Marduk tells us that he built his shrine, his temple, on a solid foundation. The text reads, quote, “‘Over the Apsu,’ the primordial waters, “‘the sea green dwelling, “‘where I strengthened the ground beneath it for a shrine.'” Note here that just like the god Enki was the one who drove in the foundation pegs for Ninurta’s temple, is the god Marduk, who, quote,

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strengthens the ground so that he might build a temple upon it. Together these Mesopotamian texts emphasize the tremendously important point that before the beloved son could build a house on which to rest, he first started by firming up the foundation. And this brings me to ancient Egypt, to the ever important pyramid text, pyramid text 600.

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This text is so important because this is the earliest known text in ancient Egypt to speak of the solid ground on which the creator built his kingdom. And let’s take another look at that text. It reads, quote, Oh, Atum, who is coming into being when you became high as the mound, you rose up as the Benben in the mansion of the bird Benu in on. As a quick reminder, Atum’s the creator.

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He was worshiped in Heliopolis as the sun god, Atum-Ra. We find a depiction of him in the tomb of Ramses I in the 19th dynasty. And this is dated to between 1292 to 1290 BC. And he’s depicted battling the serpent, Apep, who of course, he conquers. All right, I wanna focus on the section of Pyramid Text 600 that reads, speaking of Atum, quote,

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You rose up as the Benben. The Benben, as we’ve mentioned previously, is the ancient Egyptian name given to the first solid land or rise out of the primordial waters, the primordial hill. It represented the initial point of creation and the foundation upon which the world was built. The word is believed to be derived from the Egyptian word, weben, which means to mound or to rise, and sometimes to shine.

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And as it can be seen in Pyramid Text 600, the Ben Ben was believed to be the resting place of Atum at the moment of creation. Because of this, the Ben Ben held considerable religious and symbolic importance in ancient Egypt. It was the focal point of the Heliopelan temple. The ancient Egyptians took the concept of the Primordial Hill, and then they carved a grand

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stylized rendition of it into the most resilient material that they knew, stone. Depictions of it varied slightly, but it predominantly took the form of a meticulously crafted pyramid where each side was polished and then it tapered into a pointed apex. Today, we refer to this pyramid-shaped stone as the Benben stone. Archaeologists haven’t found the original Benben stone.

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but many replicas of the stone were produced throughout ancient Egypt. If you’d like to see a picture of one, check out our website, thea and you’ll see one there of the Ben Ben stone of King Amun-Emhat III. He was the sixth king of the 12th dynasty. Archaeologists found this stone intact. This is just a miracle that it was still intact. And they found it in 1900 in Dachshur, Egypt. This is about

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five miles south of King Pepe II’s pyramid in Saqqara. The stone is made of polished black basalt, and it measures an incredible six feet long and about four and a half feet high, and it weighs about four and a half tons. It’s huge. If you visit Egypt and you wanna check it out, you can find it on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Along the bottom of each side are two lines of inscription.

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There’s one line on top of the other. The inscription on the Eastern face is pretty darn interesting. It’s not super relevant to today’s episode, but I thought it would be fun to read it to you anyway, because it will be relevant, very relevant in the future. The top line is a petition to Ra. Now Ra, Re, and Atum, they’re all interchangeable. It’s a petition to Ra to open the eyes.

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of King Amenemhat so that he can see the Lord of the horizon. It reads, quote, words spoken, may the site be open to the King of upper and lower Egypt, the Lord of the two lands, Nimaat Ray. Now Nimaat Ray is King Amenemhat’s throne name, which means, quote, belonging to the justice of Ray.

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law of rightness makes a part of his throne name. So he may see the Lord of the horizon and his crossing of the upper sky.” The inscription continues with another petition that Ra will appear to the king who’s referred to in this inscription as the quote son of Ra. The inscription reads quote, may it be given to the appearing to the son of Ra, Aminemhat, as a god.

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Lord of everlasting and indestructible. Okay, there’s a lot we could talk about here, but what I want you to keep in your back pocket is the reference to King Amun-Em-Hat III as the quote, son of Ra. You’re gonna see as the podcast unfolds that this particular word set or title provides us with some of the most compelling theological evidence that we can find that the religions of today sprung from

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a single religious tradition in deep antiquity. And I wanted to point it out to you now so that it’s kind of on your radar and you’ll pay attention to it when we bring it up. For the purposes of this episode though, I wanna emphasize once again that according to the ancient Egyptians, the creator stood or rested on this stone foundation at the inception of the creation. That’s what Pyramid Tech 600 says. As I just mentioned,

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This stone was known as the Benben stone, and it was one of, if not the most potent religious symbols in all of ancient Egypt. When we recognize that this stone represented the first solid land to come together after the creator commanded the unorganized elements to form into land, then it’s not so surprising that the ancients considered it sacred. It represented the very inception, the material beginning and spiritual foundation

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of the beloved son’s newly inherited kingdom. It was a very special stone indeed. The original Benben stone was revered and housed within the confines of an open courtyard in the Sun Temple of Atum-Ra in the ancient Egyptian city of Heliopolis. In Pyramid Text 600, the Heliopolan temple is referred to as the, quote, mansion in On.

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mansion being the temple and on being the Egyptian word for Heliopolis. So it’s here we need to take a second and we need to talk about Heliopolis. Today it’s located in a district Northeast of Cairo in the district El Madurea. In the ancient world Heliopolis, which means city of the sun, Helio being the Greek word for sun, and polis being the Greek word for city, was

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Now, most people don’t realize this, prior to Alexandria, Egypt, it was the theological and intellectual epicenter of Egypt. In fact, Heliopolis housed a truly massive temple district, as well as the largest temple in all of Egypt. Yeah, you heard that right. Heliopolis housed a temple even larger than the temple of Karnak, and Karnak’s huge. In fact, the Karnak temple itself,

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was actually patterned after the temple in Heliopolis, the mansion in Onn. The mansion in Onn was so large, in fact, that an inscription by Ramses III, who reigned around the 12th century BC, tells us that some 12,963 people worked in the temple of Ra. And that number didn’t even include women.

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Heliopolis didn’t house just one temple, it actually housed a number of temples. So it’s more like a city of temples. But the temple of Ra in Heliopolis was particularly important because it housed the Ben Ben Stone. So why was the Ben Ben Stone of creation housed there? Well, because the ancient Egyptians believed that Heliopolis was the original site of emergence. They believed that it was the actual location where the Primordial Hill rose out of the waters.

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place where the Creator commenced his work of creation. They believed that it was there, that the Creator gave the Pharaohs dominion over the world. There could be no more sacred place in all of ancient Egypt. Across the ancient world, Heliopolis was not only known, it was sought out and it was visited by the likes of Pythagoras, Plato, Solon,

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Homer, Orpheus, and some other Greek philosophers because it was renowned as being the repository of great astronomical and esoteric knowledge. Heliopolis was so renowned that it’s even mentioned in the Bible. In fact, the very first reference to it is made in regards to Azenith. You remember Azenith? We talked about Azenith in depth in episode number 27, Universes Beyond Universes.

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as an example of a human being who was crowned a heavenly queen while on earth. An account that we find in an ancient text known as the Book of Joseph and Azanath. And I didn’t mention this in episode number 27, but the entire account given in the Book of Joseph and Azanath takes place in the ancient city of Heliopolis. Okay, well why?

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Well, for the answer to that, we need to turn to Genesis 41, verse 45. Recall that Joseph rose to the rank of pharaonic visor after having been sold into Egypt by his brothers. The King James Version reads, quote, “‘And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnafpaneah, and he gave him to wife Azaneth the daughter of

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Pativera, priest of Ann. From this first, we learn that Joseph’s wife, Asenath, was the daughter of a priest who actually worked in the Heliopolis temple. It was also in Heliopolis that we learn that Asenath gave birth to two sons. Genesis chapter 46 verse 20 reads, quote, and unto Joseph in the land of Egypt was born Manasseh.

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Ephraim and Azanath the daughter of Potipharah, priest of On, bear unto him.” From these verses we can see that some pretty important biblical stories take place in Heliopolis. The story of Joseph of Egypt, his wife Azanath, and of his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim, who are later designated as members of the 12 tribes of Israel. So why don’t most of us know about

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Well, that’s because unlike Karnak, the magnificent city and temple of Heliopolis are no longer standing. Sadly, Heliopolis was largely destroyed by the Persians in 525 BC. And after the Persian invasion, people used the destroyed city kind of like a stone quarry. They’d go and they’d take all of the stones and they’d use them to build medieval Cairo. Today, the vast majority of the ancient city of Heliopolis

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beneath the streets of modern day Cairo under a whole bunch of dirt and debris. Luckily though, archeologists have been able to excavate a small section of the ancient city and you can still go visit it. There’s actually an obelisk that is still there that remains standing. But most of it will never be excavated because it’s literally buried beneath apartment buildings and city blocks.

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Like I mentioned though, it was in this once grand and magnificent ancient city that the ancient Egyptians housed the Ben Ben stone in the temple of Atumra. The ancient Egyptians displayed the Ben Ben in the center of the temple’s courtyard on a pedestal. And then when you stepped back, the Ben Ben atop the pedestal looked like a large squat obelisk.

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It looked as though the stone was actually emerging out of the primordial waters. Over time, the ancient Egyptians elongated the pedestal. And voila, ancient Egyptian obelisks, as we know them, were developed. If you look at an ancient Egyptian obelisk, you’ll notice that there’s always a pyramid on the top. It’s known as the Ben Benet. And it’s called that, you guessed it, because it’s a replica.

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of the original Ben Ben stone rising out of the primordial waters. Sometimes the ancient Egyptians coated the Pyramidian Ben Benet in copper or gold or electrum so that when the rays of the rising sun hit the surface, the stone admitted a glorious effulgent light. Kind of like the cover art for episode number 31. I’m going to have a lot more to say about obelisks down the line.

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I mean, I haven’t even begun to talk about how these obelisks are directly connected to kingship. But if you happen to be in Washington, D.C. this summer, and you happen to visit the Washington Monument, which is the largest stone obelisk in the world, remind yourself that Washington’s obelisk is patterned after the squat obelisk that stood in the Temple of Heliopolis.

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and that the Pyramidion that caps Washington’s obelisk is patterned after the Benben stone that marked the inception of the creator’s cosmic kingdom, the Primordial Hillock.

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Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of all of the symbolism that the ancient Egyptians kind of pile on top of each other. And I call this symbolism stacking, where they stack symbol upon symbol upon symbol to really drive home a point. Don’t forget, we’re told in Pyramid Text 600 that the wondrous Bennu bird, the bird of light, the bird that represents Ra himself, sat atop the Benben stone in the mansion in An.

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I’m gonna break down this stacking in just a second, but I wanna stress one more important point before I do that. For this, we need to turn to Marianus van der Sluis. Van der Sluis writes this about pyramid text 600. He says, quote, a recurrent element in the mythology of the primordial particle, tracing right back to the ancient Near East, is its qualification as a stone.

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Combining the notions of radiance and solidity, various traditions depict the original unit as a light-giving rock or gemstone. According to the theology of the ancient Egyptian city of Heliopolis, the creation of the world commenced when the supreme god Atum emerged from the waters in the form of the Benben stone.

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himself identified with this piece of solid matter. What Vander Sluis is saying here is very important. It’s a very important point. He’s telling us that if we go back and read Pyramid Text 600 again, we’re gonna see that this text tells us that Atum is the stone, the foundation stone of creation. So let’s go back and read it and see if he’s right. Pyramid Text 600 reads, quote,

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Oh, Atum, who was coming into being, when you became high as the mound, you rose up as the Benben in the mansion of the bird Benu in Ah.” So Vander Sluis is correct. Here we see that the ancient Egyptians directly identify Atum as the Benben stone of creation. This is pretty remarkable because that’s exactly what we see in the biblical canon too.

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The identification of Atum as the Benben stone is further substantiated by the practice of ancient Egyptians to stack those symbols on top of each other, like I mentioned, so they can drive home a point. And we see that here. See, first we have a stone called the Benben, which is derived from the word weapon, which means to rise and to shine. And why would a stone shine?

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Well, because it represents the glory of Atum. And then we learned that the ancient Egyptians coated Ben-Binet Pyramidians in gold or electrum so that they shined when the rays of the sun hit the gold surface. And don’t forget, the sun itself was a symbolic representation of Atum-Ra. And then add to this the fact that the Bennu bird, the fiery bird of light, which also represented Atum-Ra, sat directly on top of the stone.

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This symbolic stacking is like the ancient Egyptians saying, hey, Atum is the stone. No really, look, the stone shines like Atum’s glory. The sun, which also represents Atumrah, shines directly on the stone. No really. And if you haven’t gotten it yet, we’ll place the Bennu bird, which also represents Atumrah, right on the top of the stone. It’s like they’re saying, the stone is Atum.

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No, really, Atum is the stone. No, seriously, Atum is the stone. What we’re talking about here is lithic symbolism. Lithic comes from the Greek word lithos, which is the word for stone. In the ancient world, stones symbolized a number of things, but primarily they symbolized strength, stability,

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endurance, permanence, an unchanging character, and the place where one could encounter God or the divine. In ancient Egypt, in Pyramid Text 600, which I remind you was written 4,300 years ago, we have the ancient Egyptians associating the foundation stone that rose out of the primordial waters directly with the foundational permanence

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of the Creator Himself. It’s like saying the Creator’s cosmic kingdom is founded directly by Him and upon Him. It’s like saying He is the foundation. As I mentioned, what we see here in ancient Egypt is pretty darn remarkable because we see the exact same thing in the biblical canon. In Isaiah chapter 28 verse 16, we read, just like the creators in the ancient Near East,

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that Yahweh lays a foundation stone. Keep in mind that Yahweh is the one speaking in this text. It reads, quote, therefore thus saith the Lord God, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste.

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Here Yahweh tells us that the foundation stone he has laid that lays in Zion. Zion here refers to Mount Zion, which is a synonym for where Yahweh dwells for his temple. So like we saw in ancient Mesopotamia where the foundation pegs are used to build temples for Ninurta and Enki. And like we saw in ancient Egypt where the Benben stone is placed in Atum-Ra’s temple in Heliopolis. Here Yahweh is telling us the same thing.

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that he has laid a foundation stone for his temple, Zion. And this is a little more clearly spelled out in Psalm 87 verse one, where it reads, speaking of the Lord, quote, his foundation is in the holy mountains. Of course, all of you long time listeners are very familiar by now that mountains, particularly holy mountains, are synonyms for Yahweh’s holy temple.

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Note how in each of these ancient Near Eastern civilizations that the firm foundation of which they speak is always spoken in connection to the God or creator’s temple. I hope you’re seeing the connection in these texts between the commencement of the creation, the foundation stone, and temple building. In the ancient world, these stubborn bits show up together time and time again.

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which suggests to me that this was one of the original doctrines taught within the ancient tradition. And as you’re gonna see as the podcast progresses, all three of these are directly tied to earthly and heavenly kingship. Let’s return for a moment to Isaiah chapter 28 verse 16. Is there anything in this verse to suggest that Yahweh is the stone, that Yahweh is the sure foundation? Of course there is.

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Let’s read it again. It reads, quote, “‘Therefore thus saith the Lord God, “‘behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, “‘a stone, a tried stone.'” The reference here to a tried stone clearly connotates Yahweh’s battle with the dragon and Christ’s atoning sacrifice. He has been thoroughly tried. He is a, quote, tried stone.

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And he did not move. He came off conqueror. He was in movable. A sure foundation, a king of Zedek. This point is actually pretty important because as you’re gonna see in a couple of episodes, in ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh’s throne is built atop the Ben Ben Stone, which of course represents the primordial hillock. This foundation or pedestal is understood in ancient Egypt to represent.

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There are a lot more examples that I could give you of where Yahweh or Christ are associated with the foundation stone in the biblical canon. Like in Genesis chapter 49 verse 24, where Christ is referred to as the quote stone of Israel. Or in the New Testament in Peter chapter two verse four, where Christ is referred to as the quote living stone. Or we could get into the really, really intriguing stuff in verse five of Peter chapter two.

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where Peter tells the early Christians that they too can be stones. The implications of that are quite astounding, but I’ll let you study that on your own for now.

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I do, however, wanna talk about King David. We really haven’t talked about him that much on the program, but the story of the young King David does an excellent job of bringing together in one account a number of things that we’ve discussed to this point on the podcast and several of the things that we’ve discussed in today’s episode. It does a wonderful job of bringing together so much of the theology taught within the ancient tradition. I wanna start in 1 Samuel chapter 17.

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In this account, if you are a longtime listener, see if you can’t see echoes of the primordial Theomache, dragons, special weapons, stones, victory, creation, and kingship. Let’s start in 1 Samuel 17, verse one. It reads, now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle and were gathered together in Shoko. And Saul,

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and the men of Israel were gathered together and pitched by the Valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines. And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath. Let’s stop here. Recall in the Mesopotamian Enuma Elish, which gives us an account of the primordial Theomache, how the battle that took place wasn’t just between Tiamah and Marduk.

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It was a war. In the Enuma Elish Tablet 1, it says this of Tiamat and the monsters that allied themselves with her. Quote, they crowded and rallied beside Tiamat. They were fierce, scheming restlessly night and day. They were working up to war, growling and raging.

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Most of tablet one and some of tablet two chronicle the myriad ways that Tiamat prepares her troops for war. The lines are drawn, war is eminent. We see a similar thing here in the biblical account of the young King David. Here the lines are drawn. There are two sides. There are those who are servants of the king and those who are not. Both sides are ready for battle. It’s usually a

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this point in the ancient accounts of the primordial Theomache that readers are given a terrible larger than life description of the awful dragon who threatens the safety, security and peace of the high gods kingdom. The ancients described the monster or dragon as having multiple heads, an enormous body, deadly claws, the ability to spit poison or to unleash flames of deadly fire.

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which is exactly what we see in the King David account, a larger than life enemy. Listen to this description of Goliath. Quote, and there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. Now six cubits would make him over nine feet tall. And he had a helmet of brass upon his head.

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and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of brass, and he had greaves of brass upon his legs and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed 600 shekels of iron, and one bearing a shield went before him, and stood and cried unto the armies of Israel and said unto them,

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Why are you come out to set your battle in array? The scary massive dragon Goliath, decked in what looks to be impenetrable armor, comes out and taunts the servants of the king. Quote, Am not I a Philistine and ye servants to Saul? Note how Goliath is distinguishing between the two sides here. Quote.

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choose you a man for you and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me and to kill me, then will we be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then shall ye be our servants and serve us.” And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. Here Goliath feels invincible. He’s

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clearly a powerful being. If you recall in the Primordial Theomache, the dragon was originally a glorious member of the Council of the Gods who rebelled against the High God and was exiled for rebellion from the High God’s kingdom. There’s some debate entomologically about the name Goliath, but two of the most accepted meanings are exile or the exile and destroyer.

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which is connected to the Assyrian Babylonian Guzali. Quote, when Saul and all Israel heard those words at the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Goliath was successful in striking fear in the servants of God, which is a motif that we see in both the Enuma Elish and the Baal Cycle. In both of these accounts, the gods back away in fear.

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In tablet two of the enuma, a leash were told that the God Aya attempted to take on the monster Tiamat, but then turned away. This is what Aya says in tablet two, quote, my father Tiamat’s actions were too much for me. Her strength is mighty. She is completely terrifying. Her crowd is too powerful. Nobody could defy her. Her noise never lessons. It was too loud for me.

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I feared her shout and I turned back. At this point, Aya pleads to the High God to find someone to fight the dragon Tiamat. The text reads, quote, But father, you must not relax. You must send someone else to her. Who will this person be? Who will take battle to the terrible dragon?

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At this point, the text tells us that Aya’s father, Anshar, is, quote, speechless. And finally, the council of the gods cries out, quote, will no other god come forward? Will no one go out to face Tiamat? Of course, we know in the Enuma Leash that one does step forward. Marduk steps forward. And in the ball cycle, we know that one does step forward. Ball steps forward.

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And in 1 Samuel, we know that someone steps forward. David, who is a type of the beloved son, steps forward. The text reads, quote, now David was the son of that Ephraim of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse. And he had eight sons. And the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul. And the three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed

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And David was the youngest, and the three eldest followed Saul. But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. And the Philistine drew near morning and evening and presented himself forty days. At this point in the account, Jesse, David’s father, asks him to take food to his brothers who are fighting. David does this, and then Goliath appears.

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And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words. And David heard them. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were sore afraid.” So there’s the motif of fleeing from the dragon and or being afraid of the dragon. Let’s jump to verse 26.

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And David spake to the man that stood by him, saying, what shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine and taketh away the reproach of Israel? Note how David’s motive here seems to be to save Israel, to save the kingdom, which is exactly what we see in the primordial Theomache accounts. The son steps forward to preserve the father’s kingdom.

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David then asks, quote, for who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? Now, this is a really interesting question because to be uncircumcised is to be one who has not made a covenant with God. So David distinguishes here who is on which side of the battle lines by who has and who has not.

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entered into a covenant with God. Verse 32, and David said to Saul, let no man’s fear fail because of him. Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. So there you have it. Here David voluntarily steps forward says, quote, I will go and fight this Philistine.

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I find this aspect of the story so interesting because here David has no fear of the dragon. We find this exact same thing said of Marduk in tablet two of the Enuma Elish. It says this of Marduk, quote, the mighty heir who was to be his father’s champion, who rushes fearlessly into battle. Marduk the hero. Now listen to what Saul says to David. This is really interesting too.

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And Saul said to David, “‘Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.'” Here Saul is very concerned about David taking on the gigantic monster Goliath. This motif is also present in the Enuma Elish. When Onshark catches wind that Marduk has volunteered to battle Tiamat,

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Anshar says this, quote, what kind of man has ordered you out to this war? My son, don’t you realize that it is Tiamat who will advance against you with arms? Marduk reassures Anshar telling him, quote, Anshar, my creator, rejoice and be glad. You shall soon set your foot upon the neck of Tiamat.

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In the David account, Saul is very, very nervous for David, and he decks him out in loads of armor. Once David is dressed, having never worn armor like this before says in verse 39, quote, and David said unto Saul, I cannot go out with these, for I have not proved them, and David put them off of him. So David takes off the temporal armor.

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And he does this, quote, and he took his staff in his hand and he chose him five smooth stones out of the brook. Note here that his special weapon is stones and put them in a shepherd’s bag, which he had, even in a scrip, and his sling was in his hand and he drew near to the Philistine. And the Philistine came on and drew near into David and the man that bare the shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked out,

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and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, and rooty, and of a fair countenance.” So the battle’s on. In verse 44 it says, And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field. Then said David to the Philistine,

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Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.” Note here how David calls out Goliath’s rebellion against God. David says, quote, I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, whom thou hast defied.

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David then declares that his ability to slay Goliath, the dragon, will come from the Lord. The Lord is his special weapon, which becomes abundantly clear when we realize that his special weapon is a stone, the foundation stone. David says, quote, “‘This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee.'” Now,

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What David does next is super, super intriguing in terms of the account of the primordial Theomarche given in the Enuma Elish. See, in the Enuma Elish, after Marduk slays Theomarche, he takes her carcass and he uses it to create his newly inherited kingdom. In tablet five, it reads, quote, the Lord rested. Note how he rested after he slayed Theomarche and inspected her corpse.

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He sliced her in half like a fish for drying, half of her. He put up to roof the sky. He placed her head, heaped up. He piled her clear cut mountains from her utter. And the text goes on. Because the dragon has been slain, now life can fill the kingdom. Now listen to what David tells Goliath. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand and I will smite thee.

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and take thine head from thee, and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” Here David is basically telling Goliath the same thing, that he is going to take his dead carcass and the carcass of all of the dead Philistines and he’s going to feed them to the fowls and beasts as food.

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the kingdom and life to flourish. Pretty amazing. Let’s continue, verse 48. And it came to pass when the Philistine arose and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took hence a stone and sling it and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead.

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and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and smote the Philistine and slew him. So David slew the dragon. And how did David slay the dragon? With the help of a special weapon, a stone, the stone, the foundation stone, which we just learned symbolized the creator.

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in which it says in Matthew chapter 7 verse 25, that if a man will build his house with it, it will not fall. Now I don’t have enough time to really go into this in detail, but take note that the stone that actually slays Goliath strikes him in the forehead, because this is not a trivial aspect of the account. It is in fact one of the most important aspects of the account. Why? Because in Ezekiel chapter 9 verse 4,

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We read that God marks his people with his name. Where? On their forehead. To be marked with God’s name is to be anointed. And we’ll talk more about this down the line, but note here how it is the stone, the foundation stone that sinks into the forehead of the profane Goliath. It’s that that slays him.

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is a temple rite. So here we are again with the connection between the creation from the carcass of the slain dragon to the foundation stone to God’s temple. We aren’t done though. What happens next? Well, a lot of things happen next, but ultimately Saul dies. And then in second Samuel chapter two, verse four, we read, quote, and the men of Judah came and there they anointed David.

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king over the house of Judah. If you’re a long time listener to the program, you already knew that this was going to happen because this is what is promised to all dragon slayers. They are promised a heavenly crown. Here the theology of the ancient tradition is being applied temporally so David is made an earthly king, but the theological message is the same. And what does King David want to do after he’s made a king?

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You guessed it, he wants to build a temple. Of course he does. All true kings do this after they’re made kings. They build a temple. After all, they need a place to rest. I personally am just blown away by how the ancient texts are teaching us the same story, the same theology over and over and over again.

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as you can see with the King David story. In fact, if we turn to the legend of Excalibur, you’ll recall that only the true heir, the rightful king, can pull the sword, the special weapon from the stone. This makes a lot more sense now that we know that the stone, the foundation stone, is a symbol of God and that only true individuals can obtain the special weapons needed to slay the dragon. So that they can realize their royal…

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heritage. I want to close out this episode by talking about Ebenezer Scrooge. Do you remember him? Ebenezer Scrooge is that crotchety old miserly character in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The guy who refuses to help Bob Cratchit and his disabled son Tiny Tim. The television versions of the story are kind of difficult to watch because it’s hard to fathom that someone could be so callous as to refuse to help

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some of those who are in greatest need. Ebenezer is the opposite of a doer of ma’at or tzedek. What’s interesting about this story is that Charles Dickens intentionally chose to name the antagonist Ebenezer. He did so to foreshadow the grand transformation that would eventually take place in the miser’s cold hard heart. Once he let some light in.

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See, the proper name Ebenezer comes from the Hebrew composite Ebon and Ezer. In Hebrew, Ebon is the actual word for, you guessed it, stone. And the word Ezer is the Hebrew word for help. So the name Ebenezer actually means stone of help. We clearly saw the stone, capital S, T-O-N-E.

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help David slay Goliath. And in the Christmas Carol, Dickens implies by naming the antagonist Ebenezer that it is Christ, the stone, who ultimately softens Ebenezer’s hard heart. Where we may have thought that Dickens’ Christmas Carol was about Tiny Tim, we learned that the story is actually about how the stone helps Ebenezer slay the dragon.

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There’s a lesson in there for all of us. Today I’ll leave you with the words of Charles Dickens who tells us of the new Ebenezer, quote, he became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old city knew.

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I’m Jack Logan.

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