Isn’t Yahweh supposed to be the supreme Being? The one true creator? Why would he address an assembly of angels as though they were equals? If this isn’t a slip up which would suggest a pantheon of gods, rather than a sole creator of humanity then why is this the only instance in the Bible where Yahweh refers to the Holy Trinity. The rest of the time he says “I” I am a jealous god etc.Why would you think that is a ‘slip up?’ As a Christian, I see that from a trinitarian perspective. At least the Logos was involved in the creation. I have also heard non-Christian interpretations, such as God addressing the divine council or angels in the royal plural.
The dead sea scrolls are nowhere near as old as the cuneiform clay tablets found in mesopotamia. And none of the cuneiform tablets reveal anything about Yahweh at all. There is no mention of him until the Dead Sea Scrolls.We should also consider that the Biblical authors and readers knew what knowledge was floating around about the spirit-world and the Mesopotamian interpretations of it. There other other elim or elohim mentioned in the Bible besides the creator. There is also the term b’nei Elohim, the ‘sons of God.’ The dead sea scrolls (c.f. LXX) manuscripts of Deuteronomy 32 say the LORD divided the nations according to the number of the sons of God. That may refer to YHWH giving these spiritual entities guardianship over other nations besides Israel, and retaining Israel as an inheritance/portion, at least for a time. Though in Psalm 82, God judges the elohim for their not doing justice and decrees that He will inherit the nations. He also offers the nations to the Messiah.
“The Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient manuscripts that were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves near Khirbet Qumran, on the northwestern shores of the Dead Sea. They are approximately two thousand years old, dating from the third century BCE to the first century CE.”
So two thousand years old. When compared to the dating of cuneiform clay tablets:
“The oldest tablets in the collection date from the reign of Gudea of Lagash, from 2144–2124 B.C. That makes them more than 4,200 years old.”
They are older. And they are stories told by the first civilization of humans about a pantheon of gods and goddesses who descended from the heavens in their flying crafts. The Annunaki “Those who from Heaven came down”
It’s curious how none of these beings ever mentioned Yahweh during their interactions with humanity. In fact, if anything, it was their king who despised humanity and thought they were undeserving of ascending to the level of godhood. This is shown in the King Anu’s interaction with the human sage Adapa, whom Enki (the serpent) had taught the secrets of heaven and earth.
If you are going to say these texts are falsehoods and have no credibility then I would have to ask the question well how do you know the dead sea scrolls and the Bible itself isn’t a falsehood also? In comparison we have the same story of the Annunaki being told globally, but interpreted differently by different cultures, against a single book written by the Jews.
I recall reading in a book by Don Richardson about how various cultures and peoples actually have a concept of the Most High God, even if they worship other entities. There was one, the Karen in Bhurma, I think, that believed that God named Yawa created man and woman and put them in a garden, and they sinned. Based on the words of their prophet or prophets, they were waiting for a white an with a black book to tell them how to be reconciled with the Most High God, while they wore bracelets on their wrists to indicate that they were in bondage to the gnats/demons. There was eventually a mass conversion of the people group when they encountered the son of a blond Swedish missionary couple. One of their prophets told his disciples to follow a donkey to find the man they had been waiting for. It stopped at a hole in the ground. Out popped a blond Swede who was digging a well.
Yes, most cultures have a supreme Being they recognise as an intelligent creator. In a lot of cases they recognised the existence of such an entity as well as other godlike beings who also helped humanity cultivate civilisation.
In Hindu for example they recognise Brahman as the supreme creator and we are all part of Brahman’s dream. We are the Atman, individuated units of consciousness from the supreme source.
Even the hermetics of the West had the concept of the All. Which is the same thing as Brahman really. So the Ancient cultures of both the west and the east had this idea of a fundamental consciousness which serves as the fundamental basis of all creation.
Even though the East and the West had these ideas about Brahman/All they still had other deities who were themselves part of the creation. Such as Shiva in Hinduism or Hermes Trismegistus (who is the inspiration and kind of the founder of Hermetic philosophy) in the West.
I think Yahweh was an extraterrestrial visitor the same as Hermes and Shiva. Though I think he was a conservative god who opposed the spiritual development of humanity with the "forbidden knowledge" shared by Enki, the divine serpent.
Yes, I imagine because as King of the Annunaki (Yahweh is synonymous with Anu in Sumerian mythology) Yahweh has very conservative views on mixing Annunaki DNA with what he describes as "unworthy humans". Which served as a pretext to his initiation of the Biblical flood. And the Bible is Yahweh's interpretation of events.Back to the Bible, the Deuteronomy 6 passage and other passages indicate the sons of God cohabitating with human women was a bad thing. A lot of the Mesopotamian literature, and Greek also, present it in a positive light—Gilgamesh, for example, or Hercules.
I will watch the interview when I get chance and let you know what I think when I have done so. Been really busy with work and my daughter so I don't get as much free time to invest into the forum.You might be interested in reading or watching material from Michael Heiser. He’s an author—both Ancient Near East/Old Testament type studies, and also alien-science fiction. He goes to ancient alien type conferences. But he has a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. So he has studied a lot of this Mesopotamian literature, along with Biblical and intertestamental literature, and he focuses on some of the same things you are discussing. Here is an ]interviewwith him I found with a quick search: [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJt-vJr6Sog.[/youtube] I seem to recall his saying that Ancient Aliens did a ‘hit job’ on him once, so he may have been in a clip on that show, presented in a negative light. He has shown some flaws in one of their author’s arguments, from a scholarly perspective, so maybe they don’t like him for that reason. Ancient Aliens is an entertainment show, after all, rather than a scholarly type show.
I haven’t watched that much of it. Just enough to turn me off. It’s a conspiracy theory style approach to the topic... huge irrational leaps and conclusions. I don’t care for it. You can look at the debunking video for an example illustrating some of the problems with the approach the show takes.
I haven't seen Ancient Aliens defame anyone on the show. But I won't defend the show anyway. I think the show does have some good information when it talks about ancient cultures and megalithic structures, but sometimes they do make speculative statements or episodes about unrelated stuff about Big Foot for example. Overall though I think the show is pretty decent, even if it is dismissed as pseudo scientific nonsense.
Because I think we are spiritual beings ourselves. We have both a physical body and more subtle astral bodies which occupy different layers of reality. I've experienced such a thing during psychedelic experiences with psilocybin mushrooms. I've had philosophical revelations which I had no idea about previously and then read about in Hermetic philosophy afterwards.I don’t see any reason to think that entities from the spirit-realm are actually little physical green reptile men, or giant eyeballs with tenticals, or bug eyed humanoids with no nose, that travel across the universe in a saucer-shaped space ship. If a physicist can conceptualize of a ship bending space in front of it (wow, a physicist could describe warp drive) that does not mean there is evidence that this can or does happen, or that technology to do such a thing exists. If it did, that wouldn’t mean that spiritual entities that interact with people in non-physical ways are actually fleshly beings on a distant planet that travel here in rocketships or in flying saucers.
As I mentioned before, researchers who have researched UFO phenomenon find it to be an occulting phenomenon. Two agnostic scientists decades ago, one of whom did a report for Congress, basically determined that the accounts of interactions with UFOs were similar to if not identical to accounts of encounters with demons. Dr. Hugh Ross, an astrophysicist who has interviewed those who experienced UFO type phenomenon found that how intense their encounters were corresponded with their involvement in the occult. The vast majority are explained by simple phenomenon like viewing the planet Venus at certain times, weather balloons and such. Of those that cannot be explained that way, dabblers in the occult see lights in the sky. Those more intensely involved in the occult might see the ship, or see aliens, or talk to aliens get abducted and such. The more intense experiences happen to those more intensely involved in the occult.
If you acknowledge there is spiritual, occult, etc. Phenomenon, why bring space ships into the explanation in the first place?
If we are spiritual beings, then why would the same not apply to other beings occupying distant regions of the cosmos? Beings like Shiva/Enki/Prometheus and Yahweh/Anu/Cronus/Saturn I believe are from a highly advanced race both technologically and spiritually.
There are clues throughout various different cultures about the "forbidden knowledge" and the "fire of the gods" shared with humanity by one god (Enki/Prometheus) against the will of the gods of the "heavens"
Then there is the work of Thoth in Egyptian mythology which serves as the foundation for Hermetic philosophy and we come full circle back to my psychedelic experiences. Interestingly as a side note, there is supposedly text in the Emerald Tablets of Thoth which suggest he had a hand in the construction of the pyramids. I would have to find this text for myself though and share afterwards.
Why do you think such beings cannot exist? The cosmos is a massive place! And our understanding of physics is pretty basic. There are a lot of experiments in quantum physics which our physicists just can't understand. The double slit experiment for example where particles change states depending on whether or not they're observed.
Then there is the fact that certain parts of the cosmos are older than others. So all it takes really is a solar system older than ours, with a species older than ours by millenia. A few million years head start on humanity plus a comprehensive understanding of quantum physics and it is more than feasible for the Ancient Astronaut Hypothesis to hold merit. And that's just if we consider the material side of things.
As for the spiritual side of things, advanced godlike beings who have an advanced understanding of the nature of reality would inherently know how to bend space and time to their will.
Such intelligent and advanced beings would have no problem with the construction of the pyramids of giza. This is much more believable than a couple of enthusiastic Egyptians with oxen and rollers building the pyramids. It still hasn't been established what they were even for. There is no evidence to suggest they were designed as tombs. That is merely conjecture.
Yeah. I think they are both physical alien types and spiritual beings at the same time. Why do the two things have to be mutually exclusive?Ross also found that technological displays kept pace with the current understanding/mythology, etc. In the early part of the 20th century, their ships could go slightly faster than our blimp-type craft and they claimed to be on the back side of the moon. Scientists now consider aliens on the back side of the moon not to be feasible, so now they are from far away, and their craft are faster than our jets. Explanations fit our current technological theories. It makes sense that they may be spiritual beings pretending to be physical alien type beings.
I'll reply to the rest of your messages when I get chance, MrMan. Just a bit busy.