Developing a Thai Theological and Biblical Understanding of the World: Rethinking Thai Cosmology in Light of Divine Council theology

This article is an attempt to compare and contrast biblical divine council cosmology (Heiser, 2008) with Thai Buddhist cosmology. The Ramakien and the Three Worlds According to King Ruang are the primary cultural narratives of the Thai people. These narratives give us insight into the worldview of the Thai. By comparing the Thai worldview with the biblical worldview, we can see where they intersect and where they are in conflict. The goal of this article is to spark a dialogue for producing a Thai theological and apologetic perspective that takes seriously Thai cultural worldview understandings in light of divine council cosmology and develops new tools for reaching Thai culture with the Gospel.

Sidang Ilahi Elohim Dalam Mazmur 82:1

In the Old Testament Yahweh is frequently called El. The question is raised whether Yahweh was a form of the god El from the beginning or whether they were separate deities who only became equated later. They whom uphold theory Yahweh and El were conceived as separate deities holds that Yahweh was a southern storm god from Seir and so on, which was brought by the Israelites and conflated with the Jerusalem patriarchal deity.On the other side there are scholars who hold and conceived Yahweh and El as one single deity. These scholars defend this position most commonly on the grounds that no distinction between the two can be clearly found in the Hebrew Bible. The methodology used in this paper is literary – historical and social interpretations, with the main method being the "diachronic and dialectical theology of Hegel". The simple Hegelian method is: A (thesis) versus B (anti-thesis) equals C (synthesis). The author analyzes (thesis) by collecting instruments related to ancient Semitic religions; it includes data on El and Yahweh assembly obtained from Hebrew text sources and extra-biblical manuscripts which are then processed in depth. The antithesis is to analyze El's assembly development in Israel – especially in Psalm 82. While the synthesis appears in the nuances of the El’s assembly believe in ancient Israel. The focus of this paper's research is to prove 2 things: first, is Psalm 82: 1, is an Israeli Psalm that uses the patterns and forms of the Canaanite Psalms; especially regarding religious systems that use the terminology of the divine council. Second, to prove that El and Yahweh in the context of this Psalm are two different gods, of which this view contradicts several ANET experts such as Michael S, Heisser who sets El and Yahweh in this text as identical gods. The results of this study attempt to prove that Israel and the Canaan contextually share the same religious system, and are seen to be separated in the Deuteronomist era with their Yahwistic reforms.

El Worship

Chapter Four considers the worship of El, the deity who appears in the name of the eponymous ancestor Israel. Sociologically, the concepts here are those of ancestral traditions, the so-called “God of the Fathers,” and family religion—standing apart from the religion of a centralized state and a hierarchical priestly cult. Each of the various “El” traditions are discussed in detail: El Berith, El Elyon, El Roi, El Olam, El Bethel, and the most famous, El Shadday. Key functions of El traditions are highlighted: El as father, divine kinsman, and benevolent protector as well as El’s role as the head of a mythological divine council. The chapter explores whether El was the original god of Israel, including associations with exodus traditions.

Isaiah 40:1–2: Reading Royal Commission as a Call for Return Migration in the Early Persian Period

This paper offers a new interpretation of Isa 40:1–2 that takes into account the greater rhetorical project of Isa 40–48 as well as evidence of Judean diaspora life from Āl–Yāḫūdu. Rather than a charge to the divine council, the call to comfort Jerusalem is meant to inspire an embedded community of Judeo-Babylonians to return migrate by hailing them as members of Yahweh's royal procession. This new reading gestures towards broader questions of Judean diaspora identity in the 6th century.

Vengeance in the Odyssey: tisis as Narrative

This chapter establishes the importance of revenge in the Odyssey and shows how a narratological analysis of revenge-taking best accounts for the combination of the ideological points from chapter 1 with the literary form of the Odyssey. The manner in which the Odyssey opens—with the mythic paradeigma of Aigisthos—brings tisis to the forefront, as does the final divine council scene. This chapter next shows how the basic ideological framework of tisis analyzed in chapter 1 takes on a narrative structure. Thus, tisis in the Odyssey is defined as a type of narrative. In addition, with a brief survey of the debate about intertextuality and allusion in Homer, this chapter examines how different instances of tisis refer to one another via intratextuality and can evoke irony. Lastly, some distinctive, prominent features of tisis in the Odyssey are considered, such as ἀτασθαλίαι‎, “recklessness.”

Ambiguity in Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice: 4Q400, the First Song

The Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice seem to have been intended for communal worship for a group with a strong priestly identity, but ambiguity of terminology with respect to whether angelic or priestly participation is intended is pervasive throughout the text. This article compares examples of ambiguity in terminology for divine beings in the first Song to lexical equivalents in the Hebrew Bible. This introductory Song, 4Q400, appears to be concerned with the establishment of priests to serve in the holy of holies in a context similar to the ancient mythological Divine Council, but the human requirements of repentance, purification, and holiness appear to be central. In view of the multivalent quality of poetry in general, possible alternate readings to those of Carol Newsom are considered. The cumulative effect of various ambiguous indications in the rest of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice is also taken into account. The possibility that the ambiguity is deliberately employed to create fluidity between godlike beings and participants in the liturgy is discussed. The possible significance of such a conclusion is considered in terms of what purpose a deliberately structured fluidity between angelic beings and sectarians could serve, for instance in terms of Fletcher-Louis’s (2002) suggestion that the “theological anthropology” may have ascribed an angelic or divine identity to the righteous.

Prophetic sensing of Yahweh’s word

This article focuses on Jeremiah 23:18, which implies that the prophet stood in the council of Yahweh (sôd) to see and hear the word of Yahweh. In this verse, it seems that the senses of the prophet played a role in receiving Yahweh’s words. Verse 18 forms part of 23:16–22 in which Jeremiah warned the people of Judah not to listen to prophets who mislead them with optimistic messages. In this article, attention is given to the question whether standing in the council of Yahweh is a deciding criterion for receiving true words from Yahweh. The motif of the divine council is also investigated. An argument is presented that ‘sensing’ should be understood in the double sense of the word, namely sensory experience as well as the intellectual activity of understanding. It is argued that both meanings of the word sensing are necessary to determine the truth of Yahweh’s word.