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  • Writer's pictureMandella Green

Temple of the Gentiles--The Hero's Journey

Updated: Jan 13, 2022


The picture above is from Donald Parry, Temples of the Ancient World: Ritual and Symbolism, Deseret Book, 1994. Here is a link to the picture:


Cosmic War/the Heavenly battle: Mullen, The Assembly of the Gods: The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature (Harvard Semitic Monographs #24). “Melchizedek, Michael, and War in Heaven,” Society of Biblical Literature, 1996 Seminar Papers.

The Chaos Dragon: Bernard Batto, Slaying the Dragon: Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition, p. 73-101. John Day, God’s Conflict with the Dragon and the Sea: Echoes of a Canaanite Myth in the Old Testament, Cambridge University Press, 1985. Michael Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible, Lexham Press, 2015. See Heiser’s other work: Reversing Hermon: Enoch, the Watchers, and the Forgotten mission of Jesus Christ, Defender Publishing, 2017.

The Threshing Floor: Jaime L. Waters, Threshing Floors as Sacred Spaces in the Hebrew Bible, Johns Hopkins University, August 2013.

Books on early Israelite religion / enthronement and the idea of Yahweh (or other ANE gods) as king at the yearly temple ceremonies: Ackerman, Susan. Under Every Green Tree: Popular Religion in Sixth-Century Judah: Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992 LeGrand Baker and Stephen Ricks, Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord?: The Psalms in Israel's Temple Worship In the Old Testament and In the Book of Mormon, Eborn Books, 2010. J. H. Eaton, Festal Drama in Deutero-Isaiah, Camelot Press, 1979. Henri Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods: A Study of Ancient Near Eastern Religion as the Integration of Society and Nature, Oriental Institute, 1978. Sigmund Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel’s Worship, Eerdmans, 2004. Stephen Ricks, “Liturgy and Cosmogony: The Ritual Use of Creation Accounts in the Near East,” as found in Temples of the Ancient World, ed. Donald Parry. Keith W, Whitelam, “Israelite Kingship: The Royal Ideology and Its Opponents,” in R. E, Clements, ed” The World of Ancient Israel, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, 130. See also Daniel Elazar, “Dealing with Fundamental Regime Change,” in Jacob Neusner, ed” From Ancient Israel to Modern Judaism: Essays in Honor of Marvin Fox, Atlanta, GA: Scholars, 1989, 105-6.

The Victory Celebration: One author writes: “On the seventh day of Sukkot, the procession would circle the altar seven times. At the conclusion, the participants would cry out: ‘Thine O Altar is the beauty! Thine O Altar is the beauty!’” See: Hayim Halevy Donin, “Hoshana Rabba,” in Sukkot (New York–Paris: Leon Amiel Publisher, 1974), 69. As enumerated in the Mishnah (Suk. iv. 1), the features of the feast are the following: the lulab, the willow-branch, the “Hallel” (Psalms 113–118), the rejoicing, the sukkah, the libation of water, and the flute-playing or the festivity connected with the libation of water on the second evening of the feast (“simḥat bet ha-sho’ebah“)… During the chanting of Psalm 118.1, 25, 29 it was waved. Willow-branches gathered daily from a place called Moẓa or Colonia were used to adorn the altar, around which a procession marched once on each of the first six days and seven times on the seventh day, to the sound of the trumpet—to commemorate the seven-day encompassment of the walls of Jericho—each man taking his festal bouquet in his hand and reciting Psalm 118.25 (Suk. iv. 2-7). To such a practice, evidently, is reference made in Matthew 21.8, 9, 15 and in John 12.12, 13. “Hallel” was recited every day; and the eighth day, too, was included in the “season of rejoicing.” See: The Jewish Encyclopedia, accessed 1.18.2020.




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