ReligionForBreakfast
Coptic: The Final Ancient Egyptian Language
updated
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In Genesis 14, a priestly king named Melchizedek randomly appears and gives bread and wine to the patriarch Abraham. And then...he's never mentioned again in the story. Who is this mysterious man?
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Special thanks to the writer of this episode Paul Davidson. Check out his blog "Is that in the Bible?": isthatinthebible.wordpress.com
Bibliography:
Christian Bull, "The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus," 2014.
M. David Litwa, "Hermetica II: The Excerpts of Stobaeus," 2018.
Wouter Hanegraaff, "Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism," 2006.
00:00 Intro
1:39 Hermetica explained
6:01 Hermetic and Platonic Cosmogony
10:09 Fate and the Hermetic Human Condition
12:08 Ascension, the Way of Hermes, and Rebirth
19:30 Was Hermetism a Religion?
24:48 I included a bonus section about baboons in the Nebula version of this vid
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00:00 Setting the parameters of the question
3:01 Which languages are being translated?
3:58 How manuscript traditions affect translation
13:20 Translation philosophy
21:31 Case Study: NRSV
29:12 Case Study: ESV
33:54 Case Study: NIV
38:15 Case Study: NAB
42:29 Case Study: JPS Tanakh
48:20 Case Study: KJV
51:48 Conclusion
Production Team:
Producers: Andrew Aghapour, Andrew Henry
Writers: Will Gervais
Consultant Scholar: Hugh Turpin
Editor: Lachlan Davis
Production Assistant: Casey A'Hearn
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Scholars have identified the primary reason why theists become atheists: Credibility Enhancing Displays, or CREDs for short. CREDs are behaviors that people use to demonstrate their genuine commitment to a belief, value, or principle. These displays make the beliefs seem more credible and trustworthy to others, thereby enhancing the likelihood that observers will adopt similar beliefs or practices. Basically, if your co-religionists are not "practicing what they preach," there is a higher likelihood a theist will become an atheist.
This video was made possible through the support of Grant 61928 from the John Templeton Foundation managed by The Queen’s University of Belfast. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation or The Queen’s University of Belfast.
00:00 Is rationality a cause of atheism?
4:06 The Three Other Pathways to Atheism
4:51 Mentalizing
6:39 Motivation / Apatheism
8:29 inCREDulous Atheism
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What is New Age Spirituality? To understand the movement, we need to explore four historical streams that combined in the 1960s and 70s: Western Esotericism, New Thought, the 60s Counterculture, and the adaptation of Asian religions in a western context.
00:00 What is the New Age?
3:58 Western Esotericism and the Dawn of a New Age
8:18 New Thought and Mind-Body Health Practices
12:23 The Counterculture and Detraditionalization
16:57 Americanization of Eastern Religions
19:33 The Mainstreaming of the New Age
24:04 Sponsor
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00:00 Mitre introduced
1:12 The earliest mitre and its evolution
2:29 The Horns of Moses
6:08 The side-horned mitre in passion plays
7:37 The mitre in anti-Catholic propaganda
8:45 Nebula!
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While the Bible or the Quran can fit into a single volume, the Daoist canon of scriptures contains around 1,500 texts. It is huge. So what is the Daoist canon all about? How did it form?
00:00 Basic overview
3:58 History of the Daozang
9:05 Daozang's role in Daoism
14:20 Register for our Daoism class!
This video was made possible through the support of Grant 61928 from the John Templeton Foundation managed by The Queen’s University of Belfast. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation or The Queen’s University of Belfast.
Production Team:
Producers: Andrew Aghapour, Andrew Henry
Writers: Rachel Carbonara, Andrew Henry, Evan Stewart
Consultant Scholar: Hugh Turpin
Editor: Lachlan Davis
Production Assistant: Casey A'Hearn
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00:00 Intro
1:25 Complicating the basic definition
6:20 Diversity of atheism and nonreligion
8:03 Atheism as a worldview and identity
11:59 More on Atheism as a social identity
15:34 Patreon plug
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00:00 Introduction
2:11 Sumerian Flood Story
3:47 Atrahasis Epic
5:12 Epic of Gilgamesh
6:58 Genesis and Noah's Flood
8:58 Comparing the Arks
15:47 Comparing Major Themes
20:42 Sponsor: 80,000 Hours
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00:00 Intro + Text Overview
3:38 Head-coverings in the Roman World
7:07 The Social Significance of the Head-covering
11:11 Paul and Roman Religion
14:56 Ritual Impropriety and Angels
17:35 Hair as Sex Organs...yeah you read that right
18:51 The Hair-Style Theory
22:09 Theory and Method: People Selectively Interpret Sacred Texts
24:43 Nebula is awesome, truly honored to be a Nebula creator
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The Shakers are an apocalyptic offshoot of the Quakers. They believed that their leader, Ann Lee, was Christ incarnate.
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Host: Andrew Henry, PhD
Managing Editor: Andrew Aghapour, PhD
Writer: Matthew Hotham, PhD
Production Assistant: Casey A'Hearn
Special thanks to Filip Holm for reading an early draft of the script! Check out his channel at @LetsTalkReligion
The Kaaba is the most sacred site in Islam. Located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, it's the focal point for millions of Muslims worldwide both for the annual Hajj pilgrimage and the direction Muslims face during daily prayers.
00:00 The Basics
4:02 A Tour around the Kaaba
7:30 History of the Kaaba
10:49 Muhammad and the Kaaba
13:30 Qibla Explored in Depth
14:48 Qibla in Spaaaaace
16:28 Sponsor
The Amish appear a lot in pop culture, but they're also frequently misrepresented and mythologized. So what do the Amish actually believe and practice?
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00:00 Introduction
00:54 Basic Overview
3:16 Origins of the Amish
8:49 Amish "Order," The Ordnung
9:35 The Amish and Technology
11:43 The Amish and Public Life
14:47 Amish Culture and Rumspringa
16:46 Amish Religious Practice
17:29 High-Commitment Communities
18:36 The Amish, Pop Culture, and "Bonnet Rippers"
23:06 Sponsor
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The Parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the most famous parables of Jesus. But people have been misinterpreting it for centuries.
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00:00 The Traditional Interpretation
2:16 Intro to Samaritan Israelites
3:20 Ethnic Hostility is Exaggerated
5:44 Evidence from the Mishnah
9:13 Samaritan Woman at the Well
11:45 Addressing the Polemicists
14:20 Race-Science and the Traditional Interpretation
16:55 Rethinking Luke 10
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Vesak is celebrated by millions of Buddhists around the world. A day commemorating the birth, awakening, and death of the Buddha. Special thanks to @gunnertravel for his Singapore footage!
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00:00 Intro
2:08 Unknown Historical Origins of Vesak
3:10 Vesak Rituals and Practices
6:06 Buddhist Modernism and Vesak
9:57 Growth of Vesak
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Greece is very far away from the heartland of early Buddhism in India and parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. But thanks to Alexander the Great, Hellenistic and Buddhist cultures came into contact in the 4th century BCE, creating a cultural synthesis known as Greco-Buddhism.
00:00 A Greco-Bactrian Buddhist Inscription
1:41 The Hellenistic "Far East"
4:10 Pyrrho: A Buddhist for Greece?
7:42 Ashoka and his Dharma Conquest
10:23 King Menander: The Most Famous Greek Buddhist
13:26 Greco-Buddhist Art of Gandhara
15:23 Syncretism?
16:44 Nebula! Indie creators being awesome
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Jesús Malverde is a Catholic folk saint particularly popular in Mexico. He has a bad reputation of being a "narcosaint." But is it an unfair stereotype?
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Mazu is a Chinese goddess particularly popular in Taiwan and the southeastern provinces of China. But she's also arguably the most popular Chinese goddess around the world, worshipped in 20 different countries around the world.
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How would Jesus vote on political issues today? It's an impossible question to answer, but how you answer the question probably depends on your own political ideology.
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Solar eclipses are cool, but for most of human history in many religions, they were viewed as extremely dangerous.
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Bibliography:
Lange and McLeish, "Eclipse and Revelation: Total Solar Eclipses in Science, History, Literature, and the Arts," Oxford University Press: 2024.
Littmann, Espenak, Willcox, "Totality: Eclipses of the Sun," 3rd edition, 2009.
Dowd and Milbrath, "Cosmology, Calendars, and Horizon-Based Astronomy in Ancient Mesoamerica," University of Colorado: 2015.
Milbrath, "Eclipse Imagery in Mexica Sculpture of Central Mexico," Vistas in Astronomy, Vol. 39, 479-502: 1995.
Emil Khalisi, "Eclipses in the Aztec Codices," 2020.
Ross, "Eclipses and the Precipitation of Conflict: Deciphering the Signal to Attack," in The Religious Aspects of War in the Ancient Near East, Greece, and Rome." 2016.
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The vast majority of Christians recognize The Church of the Holy Sepulchre as the authentic tomb of Jesus. But starting in the mid-1800s, Protestant Christians started to argue that an alternate tomb, outside the walls of Jerusalem, was the REAL tomb of Jesus.
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Special thanks to @zahishaked for his footage of the Tomb of Annas. He's a tour guide in Israel. Check out his channel here: youtube.com/@zahishaked
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Go read Dr. Mark Goodacre's original article!: "How Empty Was the Tomb?" Journal for the Study of the New Testament," Volume 44, Issue 1, 2021.
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"Avatar" became a household word in the 2000s with Avatar: The Last Airbender and James Cameron's movie series Avatar. But what is an avatar? The idea actually derives from Hinduism.
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Bibliography:
-Barbara Holdrege, Bhakti and Embodiment, 2015.
-Couture, André, “Avatāra”, in: Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism Online, Editor-in-Chief Associate Editors Knut A. Jacobsen, Helene Basu, Angelika Malinar, Vasudha Narayanan. Consulted online on 02 February 2024
-Couture, André, “Viṣṇu”, in: Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism Online, Editor-in-Chief Associate Editors Knut A. Jacobsen, Helene Basu, Angelika Malinar, Vasudha Narayanan. Consulted online on 02 February 2024
-Couture, André, “From Vishnu’s Deeds to Vishnu’s Play,” Journal of Indian Philosophy, June 2001.
-Simon Brodbeck, Divine Descent of the Four World-Ages in the Mahabharata, 2022.
Noel Sheth, “Hindu Avatar and Christian Incarnation: A Comparison,” Philosophy East and West, Vol. 52, No. 1 (Jan 2002). 98 - 125.
-Lochtefeld, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Volume 2, N-Z, 2002.
-Gitagovinda of Jayadeva, editor and translator Barbara Stoler Miller. (Columbia University Press: 1977)
-Tracy Coleman, Avatara, Oxford Bibliographies Online, 2018.
-Cush et. al., Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Routledge: 2008.
-Kinnard, “When is the Buddha Not the Buddha? The Hindu/Buddhist Battle over Bodhgaya and Its Buddha Image,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 66/4.
-Freda Matchett, Krsna: Lord or Avatara?, (Routledge: 2001).
-Devadatta Kali, In Praise of the Goddess: The Devimahatmya and Its Meaning, (Nicolas-Hays, Inc.: 2003).
-Suvira Jaiswal, The Origin and Development of Vaisnavism,1981.
00:00 The rise of "avatar"
1:21 Avatar = Divine Descent
4:35 Vishnu and his avataras
9:20 Avataras outside Vaishnavism
11:16 How avatar was adopted in English
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The number seven appears everywhere in the Bible...and a bunch of religious traditions too. Why is the number seven sacred?
Bibliography:
Arvid Kapelrud, "The Number Seven in Ugaritic Texts," Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 18 (Oct 1968), 494-499.
Denise Flanders, "The Rhetorical Use of Numbers in the Deuteronomistic History," 2022.
Denise Flanders, "Saul has Killed His Thousands, David His Ten Thousands," dissertation, 2019.
James Pritchard (ed.), "Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament," Third Edition with Supplement, 1969
R.A. Kraft, "Philo's Treatment of the Number Seven in On Creation," in "Exploring the Scripturesque, (2009), p. 217-236.
Botterweck et. all. (ed.), "Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament," Vol. 14.
Laki, "On the Origin of the Sexagesimal Sytem," Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, Vol. 59, No 1/3 (Jan - March 1969).
Kazuo Muroi, "The Origin of the Mystical Number Seven in Mesopotamian Culture"
Adela Harbro Collins, "Cosmology and eschatology in jewish and Christian Apocalypticism," 1966.
Bendt Alster, "Early Dynastic Proverbs and other Contributions to the Study of Literary Texts from Abu Salabikh," Archiv für Orientforschunb (1991/1992), 1 - 51.
Leonid Zhmud, "From Number Symbolism to Arithmology," Zahlen- und Buchstabensysteme im Dienste religiöser Bildung. L. Schimmelpfennig (ed.).Tübingen: Seraphim, 2019. P. 25-45.
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00:00 Why so many 7s?
00:24 Near Eastern Context
5:03 Later Development of Sacred 7
5:59 Cross-cultural phenomenon?
7:18 Origin theories
10:46 Patreon
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Bibliography:
Birgitte Bøgh, "Beyond Nock: From Adhesion to Conversion in the Mystery Cults," History of Religions, Vol. 54, No. 3 (Feb 2015), 260-287.
John Kloppenborg, "Rethinking Nock on Conversion," in "Celebrating Arthur Darby Nock," 2021.
Giulia Gasparro, "The Hellenistic face of Isis: Cosmic and Saviour Goddess," in "Nile into Tiber" edited by Bricault et. al. 2007.
Molly Swetnam-Burland, "Egyptian objects, Roman contexts: A taste for aegyptiaca in Italy," in "Nile into Tiber" edited by Bricault et. al. 2007.
Jaime Alvar, "Romanising Oriental Gods," Brill: 2008.
Jan Bremmer, "Initiation into the Mysteries of the Ancient World," De Gruyter: 2014.
00:00 Intro
1:14 Goddess Isis in Egypt
2:30 Intro to Mystery Cults
4:24 The Mystery Cult of Isis
6:08 Isis: A Cosmic and Savior God
8:55 Isaic Rituals
12:45 Conversion and Mystery Cults
16:17 Patreon Pitch
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Bibliography:
Dušan Boric, "Theater of Predation: Beneath the Skin of Göbekli Tepe Images," 2013
Oliver Dietrich, "Shamanism at Early Neolithic Göbekli Tepe," Praehistorische Zeitschrift, 2023.
O. Dietrich, Notroff, Walter, and L. Dietrich, "Markers of 'Psycho-Cultural' Change," in "Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology Psychology in Prehistory," 2020.
Anne Porter, "Beer, Beasts, and Bodies: Shedding Boundaries in Bounded Spaces," Routledge Companion to Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient World, 2021.
Gesualdo Busacca, "Places of Encounter," 2017.
Anna Fagan, "Hungry Architecture," dainst.blog, Dec 18, 2017.
Nerissa Russell and Kevin McGowan, "Dance of the Cranes: Crane Symbolism at Çatalhöyük and beyond," 2003.
Hodder and Meskell, "A Curious and Sometimes a Trifle Macabre Artistry," Current Anthropology, Vol. 52, No. 2 (April 2011).
00:00 Introduction
1:39 Animal iconography overview
4:00 Animism Explained
6:59 Neolithic Animal Personhood
11:00 Predatory, Male, Aggressive Iconography
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The Nephilim are a mysterious group of beings mentioned in the book of Genesis. But who were they thought to be? Giants? Fallen angels?
Bibliography:
-Loren T. Stuckenbruck, The Myth of Rebellious Angels: Studies in Second Temple Judaism and New Testament Texts (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2017).
-Adrienne Mayor, The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2023).
-Wojciech Kosior, “The Fallen (Or) Giants? The Gigantic Qualities of the Nefilim in the Hebrew Bible,” in Magdalena Waligórska and Tara Kohn, eds., Jewish Translation, Translating Jewishness (Boston: De Gruyter, 2018).
-Ronald Hendel, The Landscape of Memory: Giants and the Conquest of Canaan,” "From the book Collective Memory and Collective Identity."
-Ronald Hendel, "The Nephilim were on the Earth," in The Fall of the Angels, pages 11-34.
-Robin Routledge, "The Nephilim: A Tall Story?" Tyndale Bulletin 66.1 (2015), 19-40.
-Annette Yoshiko Reed, "Fallen Angels and the History of Judaism and Christianity: The Reception of Enochic Literature," 2005.
00:00 Introduction
1:31 Ancient Context of Genesis 6
4:00 Ancient Canaanite Giants?
7:18 The Hellenistic Interpretation of Nephilim
9:00 Fallen Angel Interpretation
10:30 Rabbinic Jewish and later Christian Interpretations
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Jesus's birth in Bethlehem is a well-known story from the New Testament. But he is also called Jesus of Nazareth. What gives? Was he actually born in Nazareth?
Bibliography:
Rodolfo Galvan Estrada, "Was Jesus Really Born in Bethlehem? The Gospels Disagree," The Daily Beast, Dec. 25, 2020.
Raymond Brown, "The Birth of the Messiah," 1977.
E.P. Sanders, "The Historical Figure of Jesus," 1995.
Geza Vermes, "The Nativity: History and Legend," 2006.
Sabine Huebner, "Papyri and the Social World of the New Testament," 2019.
Helen K. Bond, "The Nativity" on Bible Odyssey: bibleodyssey.org/articles/the-nativity
Michael Bird, "Bethlehem," on BIble Odyssey: davidson.bibleodyssey.org/articles/bethlehem
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00:00 Overview of Nativity Stories
3:13 Evidence for Nazareth
5:52 Evidence Undermining Matthew and Luke
8:54 Counterarguments
11:45 Countering the Counterarguments
13:18 Conclusion
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It's often alleged that the Christmas tree originated from some sort of pagan practice. But the evidence points to a much later date during the Medieval period in Europe.
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Bibliography:
László Lukács, Geschichte und Verbreitung des Christbaumes in Europa (PhD dissertation)
László Lukács, “Christbaum der Irrungen,” Ungarn-Jahrbuch 32 (2014/2016)
László Lukács, “Der Christbaum in den oberrheinischen Städten des 16./17. Jahrhunderts,” Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 2/2014.
Timothy Larson (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Christmas, (Oxford University Press, 2020),
David Bertaina, “Trees and Decorations,” in Joe Perry, Christmas in Germany: A Cultural History, (UNC CHapel Hill Press, 2010), 265 - 276.
Peter Gainsford, “Concerning Yule,” December 18, 2018, http://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2018/12/concerning-yule.html
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Diwali, also known as Deepavali, is the festival of lights. It is celebrated mostly by Hindus, but many Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists recognize Diwali as well. The festival symbolizes the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.
00:00 The Basics: When and what?
2:49 Day 1: Dhanteras
3:18 Day 2: Choti Diwali / Naraka Chaturdashi
4:17 Day 3: Lakshmi Puja
5:44 Day 4: Govardhan Puja / Annakut / Bali Pratipada
7:37 Day 5: Bhai Dooj
7:47 Diversity of Practice
9:49 Diwali Outside of Hinduism
10:26 Origins and Mythological Narratives
12:35 Diwali Outside of India
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Baseball players do a lot of rituals...and anthropologists of religion have noticed. Some call it superstition, but are there other reasons why athletes might ritualize so many of their behaviors?
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Bibliography:
George Gmelch, "Baseball Magic," Society 8(8) June 1971
Michael Jackson, "Existential Anthropology," 2005.
Xygalatas, "Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living," 2022.
Stanley Tambiah, "The Magical Power of Words," Man, New Series, Vol. 3, No 2 (Jun., 1968), 175-208
Stanley Tambiah, "Form and Meaning of Magical Acts: A Point of View,"
00:00
2:08 Malinowski's uncertainty theory of magic
4:13 Pre-Performance Routines
8:06 Empirical Studies of Sports Magic
11:35 Is it Superstition?
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According to medieval Jewish folklore, Lilith is a demon who was Adam's first wife before Eve. But where did this idea come from? Dive into the 4,000-year-long history of Lilith, the terrifying demoness.
00:00 Intro
1:00 Mesopotamian Origins: lilu-demons
4:15 Named Mesopotamian demonesses
6:04 Lilith in the Hebrew Bible
8:24 Lilith in 2nd Temple and Rabbinic Judaism
12:12 Adam's First Wife?
14:51 Lilith in Kabbalah
15:22 The Lilith 'rebrand'
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The Third Book of Enoch claims to be the account of a mystical vision of Heaven. Notably, it portrays Enoch transforming into the 2nd most powerful being in the universe: the Archangel Metatron.
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Most scholars agree Jesus had a brother named James. But a bunch of ancient Christians thought he had another brother. An identical twin brother: Judas Didymus Thomas. Where did this belief come from? And what was its significance?
Bibliography:
Gregory Riley, "Didymos Judas Thomas: The Twin Brother of Jesus," in Kimberley Patton (ed.), "Gemini and the Sacred: Twins and Twinship in Religion and Mythology," Bloomsbury Academic, 2023.
M. David Litwa, “I Will Become Him”: Homology and Deification in the Gospel of Thomas, Journal of Biblical Literature, SBL Volume 134, Number 2, 2015. pp. 427-447
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Almost every time the Bible mentions dogs, they are mentioned in a negative light. Does the Bible hate dogs?
Sources:
Sapir-Hen and Fulton, "A DOG’S LIFE IN THE IRON AGE OF THE SOUTHERN LEVANT: CONNECTING THE TEXTUAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE, "Oxford Journal of Archaeology, March 2023.
Sophia Menache, “Dogs: God's Worst Enemies?” Society and Animals 5 (1):23-44 (1997)
Sophia Menache, “Netherworld envoy or man’s best friend? Attitudes toward dogs in the ancient world.” In G. Marvin and S. Mchugh (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Human-Animal Studies (London), 132–41.
Ackerman-Lieberman and Zalashik, A Jew’s Best Friend?: The Image of the Dog throughout Jewish History, Sussex Academic Press, 2014.
Lev-Tov, Killebrew, Greenfield, Brown, “Puppy Sacrifice and Cynophagy from Early Philistine Tel Miqne-Ekron Contextualized,” Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology & Heritage Studies , Vol. 6, No. 1-2 (2018), pp. 1-30
Billie Jean Collins, “The Puppy in Hittite Ritual,” The Oriental Institute, News & Notes, No. 136 Winter 1992.
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