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. Great to have you with me today. It’s a wonderful day. I’ve got a good program today. Today’s episode is titled Petra, the Lid of Hell. Quite an interesting title for today’s episode, but it’ll all make sense to you by the end. Before we jump into today’s episode, I wanted to let you know that I checked to see if the Hulu streaming service really got its name from the Chinese Hulu gourd. And guess what? It did.

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The CEO, the former CEO, I guess now, because it was consumed by Disney, said it like this. He said, in Mandarin, Hulu literally translates to gourd, and in ancient times, the Hulu was hollowed out and used to hold precious things. We saw this as highly relevant to the mission of Hulu, and it was easy to pronounce. So that’s why they chose the name Hulu for the streaming service. So there you go. With that, let’s jump in.

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We need to start today’s episode with a quick recap of how we got to where we are, because without a good understanding of the background behind the foundation stone, we’re not gonna have a correct understanding of a particular text that we’re gonna cover towards the end of today’s episode. So to recap, as we saw in several ancient texts, after the son of the high god triumphantly conquered the awful dragon, he was awarded for his victory by the high god,

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the right to build a kingdom. Weary and fatigued from the battle, the first thing the son of the high god desired was a place to rest, a place where he could safely and freely reside from the onslaught of the dragon, a place where he could rule over his newly acquired kingdom. But when the son of the high god looked out over the primordial waters, the elements from which he would build his material kingdom, he saw that there was no place

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rest. In the book of the holy secrets of Enoch when Enoch ascended to the throne of God the Lord recounted to Enoch what he was feeling and thinking when he looked out over the primordial waters and this is what he told Enoch in chapter 24 he said I found nowhere to rest because nothing has been created yet. Now we’ve quoted the Lord’s words here several times on the podcast.

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But it’s what the Lord tells Enoch next that’s important for today’s episode. The Lord then tells Enoch the following, quote, I found nowhere to rest because nothing has been created yet. And I thought up the idea of establishing a foundation. Okay, so the Lord tells Enoch here that he’s gonna begin building his kingdom by first building a foundation.

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terms of building construction this is logical enough. But don’t lose sight of the context of this foundation. See what does the Lord desire in the context of this verse? The Lord desires a place to rest. The Lord wants to build a place where he can dwell so he can rest from the battle. The Lord wants to build a palace temple where he can safely dwell. That is what he’s building the

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temple. The ancients never lost sight of this. Wherever we look in the ancient world, the foundation stone is nearly always connected to a temple. In ancient Egypt, the Ben Ben stone was housed in the temple of Re. In ancient Mesopotamia, like we saw in the Keshe temple, the god Enlil laid his fixed foundation for the Keshe temple. And the god Enki drove in the foundation

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for Nengirsu’s temple. And Marduk, quote, made firm the foundation for the temple E. Teminaki. In ancient Greece, the foundation stone, the Mphalistone, was built on Mount Parnassus, and it was there, quote, that Apollo resolved to make his lovely temple. And in reference to this, Lethebi said in that book on architecture, he said,

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This center stone of the whole world seems to have profoundly touched the Greek imagination. The temple was erected exactly on the naval stone. In ancient Rome, the foundation stone, the Roma quadrata was housed near or in the temple of Palatine. In Mesoamerica and Teotihuacan, the foundation stone altar marked the ceremonial center of the Teotihuacan Empire.

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and it was surrounded by a number of pyramids. Among the ancient Incas, the Kuskwa Wanka, the Rock of the Owl, marked the Hakipata, the ceremonial center of the Incan people. In ancient Japan, the Kanemishii Stone, the stone that was used to subdue the giant catfish, it’s housed in the Shinto shrine, Kashima Jingu, in Ibaruki, Japan.

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We saw among the Muslims that the Blackstone is housed in the Temple of Allah. In Ireland, the Lafayl, it marked the spot where during the Neolithic and early Bronze Age, they found over 20 ancient monuments had been built, including a double timber wood hinge. And among the Hopi, we saw that Oribi, the Oribi stone, marked where Massau lived and marked the ceremonial and ritual center.

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the Hopi people. So as we move through today’s episodes keep this in mind. Keep in mind that the foundation that the Lord told Enoch that he built in the beginning was the foundation for a particular building. It was a foundation for his temple. The place where the Lord could rest and dwell and reign. The supernal sacred place where he could reside completely free from the dragon’s

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Today we’re going to spend most of our time among the ancient Israelites and early Christians. In both of these cases, the foundation stone plays an incredibly important role in the religious theologies of these religious traditions. Theologies that are in complete conformity in nearly every aspect of the foundation stone that we’ve discussed to this point on the podcast. So let’s start with the ancient Israelites.

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In Jerusalem, we find one of the most highly disputed and most valuable and arguably the most sacred piece of land in the entire world. The Temple Mount, a 37 acre tract of land that sits atop what is referred to in the Bible as Mount Moriah. Most of us know what it is because we recognize it today from the iconic Muslim shrine that sits atop the mount, the Dome of the Rock.

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On the highest point of Mount Moriah, we find a large, generally level rock, and it’s over 55 feet in length and 45 feet in breadth. And it’s known among the Jews as the Ebn HaShetia, the foundation stone. And among Muslims, it’s called the Al-Sakra Al-Musharraf, the noble stone.

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The Muslim Dome of the Rock was built over the foundation stone in 691 AD and it’s one of their holiest sites. It was upon this rock as it’s mentioned in the Quran in Surah 17. And it’s also mentioned in the Hadiths. The Hadiths are a record of the approved words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad. That the Prophet Muhammad took a mystical night journey to heaven and he received instructions from Allah.

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This night journey is known in Islam as the mirage. The mirage is important, really quite important in terms of the ancient tradition. So we’re gonna discuss it in detail in a future episode. So just remember that that occurred on this rock. Muslims associate this rock and rightfully so to the Garden of Eden. Because as we’ve discussed on the program, God began the creation by first creating the Garden of Eden, his garden sanctuary, the verdant primordial hill.

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which he established on a firm foundation. On the Western facade of the Dome of the Rock, you can find a porcelain slab with an Arabic inscription. And this is what the Arabic inscription says. It says, the Rock of the Temple from the Garden of Eden. That’s pretty interesting inscription. Note how the inscription directly ties the rock to the temple, the Rock of the Temple.

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but then it also ties the rock in the temple directly to the Garden of Eden. And all of this is in complete conformity to what we’ve read in the ancient record. Now, if we go to the northern gate of the Dorm of the Rock, the northern gate of the mosque, the gate that’s facing the foundation stone, the name of that gate is Gate of Paradise, the Babi Jinnah, that’s the name of it in Arabic. In the Quran,

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The Jinnah is the Arabic word for the Garden of Eden. If you enter inside the mosque, directly in front of this gate on the floor is a green stone. It’s about a foot and a half square and it’s made of jasper. And this stone is called the Stone of Eden. Take special note here how the Muslims not only tie the foundation to a temple and the Garden of Eden, but also to a precious stone.

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in this case, a green jasper. Very interestingly, now this is an amazing little myth here or legend. According to Zev Vilni, he compiled a catalog of national legends about Jerusalem and they were Jewish and Arabic legends. In the book titled Legends of Jerusalem, there’s this really interesting legend that’s connected to the Dome of the Rock.

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Muslims have a legend that the Al-Sakra, the noble stone, rests on the back of a giant whale. On page 19, this is what it says. It says, quote, the whole world rests on a mighty whale whose head is at the place of the rising of the sun and whose tail is at the setting thereof. So we’re talking about a massive sea creature here. Now listen to this, quote, the foundation stone, the rock

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paradise rests on the very center of the back of this giant whale. Yep, Muslims have a legend that the foundation stone sits on the back of a giant whale. If you listen to our last episode, episode number 36, this should be sounding very very familiar. Remember the Japanese legend about the giant catfish, Namatsu? The Japanese tell us how a giant catfish swims in the waters beneath the earth.

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And then when he gets angry, he flails around and he causes earthquakes. In this legend, it’s the sword bearing god, Takimakachi, who restrains the sea creature by pinning him under a rock, the Konami Ishi, the foundation stone or capstone. So in both of these legends, we have a giant sea creature that’s swimming in the waters directly beneath the foundation stone. And this is nothing new to us because we know that the rebel sun,

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The rebel son of the high God was cast down from heaven and thrust into the disordered lifeless primordial waters. We know the ancients used a terrible sea creature, a serpent or a dragon to symbolize the rebel son’s awful power, his ugly transformation and his exile to the chaotic waters outside of God’s holy realm. So we’re not surprised in the slightest to learn.

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that Muslims too tell of a terrible Leviathan that lives beneath the foundation stone. Hold on to the fact that in both of these legends, it’s the stone that pins down or keeps the terrible Leviathan restrained. In Judaism, the foundation stone is soaked in theology and legend and lore.

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And all of this theology and legend and lore conforms to what we’ve already learned from the ancients about the foundation stone. It doesn’t deviate, which is, you know, more evidence to me of an ancient tradition. So let’s begin by looking first at a reference to the Ebon Hoshetia in the Torah. If you’re not familiar with Hebrew scripture, the Torah comprises the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.

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Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And then after we do this, we’ll look at a few of what the rabbis have to say in the rabbinic writings in the Midrash and the Zohar. And then we’ll look at some of the Jewish legends because each of these provide some really interesting and some really important information about the foundation stone. So let’s jump into the Torah starting in Genesis chapter 22. In this chapter, the patriarch Abraham,

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who it’s kind of important to point out is a direct descendant from Adam. He’s in the line of succession for the sacral kingship. So he’s the rightful heir to the sacral kingship. And he’s commanded in Genesis chapter 22 to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Verse two of Genesis 22 reads, quote, and he, this is God, said to Abraham, take now thy son.

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Thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest. Note how we’re getting the son and the beloved son theme going here. He says, take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, the beloved son idea here, and get thee into the land of Moriah. So here God’s telling Abraham that he can’t sacrifice his son Isaac just anywhere. He must perform the sacrifice at a very specific time.

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and that that specific place is in quote the land of Moriah. Okay but where in the land of Moriah? Let’s keep reading. He says, and get the into the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains. So where must Abraham perform the sacrifice of Isaac in the land of Moriah? On quote one of the mountains.

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So here we are, we’re back to a mountain context again, which we know by now is a synonym in Holy Writ for God’s temple abode. But how will Abraham know which of the mountains in the land of Moriah is the correct mountain? Well, we gotta keep reading. And it says, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. So we’re starting to get the picture quite,

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poignantly here that the place where Isaac is to be sacrificed is a very specific place a place that God will reveal directly to Abraham and We know this place because it’s in a mountain is God’s temple Abraham is to sacrifice his son Isaac in God’s temple So the next morning Abraham chops up some wood and he saddles up a donkey

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and travels with his son Isaac to the mount in the land of Moriah, which in verse 3 we’re told was the mount, quote, which God had told him. So Abraham knew exactly where he was going. When Abraham sees the designated location afar off, he stops and he unloads the bundle of wood and he places it on Isaac’s back and then together they make their way to the appointed location.

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You should see here a strong parallel to Christ carrying the cross, the wood of a tree on his back. That’s exactly what Isaac’s doing. He’s hauling the wood for the sacrifice on his back, just like Christ did on his way to Golgotha. When Abraham and Isaac reach the designated spot on Mount Moriah, what’s the first thing that Abraham does? Well, in verse 9 it says,

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they came to the place which God had told him of and Abraham built an altar there. So Abraham built an altar. We already knew that he was going to do this because it’s upon altars that sacrifices are made. But don’t lose sight of the fact that Abraham built the altar upon which he was to sacrifice Isaac on the top of the Mount Moriah.

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where we’ve learned in past episodes, stood the tree of life, the wood. So in verse nine, after Abraham builds the altar, we find a very, very curious statement about the arrangement of the wood on the altar. This statement about the wood has always struck me. Every time I read it, I’m struck, and it’s actually fostered quite a bit of pondering on my part. And this is what verse nine says. Says, and they came to the place which God had told him of,

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Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order laid the wood in order that’s a very curious phrase you know what does this mean why would the Genesis writers even make reference to the ordering of the wood with all the limited space in the Torah why focus our attention on this pile of wood now I looked up the word in Hebrew

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order and it’s often used in terms of military soldiers, how you array them. So it does have a very important implication of actual ordering, not just throwing it together. Now I’ve read loads of Bible commentaries on this verse and I haven’t found a single explanation for it. In fact, the vast majority of the Bible commentaries just kind of glaze right over it or they just assume.

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that it’s referring to arranging the wood like you learned to do in Boy Scouts, make that teepee shape so that the fire will take hold. This may be the case, that may be what this verse is referring to. But I think the Genesis account is pointing us to much more. And that’s because I’ve studied a number of altars around the world. And we’re gonna talk about them in detail in an upcoming episode.

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But one of the most salient characteristics of altars, especially in the Americas, is the emphasis on the four cardinal points. Like if you look at the Zetal Mayan altars, I’ve mentioned these on the program before, the first thing that you’re gonna notice is that the flowers are arranged in four quadrants, each showcasing a different color. In the middle where the four quadrants converge is the sacred center of the altar.

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It’s generally elevated above the rest of the altar, kind of like a little hill. And then on the top of that, the Zaytal Maya place a burning candle.

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you should definitely see the parallels here to much of what we’ve discussed on the program. So just like with the ancient Romans with the Carto, the north and the south line, the Decumanos, the east the west line where they cross, that’s how the Romans determined the templum, the center, the temple. Here the Zetal Maya used the same pattern to establish their most

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the lines from the four cardinal points point to the center place. And this is also in keeping with what we see in ancient Israel, where the altar of sacrifice in the Mosaic Tabernacle and in King Solomon’s temple had four horns, you remember that? One position on each of the four corners of the altar. The animal was sacrificed in the center of the altar. And after it was sacrificed, then the priest would dab the blood of the sacrificial animal.

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right on each of the four horns. It’s evidence like this that I propose that Abraham’s, quote, laying out the wood in order for Isaac’s sacrifice on Mount Moriah actually referred to laying the wood in the form of a cross where four logs were used to point to the four corners of the altar. This, of course, would symbolically establish that Isaac was gonna be sacrificed in the center.

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where the lines crossed, the templum in the temple, in God’s temple. It was symbolically established that the sacrifice of Isaac was gonna take place in the center of all things, in the holiest of all places, in the holy of holies in God’s temple. For today’s episode, this is important because as you’re gonna see in just a minute, all of this is connected to the foundation stone, the Ebon HaShetia.

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I know this is a lot to think about, but also consider that Christ was crucified on a cross, on a cross made of the wood of a tree. The symbolism stacking here is really quite poignant and sometimes I even think it’s a little bit overwhelming. I don’t want you to underestimate the symbolism imbued in the cross. It’s a major characteristic of the ancient tradition and I don’t have time to go into it today. But if you’re interested.

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And you want to jump ahead just a little bit. Study Ezekiel chapter 9 verse 4 and be sure and study the Hebrew. The significance of the cross is going to take on even greater meaning for you. And we’ll talk about this verse in a future episode when we get to ritual. All right, back to Mount Moriah. If you’re Jewish or Christian, you likely already know this, but we know where Abraham was commanded to sacrifice Isaac. We know where Mount Moriah is.

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And where is it? It’s in Jerusalem. Where in Jerusalem? On the Temple Mount. And where on the Temple Mount? On the Ebon Hashachah, on the top of the foundation stone, the stone that’s housed under the Muslim Dome of the Rock, the stone of creation. The first piece of solid lander rise out of the abyss, the sacred center of the world. That’s right. It was upon this rock.

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on the top of Mount Moriah that the Israelites built King Solomon’s temple, the Temple of God. And note here again the connection between the foundation stone and the temple. The connection between Mount Moriah and the temple is further substantiated by the name Moriah. In the Sumerian Pentateuch, the name Moriah is spelled H-A-M-M-O-R-A-A-H, Hamorah.

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which comes from the root ra-a, which means to see. And the Greek translation renders the name as, quote, the land of appearance or manifestation. And this is quite appropriate because if the temple is where God dwells, it’s most fitting that one would encounter or see God there. This association is further corroborated in Genesis chapter 22 verse 14.

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where we read, quote, and Abraham called the name of that place, Jehovah-Gaira. As it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord, it shall be seen. So one sees the Lord in the mount. One also sees the future and sees the spiritual realm in the mount of the Lord. The second mention of Mount Moriah in the Bible is found in Second Chronicles chapter three, verse one. In this verse, we’re told,

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where King Solomon begins to build a temple to the Lord. And in verse one, it reads, then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Now this is interesting. So here we’re told that Solomon builds the temple on Mount Moriah, like we mentioned.

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But note that this is also the place where, quote, the Lord appeared unto David his father. This is interesting because we just learned that Mount Moriah is the Mount of seeing, the Mount where one sees God. And then here we learned that this is exactly what happened to King David. King David saw the Lord on Mount Moriah in his temple. In Psalm 63 verse two, David says the following, and this is the new international version,

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I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and glory.” I wish I had time here to go into the corporal aspect of God, but that would take us too far afield from today’s topic. But I do want you to take note here that David is teaching that it’s possible to see God. Again, that’s what the word Moriah means, the Mount of Seeing.

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There are many out there who claim that God’s this ethereal, intangible, unseeable essence that fills the universe. And that’s not what King David taught. He taught that God was seeable. He directly says here in Psalm 63 verse two, quote, I have seen you in the sanctuary. I want to come back to second Chronicles chapter three, verse one. In that verse, we’re told that the Lord appeared to David on Mount Moriah, quote,

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the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. From this verse we learned that before King Solomon’s temple was erected on Mount Moriah that there used to be a threshing floor there that was owned by a Jebusite whose name was Ornan. In 1st Chronicles chapter 21 verse 25 we learned that David purchased this threshing floor from Ornan for 600 shekels of gold.

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Then in verse 26, we read that David did the following. Quote, and David built there an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings. So we learn here that David built an altar on the spot that stood the threshing floor. And on the same spot that Abraham built the altar on which he planned to sacrifice Isaac. And this makes complete sense since Mount Moriah is God’s.

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sanctuary. So I want to take a second here and talk about the threshing floor that stood on the site before David purchased the land because you know it seems a bit unfathomable that God would let the beasts of the field trample across the sacred land. That is until we learn about the symbolic nature of the threshing floor. See during the Jebusite period threshing floors were used to process grain you know to separate the wheat from the chaff.

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Generally, these threshing floors were located on elevated windy sites, you know, usually on the top of a hilltop where the wind would come and then that would aid the winnowing process. The threshing floor itself was usually a circular flat surface made either of hard packed earth or of stone. It needed to be sturdy enough to withstand the trampling of animals.

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The threshers spread the sheaves across the circular stone surface, and then they attached a threshing sledge, a wooden board that had stones on the bottom. And then they would tie that to a pair of oxen. And then they drove the oxen around the threshing floor in the form of a circle until the wheat separated from the chaff. And then when they were done, they would toss the mixture into the air and then the wind would blow away the chaff.

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Now there are a number of symbolic inferences that we can make here, right? From the final judgment, where God’s gonna purge the wheat from the tares, to the grain itself in God’s role as the bread of life. But for the purposes of today’s episode, I wanna focus on the circular motion of the oxen. See, when the threshers drive the oxen around the threshing floor, which is made of stone, mind you, they do so in a circular motion.

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which naturally generates this mound in the center. The oxen in effect circumambulate a center, symbolically representing the sacred center where God resides, the sacred center of all things. It’s another way of pointing us that this is his holy temple. If you go to the webpage for this episode, you can find an artistic drawing of a Jebusite threshing floor, so you can kind of get an idea of what I mean.

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It does a really nice job of illustrating this point. This should also remind you of the Muslim Tawaf ritual and the requirement of adherents of Islam to circumambulate the Kaaba seven times at some point in their life. Note how so much of what we are told, the elevated mountain location, the altar, the ordering of the wood, the wood itself, and the symbolism of the threshing floor.

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all point to Mount Moriah as the temple of God, the foundation of which is built on a large stone, the Ebon Hashetia. Now let’s move to the rabbinic writings, to the Midrashic literature. If you’re not familiar with the Midrash, the Midrash is basically Judaic exegesis. It’s basically a compilation of rabbinical interpretations of the Torah.

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In the Midrash Tanhumah Kedoshim 10, it’s dated to around the eighth and ninth century AD. We see a clear emphasis on the Omphalmas, the navel, and the centrality of the temple and the foundation sum. And this is what it says right in the Midrash. Just as the navel is set in the middle of a person, so the land of Israel is the navel of the world.

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Thus it is stated in Ezekiel chapter 38 verse 12, who dwell on the navel of the earth? And the foundation of the world comes out of it as stated in Psalm chapter 50 verse one. Out of Zion, God has shined forth as the perfection of beauty. The land of Israel sits at the center of the world. Jerusalem is in the center of the land of Israel.

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The sanctuary is in the center of Jerusalem. The temple building is in the center of the sanctuary. The Ark is in the center of the temple building. And the foundation stone out of which the world was founded is before the temple building. Did you note in this midrash how the foundation stone is equated with God? Because this is important. It said,

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who dwell on the navel of the earth, and the foundation of the world comes out of it, as stated out of Zion, God has shined forth as the perfection of beauty. The foundation stone marks the navel of the world and God shines forth from the stone as the perfection of beauty. And also note how according to this Midrash, they believed the Ark of the Covenant, God’s throne, sat atop the foundation stone.

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keep that tidbit in your back pocket. All of this is solidly in alignment with what we’ve learned about the foundation stone in the past couple of episodes. In the Zohar, which is a group of books on Judaic mysticism that are dated to 1240 AD, but they claim to be the teachings of Shimon Bar Yochai, a second century AD Jewish sage. We read the following.

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And this is found in the Zohar volume 1, 231a. The world did not come into being until God took a certain stone, which is called the foundation stone, and cast it into the abyss so that it held fast there. And from it, the world was planted. This is the central point of the universe. And on this point stands the Holy of Holies.

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So take note how this passage refers to the abyss, the primordial waters. God casts this stone into the primordial waters and it holds fast, it’s firmly planted on the abyss, and that this stone marks the central point of the universe. These Judaic sages, they knew their stuff. We’ll get into this more in a minute, but keep in mind that the foundation stone referred to here is symbolic. It’s a symbol.

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for the beloved son, the son who volunteers to battle the sea monster who dwells in the abyss, the chaotic disorganized elements, the primordial elements out of which the sun will form his kingdom. So note that we have two divine beings here. God casting the stone, the beloved son into the abyss. We’ve got two gods. In the Zohar,

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Volume 2, 222a. We are going to learn a little bit more about this stone. It reads, When the Holy One, blessed be he, was about to create the world, he detached one precious stone from underneath his throne of glory and plunged it into the abyss. And this constituted the nucleus of the world, the point out of which the world started.

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spreading itself to right and left and into all directions and by which it was sustained. That nucleus, that stone is called Shetia as it was the starting point of the world. The Shetia furthermore is a compound of Shath and Yah. Shah meaning found it in Yah God signifying that the Holy One, blessed be He, made it the foundation and starting point of the world and all that is therein.

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So again here we have God plunging the stone, the beloved son into the abyss. This time though we get a little more detail. The stone that he plunges into the abyss is a precious stone, a jewel, a jewel detached from God’s throne. So we’re getting majesty and kingship symbolism attached to this throne, I love it. This is further evidence that we’re talking about the beloved son when we’re talking about the stone.

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So it comes off of the throne. Did you catch that? You know, this is the air. I love it. Okay, if you’ve ever wondered why precious stones and jewels are embedded in royal crowns, you now know why. Because it’s a reference to foundation stones. Take note that there are usually many precious stones on royal crowns and thrones, not just one. And this is of theological significance. Just as we see here in the Zohar, where God

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detached one precious stone from beneath his throne, which implies that there were more than one there.

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So now let’s move to the Jewish myths and legends. We’re gonna learn a few more really interesting things. In 1963, Robert Graves, he’s a classicist and he was the chair of poetry at Oxford University. And Rafael Pataí, he was a biblical scholar and used to be the director of the Palestine Institute of Folklore. Compiled a book of Hebrew myths from a variety of scholarly sources. This book is titled Hebrew Myths.

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And it’s in this book that we find this really interesting myth about the foundation stone. On page 41, we read the following. Some say that a gem bearing the Messiah’s name, which floated with the wind until the altar of sacrifice had been built on Mount Zion, and then came to rest there, was the first solid thing God created. Others that it was the foundation rock supporting his

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altar and that when God restrained Tehom’s waters he engraved his 42 letter name on its face rather than on a shirt. Okay this is super interesting. Here we learn that God wrote the name of the Messiah on the stone that he detached from his throne and plunged into the

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which is further evidence that we’re talking about the beloved son here. We also learned that the Messiah’s sacred name is pretty long. In this myth, we learned that the Messiah’s name is 42 letters long. And if the name were written in Hebrew, then this name would be really long in English because vowels were not originally written in the Hebrew language. It’s quite important that the Messiah’s name is written on the stone.

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Because if you recall in episode number 12, the word that changed the universe, we learned that the word the victorious son used to initiate the creation was his name. The word, capital W-O-R-D, as it’s written in John chapter one, verse one, which is a proper noun. So it’s only fitting here that his name is written on the foundation stone. In a way, his name is the foundation stone.

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because it gave him the power and the authority due to his perfect upholding of Ma’at or Zedek to initiate the creation. This also suggests that his name is the foundation on which his temple is built. In the Torah, in Deuteronomy chapter 12 verse 11, we read, quote, “‘There shall be a place which the Lord our God “‘shall choose.'”

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to cause his name to dwell there. Very interesting stuff. The other really interesting part of this myth is that the Jews tell us that it is this rock that’s holding back or restraining Tehom’s waters. If you remember, Tehom’s the Hebrew word for the deep or the abyss, which is a cognate of the Akkadian word Tiamat.

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the primordial sea monster in the Enuma Elish, which the beloved son Marduk volunteers to battle. It’s this rock that protects the world from being consumed by the waters, the profane chaotic waters and the profane creatures that lie within it. In the Cambridge History of Judaism, volume four, page 193, we read, quote, the altar

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was believed to rest on a boulder, the so-called foundation stone, the Ebon Hashachah, which served as a kind of cosmic plug, preventing a resurgence of the deluge, which marked the point from which the solidification of the earth had proceeded outward when the world was first created. The very cosmos, therefore, depended on this place,

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for its origins and continued existence.

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I like how these Oxford gentlemen refer to the foundation stone as a cosmic plug.

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Another biblical scholar by the name of Colton Fromm referred to the foundation stone in the journal of Jewish studies as a seal. Quote, the seal on the Teichom. In this light, the foundation stone is the rock that seals off the profane abyssal waters, the seal that prevents evil from overpowering this world. Colton Fromm’s use of the word seal here is apropos because according to the Smithsonian Institute,

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In ancient Near East, seals were used to quote, signal ownership and authority. And they were often inscribed with the name of the owner, often the king, right on the seal. So the conception of the foundation stone as a seal that seals off the deep is in perfect keeping with the Hebraic tradition that the foundation stone was inscribed with the name of the Messiah.

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His name on the stone would clearly signal his ownership and authority over this newly formed kingdom. The sea serpent would have no authority there. The conception of the foundation stone as a cosmic plug or a seal should also remind you once again of the Japanese God Takumakachi pinning down the giant catfish or sea serpent with a rock. It’s all the same.

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theology. The rock pins the sea monster.

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Another book containing Hebrew myths. It’s this amazing book titled, Tree of Souls, the Mythology of Judaism. It’s a big book, it’s like 618 pages long by Howard Schwartz. It was published by Oxford University Press. We find this other really interesting myth about the foundation stone. And I’m gonna read you the whole thing. It’s on page 96. This is what it says. When King David decided to build the temple in Jerusalem, he commanded that Shafts,

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be dug to a depth of 1,500 cubits and low. They struck a stone in one of those shafts. As soon as he learned of it, King David went there with Ahithophel, his counselor, and with other members of the court. They descended into the pit and there at the bottom they saw the immense stone shining like the darkest emerald.

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All of those who saw it were amazed, and they knew that it must indeed be the fabled stone, which served as the world’s foundation. Yet all at once King David was possessed by a great curiosity to see what lay beneath it. King David ordered it to be raised, but a voice came forth from the stone saying, “‘Be warned that I must not be lifted. “‘I serve to hold back

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the waters of the abyss. All of them stood in awe of the voice. But King David’s curiosity was still not sated. He decided to ignore the warning and once more he ordered the stone to be raised. None of his advisors dared say anything, for they feared his wrath. After a great effort, a corner of the foundation stone was lifted up and King David bent down

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into the abyss beneath it. There he heard something like the sound of rushing waters and he suddenly realized that by lifting the stone he had set free the waters of the deep. Once again the world was in danger of being deluged as in the time of Noah. King David trembled with fear and he asked the others what they might do to cause the waters to fall back but no one spoke.

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Then King David said, perhaps if I wrote the name of God on the potsherd and cast it into the depths, we might still be saved. But does anyone know if this is permitted? Still, the others said nothing. And King David grew angry and said, if any one of you knows this and still refuses to answer, then your soul will bear the curse of the end of existence. And Ahithophel spoke, saying, surely the name

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can be used to bring peace to the whole world. So David picked up the potsherd and scratched the four letter name of God into it and cast it into the bottomless pit. All at once the roar of the waters grew fainter and they knew that they had been saved by the power of the name. In the days to come, King David repented many times for his sin.

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and he gave thanks to God for sparing the world from another flood. And his son, Solomon, had the Holy of Holies of the temple built exactly above the foundation stone, for both the stone and the temple bore the seal of God’s blessing.

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It’s very important here to stress that this myth, like all myths, is symbolic. The myth and the symbols that are used in the myth are meant to teach us about the realities of the spiritual realm and the realities of the spiritual battle that’s taking place in the spiritual realm. To understand the theology, we’ve got to study and ponder the symbols. For example, number one, why was a stone used in this myth?

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What do stones convey? Number two, why is it a precious stone? An emerald gemstone. Number three, why does it shine? Number four, why is it green? Number five, what do the deep, the abyss, the waters or the floodwaters represent? Number six, why was it terrible to lift the stone?

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Number seven, what is the importance of God’s name on the stone? Number eight, why was God’s name able to subdue the waters? Number nine, what is meant by the roar of the waters growing faint? And number 10, why did David build the temple atop this stone? What are we to learn from that?

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If you can answer most of those questions, then you are well on your way to cultivating symbolic literacy, which is super important because the myths and the symbols used in them conceal the theology. You can’t truly know and understand the theology without deciphering the symbols that the ancients used to teach it. Interestingly, we can find additional examples of a rock or lid.

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holding back the waters of hell and other places around the world. For example, in the Teutonic mythology of Northern Europe, the Teutons tell of a hell door, a door that opens or closes hell. Jacob Grimm, and this is the Grimm of Grimm’s fairy tales, writes, quote, “‘It appears that men imagined as lying at the bottom of our earth, like a ceiling or grating of the underworld, a stone.'”

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called in poems the dillstein, the lid of hell. And we see a similar thing in Rome where a sacred stone known as the lapis manalis covered the gate of Hades. And there’s also some indication that Pandora’s box, the box of Greek mythology is a derivation of this same idea. The box was believed to contain all the evils of the world.

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so to lift the lid on Pandora’s box was to release evil into the world. And we’ll come back to this in just a minute. So now let’s turn to Christianity. There’s a pretty clear understanding in Christianity that Christ, the beloved son of the high god, is the rock, the foundation stone upon which the world is believed to be built. In 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 6 it says

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Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious. So there’s the gemstone reference. And he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. So this is a clear reference to Christ as the rock. The most famous reference in the New Testament to the rock is found in Matthew chapter 16 verse 18. The King James Version reads,

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this is Christ speaking he says quote and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it this verse is a little confusing because in John chapter 1 we learned that Christ changed the Apostle Simon

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And verse 42 says this, and he, and he’s speaking of Andrew, brought him Simon to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jonah, thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone. In most of the New Testament, Simon bar Jonah is not referred to as Cephas, and that’s because he went by the Greek word for rock or stone, which was petros, of which the name Peters derived. This is interesting.

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In 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 6 we read that Christ is the rock, yet here in Matthew chapter 16 verse 18 Christ calls Simon a rock. So we have two rocks. What are we to make of this? Matthew chapter 16 verse 18 is an absolutely critical text to the Catholic Church because they interpret, quote, thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church as Christ’s intention to appoint Peter.

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the leader of his church, which seems a quite valid interpretation, especially when we read what it says in the next verse. In verse 19 it says, and again, this is Christ speaking, quote, and I will give unto thee, Peter, the keys of the kingdom of heaven. So it’s pretty clear here that Christ plans to give Peter the authority to govern his church. So I don’t take any issue with this

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But I do want to suggest that based off of everything we’ve learned in this episode, in the past couple of episodes, is that Christ is talking about much more here than just the appointment of Peter as the head of his church. See, we learned in this episode that the foundation stone serves as the foundation for not just any old thing. It serves as the foundation for a particular building.

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wherever we look in the ancient world the foundation stone is the foundation for the victorious son’s temple his royal temple palace where he can find rest after the battle with the Leviathan so for Christ to say thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church I propose that Christ is talking about two separate rocks it’s clear that the first rock is Peter when Christ says thou art

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He’s saying to Peter, thou art a stone. He’s speaking to Peter’s immovable righteousness, which is why he’ll appoint him as the head of his church. I propose that the second rock mentioned in this verse, Petra, upon this rock, I will build my church, refers to the foundation stone, the foundation stone upon which stands Christ’s royal temple.

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In this interpretation, Peter is a rock and Christ is the rock. As such, Matthew chapter 16 verse 18 could be translated, Peter, thou art a rock. On the foundation stone of my temple, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee, Peter, the keys.

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the power and authority to my temple, my kingdom.

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this is really the only valid interpretation considering all of the evidence we’ve covered over the past couple of episodes. The foundation stone is always the foundation stone for the victorious son’s temple. And this interpretation is further substantiated by the geological features in the area where Christ actually makes this statement. In verse 13,

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We learned that Jesus and the disciples are in Caesarea Philippi. The geology of Caesarea Philippi is interesting because it conforms perfectly to much of the symbolic system that we’ve been talking about over the past several episodes. In Caesarea Philippi stands a mountain, Mount Hermon. At its base is a large, massive rock feature. You can see a picture of it on the webpage for this episode.

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beneath which the waters of the river Jordan flow. All of these are temple motifs. We have a foundation stone upon which a mountain sits beneath which living waters flow. So you should see the Garden of Eden temple sanctuary parallels here. And I propose, and this is clearly conjecture.

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I propose that Christ may have been pointing to the massive rock in Caesarea Philippi when he said, upon this rock, I will build my church, referring to the foundation stone to himself. All of his disciples would have known he was talking about the foundation stone that stood as the foundation of his temple. What really seals the deal though, on this interpretation of Matthew chapter 16 verse 18, is what it actually says in the verse itself.

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And when I’ve read through it, I’ve purposely glazed over a really important phrase. And let me read the whole verse again and see if you can catch it. It reads, and I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Did you catch it? It’s this phrase, and the gates of hell shall not.

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prevail against it. The gates of hell. What does that make you think of? Well, it should make you think of the cosmic plug, the seal of the Tehom or the lid of hell. The ability of the rock, the foundation stone, to seal off the gates of hell. This is perfectly in keeping with what we’ve seen in this episode.

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I mean, think what happened when King David lifted the stone up. Hell broke through. So for Christ to say, upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail. Christ is telling us that he’s going to build his church on the rock, the foundation stone, upon which will sit his royal temple, just like we saw with King Solomon’s temple, and that it’s that stone and that temple.

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that will keep the gates of hell shut.

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In this verse, it is Christ who directly associates the rock with the stopping of the gates of hell. A clear indication that he is speaking of his temple. And let’s not forget that the rock or the foundation stone itself is symbolic. So what does the rock symbolize about the reality of the spiritual realm? Well, it’s not what it symbolizes, but who.

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symbolizes. And as we’ve seen here in Christianity, the foundation stone symbolizes the spiritual power of the victorious son to bind the awful Leviathan. And how does he do this in Christianity? Through his sacrifice. And where are sacrifices made? On an altar. And where did Abraham build an altar? And

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built an altar right on the foundation stone, the stone upon which King Solomon built the Holy of Holies. In other words, in Christianity, Christ performed his atoning sacrifice on the foundation stone in the Holy of Holies in the supernal center of his newly found kingdom. It is that

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that is the firm foundation for his kingdom. It’s for this purpose that the foundation stone is the lid of hell. It’s what has the power to keep locked the gates of hell. Christ’s reference in this verse to the gates of hell here ties everything he says directly to the foundation stone, not to Peter.

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to his temple. Understanding this changes everything we thought we knew about Matthew chapter 16 verse 18 and Christianity itself. From everything we’ve learned in the ancient world and from what’s written in the biblical canon itself, there is no true Christianity without the beloved Son’s temple.

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And we aren’t getting this from secondary or tertiary sources. This comes from Christ’s own words. He’s the one that says, quote, upon this rock, I will build my church. This is the same theology that it’s attested to all over in the ancient record.

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That’s it for me. I’ll leave you with the words of William Shakespeare. Knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. I’m Jack Logan.

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