xxxvi | Major Background Issues from the Ancient Near East
4 . Revelation and Manifestation of Deities . The gods in the ancient word were generally believed to not be forthcoming — that is , they were not believed to reveal themselves broadly ( with exceptions in responding to divinatory inquiries ). Consequently , one could never be sure exactly what the god expected from people ( except to be pampered ). Whenever something went wrong , people in the ancient world would assume that they had somehow offended a petty deity . Even though the gods did not reveal themselves or their expectation , they did manifest themselves in diverse ways . The sun , moon , planets and stars , for example , were all considered manifestations of various gods . The most important manifestation of the deity was in the image , which was commissioned by the god , manufactured from the finest of materials with the help of the god , and then ritually energized so that the essence of the god took up residence in the image . The image was not the god , but a manifestation of the god , and therefore it was capable of serving as mediator for the presence of the deity , for the care of the deity and for the worship given the deity . The Israelites were to have no such mediators — no man-made image could accomplish such things and Yahweh had no needs to be met through the image .
5 . Spirit world . In the ancient world the reality of spiritual beings extended beyond the gods themselves . Other classes of spirit beings included chaos creatures , demons , servants of the gods , and spirits of deceased humans . These beings were generally not considered to be morally flawed or evil . Sometimes their intrinsic nature just wreaked havoc . Some could serve apotropaic functions whereas others were more inclined to devour . None of this fits in to how we think about demons today as evil fallen angels . The Old Testament lacks demons almost entirely and considers chaos creatures less free of Yahweh ’ s control .
6 . Natural versus Supernatural . Today we are inclined to separate our understanding of events and phenomena into the categories of “ natural ” or “ supernatural ,” the former of these two being the result of natural laws and explainable as natural cause and effect ; the latter being acts of God beyond scientific explanation . In the ancient world there was no such classification system . Nothing would have been considered purely natural with God / the gods uninvolved . They would not speak of miracles ( i . e ., supernatural occurrences ), but rather of signs and wonders that were manifestations of God ’ s power . Israel was very much like the rest of the ancient world in this regard .
7 . Deep Reality . Corresponding to the previous point , in the ancient world people did not circumscribe reality within the category of historical events . Today it is not uncommon for us to think that reality is defined by events : we ask ourselves , “ Did it really happen ?” In the ancient world people considered events as a small slice of a reality that transcended events of history . What we call their mythology was more real to them than their history . When ancient people talked about events , they often found the most significant reality in what God / the gods had done , not in what people had done . We misunderstand when we think of mythology as made-up stories about gods that did not exist and therefore treat them as fairy tales . Ancient Israel ’ s thinking was very similar to the ancient world in this regard .
8 . Creation and Order . Since we modern readers tend to be materially focused , when we think of creation and origins we think in material terms . In the ancient world people were much more inclined to think of creation not so much as manufacturing the material cosmos , but of establishing order in the cosmos and making it function with a particular purpose in mind . Gods were the source of order ; wisdom was the pursuit of order ; creation was the establishment of order . Israelites would have thought about the cosmos and God ’ s creative work in similar terms , but , of course , Yahweh was the Creator .
9 . Religion and Magic . Religion and magic were not different categories in the ancient world and it is not possible to separate them from one another . Magic entailed the exercise of power ( in spells , hexes , exorcisms , sorcery , necromancy , etc .) but operated primarily on the power associated with the name of a person and the name
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