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Hello everyone and welcome back to the next installment of Yahweh as the Bibles main character, in the Critical Thinking Aloud’s What is the Bible series.
Our goal today is to give us more information to store in our portfolio of the scriptures that we have been building up to use while we study the Bible.
We will be building off the foundation we have already laid in our other installment of this series. If you haven’t had the chance to go over that material yet we suggest you do so first now by click here.
In todays installment we will be looking at the Old Testament’s trinitarian nature of Yahweh as the Bibles main character.
How we are going to learn
Today we will be looking at the topic of the Bibles main characters in light of the ancient Near East. As I have done in the past with other teachings I want to quote from scholarly sources to make my point. I do this in hope that you will see this isn’t just my interpretation of the Scriptures but that this view is steeped in academia.
We will be using two amazing sources which we highly recommend.
- Faithlife Study Bible: This is an amazing resource that is free if you download the app or use it online. To download the app or use this resource online visit their website here. This resource is also available in print which you can purchase here.
- The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible: This is my favorite resource for gaining a better understanding for the ancient Near Eastern worldview of the Biblical authors. This is available in a multitude of variations all of which you can find on our resource page here.
Let’s get started
Ancient Near Eastern Background Pt. 3
Critical Thinking Aloud is dedicated to helping people to realize the value of interpreting the Biblical text in its original ancient Near Eastern context. By doing this we hope to show everyone that this way of studying the scriptures can help us with maintaining a sound biblical theology (the study of who God is).
We often have trouble remembering that the Bible is written for us, but not to us. This distinction may seem small but I can assure you the implication are colossal. Interrupting the scriptures in their ancient Near Eastern context can provide us with information to better discern what the intended meaning the Biblical authors wanted to communicate to us through any given text.
We believe that ultimately God spirit was moving these ancient authors to communicate truth that was not only prevalent in the ancient Near East but when interpreted with in its rightful context is still relevant for us today.
First Quote
With all that said here is a quote from one of our recommend resources to give us some information on the ancient Near Eastern background of the Bible
“The Old Testament contains elements of (orthodox) Israelite theology and worship that New Testament writers would much later recognize as a Godhead- the view that God comprises more than one personage, each of whom is identified as the presence of Yahweh. Israel derived their understanding of the Godhead from their version of the divine council, or pantheon (i.e., God and His heavenly host), and the binitarian (two persons) language used for Yahweh and other figures that the OT writers identify so clearly with Yahweh that they are inseparable, yet distinct.
Israel’s Divine Council: An Overview
The closest parallel to Israel’s (and therefore the OT’s) conception of the assembly of the heavenly host under the authority of Yahweh is the divine council of Ugarit. Practitioners of Ugaritic religion organized the unseen divine world into three (or possible four) tiers. In the top tier dwelled El and his wife Athirat (Asherah). The second tier was the domain of their royal family (‘sons of El’; ‘princes’). One member of this second tier, Baal, served as the coregent of El; despite Baal being under El’s authority, worshipers gave him the title ‘most high.’ The third tier was for the ‘craftsman deities,’ and (perhaps) the fourth and lowest tier was reserved for the messengers (mal’akhim), essentially servants or staff.”
Faithlife Study Bible: in the article- Old Testament Godhead Language
Precedent for a Divine Council
The ancient Near East is the culture in which God saw fit to solidify His love story to Humanity. This culture and their practices were an everyday part of the lives of the biblical authors. That which was known and applied to everyday life in the ancient Near East was a part of the every day routine of the biblical authors.
The cultural practices of the ancient Near East had a profound bearing on the way the biblical authors viewed the world. Clearly there was a precedent for the notion of a heavenly divine council in the ancient Near East which was shared with the followers of Yahweh.
As stated in the quote above the cultures surrounding the ancient Israelites community shared a similar view towards their pantheon as the Israelites did with their view of Yahweh. While both believe in the existence of a divine council in the heavens the conclusions that are drawn from their understanding of the deities are vastly different.
Similarities
All the cultures in the ancient Near East believed in a divine council. The creator god ruled at the top of the council with a dying and rising deity at his right hand who rode on the clouds and controlled the weather. Under their authority are lesser gods, and still under them some more lesser divine beings. Link
While the common shared culture of the ancient Near East produces striking similarities, as we will see the different nations application of worship changes everything.
Differences
While the nations had two separate deities reigning on the top of the council, the ancient Israelites only had one albeit in two forms. The attributes of these two deities remain the same in both the ancient Israelite religion and their surrounding nations, but the ontological conclusions vary.
The Two Powers in Heaven
Yahweh is describe in the Old Testament as possessing two forms, Invisible and Visible. The Invisible form is also known as the Ancient of Days. No one has ever seen Him nor could humans even fathom let alone describe what we had seen if one could withstand seeing God.
Remember Yahweh is Holy which means other. Humans cannot even go into the vicinity of the presence of Yahweh with out being purged, let alone directly handle the fullness of His Glory.
Here is another quote from the above resource
“Since people cannot possible process God’s nature as a disembodied, formless spirit, theophany allows God to make His presence known in a physical way that people can discern through their senses. Theophanies also address the problem in the Old Testament that people cannot withstand direct contact with the unfiltered divine presence (Exod 33:20; compare Deut 5:24; Judg 6:22, 23; 13:22).Theophany both protects people, and allows for contact with God.”
Faithlife Study Bible: in the article Theophany in the Old Testament
Yahwehs Theophany
Since Humans cannot bear the fullness of the invisible Gods glory directly, He has chosen from the beginning to relate to His family through the use of theophanies. Gods theophany can be a cloud of smoke, a burning bush, a strong east wind, in fact there are many forms of Gods theophanies recorded in the Hebrew Bible.
While throughout the Old Testament there may be many different forms of His theophany that God choses to communicate with Humans through, non carry as much significance to modern Christians as Yahwehs theophany of a man.
The invisible Yahweh reveals Himself visibly to Humanity throughout the Old Testament in the form of a man.
The invisible Yahweh revealing Himself visibly to humanity via the man theophany and His Spirit is the foundation of the christian trinitarian theology in the Old Testament.
The Man Theophany of Yahweh
In the divine council of the ancient Near Eastern Israelite neighbors the creator god El reigned uncontested at the top of the council while under him Baal served as a separate but still formable deity know as the most high. This is not the case within the Israelite worldview.
Yahweh reigns uncontested in two forms from the top of His divine council. The invisible Yahweh as well as His visible man theophany reigned together as both the Creator and Most High. The two are one and the same. The man theophany is Yahweh revealed in visible form and Yahweh is revealed in the visible form of the man theophany.
Known by Four Epithets
Yahwehs theophany of a man is a reoccurring motif throughout the Hebrew Bible. By reading the appearances of these motifs separately, you are able to see clearly one aspect of the man theophany in many different passages.
When studied throughout the whole of the Old Testament together as one, a mosaic of Yahwehs man theophany appears to us.
This mosaic of these theophanies illuminates that the invisible Yahweh is revealed to Humanity by four distinct epithets in the form of a man. These Four epithets are the Word of God, The Angel of the Lord, The Name, and The Rider on the Clouds.
In the upcoming weeks on Critical Thinking Aloud we will further study each of these four epithets in detail.
Check out this short video series on Spiritual beings by our friends over at The Bible Project by clicking here. They are amazing and super helpful to better grasp what we will be covering in this series.
Citations:
Faithlife Study Bible. J. D. Barry et al. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2012.
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