BibleProject - The Snake in the Throne Room - Son of Man E3

Episode Date: January 28, 2019

Welcome to episode 3 of our series on the Son of Man! In this episode, Tim and Jon dive deep into the history, the story, and the ideas surrounding one of the most famous figures in the Bible: the Serpent. In part one (0:00-8:00), Tim and Jon briefly recap the previous episode. Humanity is supposed to live in peaceful coexistence and be responsible for the animals. Tim says that Daniel’s vision in Daniel chapter 7 of the Son of Man shows us that humans are meant to be over the animals, but instead they end up behaving like animals. In part two (8:00-24:30), Tim dives into Genesis 3 and begins examining the serpent. The snake is presented as crafty. This is the Hebrew word "arum.” In other cases in the Bible, this word has a positive connotation, but in this context, it means a negative use of intelligence. Gen 3:1: "Now the serpent was more arum than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." In the following Proverbs, arum is used to demonstrate a positive character trait. Proverbs 14:15: "The naive believes everything, but the sensible man considers his steps." Proverbs 27:12: "The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty." So in Genesis 3, arum is translated as “crafty.” This is the only time it's translated with a negative sense, but usually arum means sharp, quick thinker, problem solver etc. Tim also briefly says that in other ancient religions, especially in Egypt, snakes were symbolically significant. Tim says the snake is presented as a creature alongside the humans. It uses its divine blessing (wisdom) to twist the divine command by telling the humans that they can be like-God (or “like gods”). But the humans already are God-like, having been made in God’s image. Tim observes that after Adam and Eve take the serpent's advice, eat the fruit, and are expelled from the Garden, the very next story is one where Cain also listens to “sin” that is described as “crouching” at his door. Both of these narratives portray humans being ruled by beasts, instead of ruling over them. Death is the result. Once humans choose to redefine good and evil, they become beastly. In part three (24:30-28:00), Tim quickly goes over the Messianic promise that God gives in Genesis 3:15: “And I will set hostility Between you [serpent] and the woman, And between your [serpent] seed and her seed; He [seed of woman] shall strike you [serpent] on the head, And you [serpent] shall strike him [seed of woman] on the heel.” Tim says that this sets up the main plot conflict for the biblical story. Humans must recover their ability to rule over the beasts, and this will be done by the true Son of Man who strikes the serpent. In part four (28:00-end), Tim overviews the whole biblical fall narrative. Tim says that the story of Noah is significant, as it represents a failed restart of creation. Noah was set up to save the animals from the flood. He did so, and seemed to act as a true son of man. Noah gets off the boat, and God recommissions Noah to “be fruitful and multiply” and fill the earth. Then God pivots and gives humanity a new diet: “The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood" (Genesis 9:1-4). Noah eventually falls away from following God’s blessing. And one of his son’s (Ham) descendants Nimrod is mentioned as being the first “hunter” in the Bible. Nimrod was also the founder of Babylon. Why are we told both of these details about Nimrod’s life? Because it represents an archetype that is developing. Humanity is now choosing to become part of a cycle of acting like beasts, creating a violent, killing culture. Since humanity has chosen this path, they now must be saved by the true Son of Man. He will be the seed of the woman, but instead of giving in to the violence of humanity, he will choose to overcome it. Thank you to all of our supporters! Show Produced By: Dan Gummel, Jon Collins Show Music: Defender Instrumental, Tents Pilgrim, Instrumentals The Size of Grace, Beautiful Eulogy Show Resources: Our video on the Son of Man: INSERT LINK Gerhard von Rad, Genesis: A Commentary Crispin Fletcher-Louis, Jesus Monotheism Richard Bauckham, Living with Other Creatures James Hamilton, With the Clouds of Heaven: The Book of Daniel in Biblical Theology Brandon Crowe, The Last Adam: A Theology of the Obedient Life of Jesus in the Gospels

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

Hey, this is John at the Bible Project. And today, we continue our series discussing the phrase, the Son of Man. This is a phrase that Jesus uses to refer to Himself. It's a phrase found most famously in Daniel 7, where a Son of Man, literally meaning a human, rides up on a cloud and then sits on a throne right next to Yahweh himself, and together they rule the world. Last week, we went back to the beginning of the Bible to see how this theme, the theme of a man coming to rule, is all over the first chapters of the Bible. Humans are made in God's image to rule the world with God. And perhaps everything would have gone great, except for an encounter with

a beast. The serpent. The talking snake in Genesis 3. It's a mysterious and surprising character. It's an animal, and it's clearly dangerous, but is it merely a snake? So clear that the snake is identified as a beast of the field, but also as exceptional among the beast. This creature is also presented as having knowledge of God's decisions.

The snake pretends to be clearing up a miscommunication that God had with these humans and he says, Hey, if you eat from this tree of knowing good and evil, you're not going to die. In fact, you will become like the Elohim, the spiritual beings. What is the snake? How does it know this? It's like as inside or knowledge of God's counsel decision making. This is no ordinary snake. The snake represents something evil and sinister,

some spiritual power enticing humans to give up their cooperative rule with God, and instead sees the opportunity to rule on their own terms with God, and it's dead sees the opportunity to rule on their own terms with their own knowing of good and evil. The humans, instead of exercising authority over this beast, the humans are lured into self-destruction by this beast. And so you have this ironic inversion of the ideal from Genesis 1. You have now a beast that's ruling over the humans.

Giving into the snake turns us into beasts You have now a beast that's ruling over the humans. Giving into the snake turns us in to beasts. We lose our humanity and instead become heirs of the snake. God gives a poetic response to Adam and Eve's decision. He says, I'm going to put hostility between the snake and the woman and between the snake's offspring and the woman's offspring. So what's that telling us is there's going to be a future human who comes who strikes the serpent,

and that human's going to be, however, in hostility with people who give into the serpent. So there's going to be a line of humans who preserve this true humanness, and that line's always going gonna be in hostility with people who are acting like animals. The offspring of the woman will crush the snake's head, and the snake will strike his heel.

Eventually, there will be one human who will deal not just with the seed of the serpent, but deal with the serpent itself. And there you go. That's about a son of man. We'll talk about all of that, but deal with the serpent itself. And there you go. That's about a son of man. We'll talk about all of that and more on today's show. Thanks for joining us.

Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Son of man continues. We spent a lot of time last hour talking about Genesis 1 and how it relates to Son of Man. And we didn't Genesis 1 and how it relates to Son of Man. And we didn't really get to how it relates to Son of Man. So much, except for that, being a human one is embedded in the nature of being a human

in the creation narrative is we share the day with the animals of day six when we were created. We both come from the earth, both on veggie diets. But then God says that the humans, the ones created second, will rule over. Are gods image? Are gods image? Yeah. Are given this designation of being the reflection of who God is. Majestic status among all of the creatures.

Yeah, and as part of that image is given the vocation of ruling. Rooling. Rooling the animals and subduing the land. Yeah. Which means farming. Farming and co-existing with the animals.ming and coexisting with the animals. And coexisting with the animals and bearing responsibility for them.

Yeah, yeah. But so doing the land means farming, ruling the animals doesn't in Genesis 1 mean. Doing whatever you want with that. Like what do you call that? Animal husbandry. Oh, you know, farming animals. No, because the next thing God says is, listen,

you get the seed, you get the fruit to eat, animals get all the bushes in the grass. It wasn't about, yeah, domesticating animals to eat. So ruling animals isn't about domesticating animals in Genesis 1. Well, could they have domesticating animal to help them farm? Oh, okay, sure, yeah, there you go.

But the point is about diet. It doesn't mean domesticating animals to eat them. Because in the ideal, yeah, no creature lives at the expense of an ideal. Yeah, ideal is vegan. Yes. Yeah. So the Genesis 1 sets this up, humans as gods, representatives, and ruling the animals is a really, it's a highlighted, it's an element that's in the foreground.

Yeah. That the peaceful coexistence and responsibility for the animals, ruling them, is the ideal setup. The whole reason we're having this conversation is because of this phrase, Son of a Man, found in Daniel 7, where God is allowing a human to sip aside him on a throne and rule the earth with him. That's right. And be worshiped alongside him. That's right. Which is just kind of scandalous because you worship God alone. Yeah, that's right. Who's this human being worshiped?

That's one thing about Daniel 7, that's significant. So, this whole idea of God wanting to rule with humans, with a human, that starts in Genesis 1. That's right. What God creates humans and says, rule on my behalf, you're my image, you're my representation. Yeah. And so, subdued the earth and rule it. Yes. The other element of Daniel 7 is the reason the throne beside God is unoccupied. At the beginning of the vision. Is because humans have become animals unleashing violence on the earth.

Yeah. And those are the beasts. The problem in Daniel 7 is the beast trampling the earth, which are symbols of groups of humans turning themselves into kingdoms and empires and Unleashing violence on the world. Yeah. So the thrones unoccupied and the people that are supposed to be occupying the throne are acting like animals. Like animals, not like humans. Yeah. That's right. And again, all it's all rooted in Genesis 1 Yeah, that's right. And again, it's all rooted in Genesis 1, human dream, where humans are meant to be over the animals, but instead, sadly, they've become like the animals less than human. How did that happen?

Genesis 3 through 11 gives us the answer. How did humans become animals? Yeah. How did it go from humans being elevated over the animals to humans just acting like animals? Human's acting like animals. Specifically in Daniel 7 in terms of violence. Like crazy. Irrational.

Irrational animals. Yeah. Yeah. How did we get there? Genesis 3 through 11 is perfectly designed to answer every part of that question. So we can't do everything in Genesis 3 to 11, but let's just do a few things. So first, the first sentence of Genesis 3 introduces us to a beast Mm-hmm. It reads now the snake in Hebrew nakhash The nakhash was more I'm gonna use the Hebrew word arum Arum was more a room a room than any beast of the field that the Lord God had made

so if you could line up beasts and Order of their arumeness, snakes on the top of the heat. Yep. So what is our room in if the snake is more it than any other beast? Yeah, crafty is the word that's translated in most of the translations I've seen. So here's the interesting thing, this word, Adhrum appears, that's less than like 10 times in the Hebrew Bible. All of them are in the wisdom literature, except for this one. And all of them are positive. In other words, for a human to be Adhrum,

it's always a good thing in the wisdom literature of the Bible. Here's two examples. Proverbs 14, 15. The naïve person believes everything, but the autumn person, they watch their steps. So it's being calculated. Calculated. Proverbs 27, 12, the autumn person sees danger and takes refuge. But the simple-minded keep going and they pay the penalty. Yeah, they can see cause and effect patterns. Yep, perceptive. Yeah. So the word auto-room is not negative. The reason why it gets translated as crafty is

because of what this context? Because in this context, in our room, character is going to do something that brings death and harm to other people. But that doesn't mean the word our room is negative. It just means this creature did something negative with their arumeness. Yeah, with his ability to see patterns, make sense of things, consider things.

Consider things and make a right calculated decision. To make a decision. To their own advantage. Yeah. Yeah. If the auto room is able to see danger and, oh, I don't want that. Yeah. I want to be safe.

XYZ decisions will land me in safe. That's the kind of thing. So that's one thing. The second is, I've done a lot more reflection on this, on the snake. So, clear that the snake is identified as a beast of the field, but also as exceptional among the beast of the field. Now, the beast of the field is a hyperlink.

The beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. That's a hyperlink back to Genesis 1. Yeah, the day 6. Yep, to day 6. When did God make the beast of the field? Oh, yeah, on day 6, before the humans. So, that day six. Yep, today six. When did God make the beast of the field? Oh, yeah, on day six, before the humans. So that's interesting. The other thing is the snake obviously talks.

Yeah. And this isn't just like primitive, fable literature where all the animals talk. Hmm. You know, to ancient readers, a talking animal that's extremely bizarre. Mm-hmm. It's very bizarre. Hmm. There's only one other talking animal that's extremely bizarre. This is very bizarre.

There's only one other talking animal in the Bible. Yeah, Balom's Donkey. And that's in the context of pagan sorcery. That's true. So talking animals in the Bible, there's two. And both of them are associated with something more dark and connected with dark spiritual powers. That's interesting.

This creature is also presented as having knowledge of God's decisions, who he pretends to have knowledge of God's decisions, I don't know, this year, but just think through. He presents himself as saying, listen, did God say, don't eat from any tree of the garden? So he's asking a question. Yeah. And he's twisting God's command. Did God say, don't eat of any tree in the garden? No, it's actually the opposite.

He said, eat it. Eat of every tree. Yeah. And so the woman corrects him and says, no, no, no, we can eat of the trees of the garden. But God said, don't eat from the fruit of that one, the one that's in the middle of the garden, or touch it.

Where else are you going to die? Right. Then the serpent says to the woman, oh, no, no, no, no, no, there's in the middle of the garden, or touch it, or else you're going to die. Right. Then the serpent says to the woman, oh no, no, no, no, there's been a miscommunication. You won't die. Here's what he says. God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like Elohim. You will transcend.

Think of Salmeh in Genesis 1. You'll be like Elohim. We're lower than Elohim. There's the ambiguity there. It's not reflected in our English translations. Remember Elohim? Yeah. Can be spiritual beings. Spiritual beings. Or the one.

The one true God. All of our English translations, modern translations render it as the singular chief God. You'll be like the true God. Chief Elohim. All of our English translations, modern translations render it as the singular chief God. You'll be like the chief God. And that's a possibility. It is also possible that when you know a good evil, you'll be like us. This class of creatures. Yes.

Yeah. What is this snake? How does it know this? It's like has insider knowledge of God's council decision making. So currently I'm at the place where I think it's contextually, you're supposed to understand that this is a member of the divine council in Elohim. Appearing as a snake. This is an Elohim, a spiritual being depicted in the narrative here is in the image of a snake.

Because of both the meaning of that imagery, the Elohim, the spiritual beings, the Isaiah sees in the Holy of Holies when he has his dream vision of the divine throne. They're called seraphim, but the word seraph is a word for snake. Oh, it's a word for fire and it's the word for fire. And it's the word for poisonous snake, a fiery snake. A fiery snake. Because it feels like fire when I bite it. And so there's the ambiguity there in Hebrew.

And this maps on to an Egyptian religious art of a common deity, a protector deity of the throne room, is a snake with wings. It's called the Eureus, I think, or the snake with wings. Okay, another kind of deity. So snakes, divine beings. Yeah. It's a melting pot of ideas there.

Yeah. It's a matrix of ideas that for an ancient reader would about all connected. Yeah. So even though it's using the image of serpent, everyone always asks, is it Satan? And it's sort of like, well, yes and no. You're going to find out the identity of this character more

as the story develops. Right now, it's important to know that it's somehow a being that has insider knowledge, God's counsel. But specifically, they are a creature. They're beasts. They're a creature. And by describing it as a beast, it's setting up that this is actually the first born of day six.

Mm-hmm. Who, for one reason or another, wants to usurp the position of the second born of day six. So it called a rule over. Is it like a, um, uh, what's it called when you're like embodied by a spirit? Possessed? Possessed. Is it a, is it a possessed snake? Uh, yeah, it's a great question.

It just says it's a serpent. Yeah. The narrative image has two layers to it. One is the snake beast imagery, which is going to be important for the sound of man, because if the humans instead of ruling this beast, telling it like, no, they're going to end up being ruled by this beast.

So that's the function of the beast layer of this creatures identity But then there's another layer where it's like how does this snake know this and this is more than just a snake Hmm. It seems like one of these Elohim my spiritual beings but that is in rebellion Hmm, and you're gonna have to wait till later in the biblical story So could you say then in a way the story could have had some sort of angelic being come and give this whole monologue, or this whole dialogue about, you know, God, you didn't get the whole story.

You can be like us, the Elohim. And that would have made a lot of sense. Yeah. But it wouldn't have developed a theme of the relationship of humans and animals. That's right. So the author kind of merges those two ideas. Yeah. A creature that is on the narrative surface, a beast, but underneath the narrative surface is an Elohim, a spiritual being. Yeah. I think that's currently I think that's what's going on. Or maybe it's just a really smart snake. Yeah, and also it's, it's odd room.

It has wisdom. Yeah. You know? And then it uses its wisdom for devious purposes. That's interesting. The humans, instead of exercising authority over this beast, the humans are lured into self-destruction by this beast. And so you have this ironic inversion of the ideal from Genesis 1. You have now a beast that's ruling over the humans by its craftiness.

So a couple things come out of this. Once again, it's humans versus the beast. Instead of humans ruling the beast in peaceful coexistence, now you have an animal trying to rule the humans, they succeed, and then the famous messianic promise of Genesis 315 is setting out the program for the rest of the biblical storyline, and what's it about? A conflict between beasts and humans. Mm. Jensus 315. So God says to the woman, I will set hostility, oh excuse me, God says this to the snake.

I will set hostility between you, the serpent, and the woman, between your seed, your offspring, and her seed. Baby beasts and baby humans. Baby humans, right? He, that is the seed of the woman, will strike you, that is the serpent on the head, and you, the serpent, will strike him, the seed of the woman on the heel.

Yeah. It's a cryptic, like Daniel 7's, this potent cryptic little poem that's giving you the program for the rest, the plot conflict of the biblical storyline. So from here on out there's going to be this conflict between humans and beasts. But... Well metaphorically or really?

Well, what is this beast? The beast is... yeah, it's a snake. It's on one level, it's a snake. There's a fragmenting of humans' relationship to other creatures. Yeah. Happening here will be one of hostility. But of course, the snake represents much more. And what on earth is the seed of the snake? It's not talking about baby snakes or human fear of snakes here. Well, they're talking about just future beasts. Also, could be about future beasts. What does it mean to now be born of the snake?

And we have to wait for the Cain-enabled story, which is going to answer that question for us. Remember, in Cain-enable, what do you call that? Teaser spoiler alert. Cain gives into a beastly temptation, an animal, and a temptation described as an animal. He strikes down the brother. And what other do he kills? He kills his brother. He'll be giving into the animal that is sin. So, Cain becomes the model figure of the seed of the serpent. It's someone who gives into the power and influence

of beastly, the subhuman temptation to act in subhuman ways. Instead of ruling the beast, man, these narratives are so packed and profound. So in Genesis three, it's that a beast deceives the humans into overstepping their bounds. You could be Elohim. You don't have to settle for this mortal, depending on God's generosity,

depending on God's wisdom. You can define good and evil on your own and transcend your mortal limitations. Doesn't that sound great? Yes, I'm yet. So that's what the beast does to the humans there. But once the humans do that, then are they expelled from the Cosmic Garden Mountain? And then the next narrative is about a human also being ruled by a beast.

And then in the Cain story, the first born, is the first born, who's angry that God has chosen his younger brother to accept his offering. And then that places Cain in a decision. And what he ends up doing is acting like an animal because of sin, crouching, it's crouching like an animal at your door. So you have another animal crouching trying to lure a human and it succeeds. And it results in the first act of violence. Just as 3 and 4 are really connected here in this animal human, humans ruling the animals are humans being ruled by them. So humans are supposed to rule the animals.

You get a story of an animal deceiving and kind of asserting power and authority over the humans. And succeeds. And then in the next story, you get a story about God choosing to bless the second born child instead of the first. Makes the first angry, Cain. And so God tells Cain, hey look, like... You've got an animal, Cain. There's an animal.

It's crouching and it wants to take you out. It's called sin. It's called and he calls it sin. Yeah, not a snake, but sin. And Cain decides he's gonna take matters into his own hands. Yeah. And sin comes, takes him out, which causes him to take his brother out and kill him. Yeah. And so he gives into his animal nature. Yeah. He becomes less than human. Yeah. He believes that his life can only flourish at the expense now of his brother's life. It's interesting if you're out in the field like Abel was, the beast that could get you is probably like a snake

It's necup and bike. Oh, yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, so Kane does. Yeah, he makes up and he But it ends up being another human. It's not a snake. It's a human actin Yeah, yeah, I've never quite thought of this before. But again, if the Genesis one ideal is, listen, you and I can both flourish. There's plenty of food for us here. We can find a way to flourish together. And that's how I exert my rule in authority as an image of God. But in the Cain story, You're getting hooked up. I'm not.

Yes, you're flourishing. I think I'm not. Yeah, I need what you have. Yep. I'm skiing right of you. Yes, yeah, flourishing. I think I'm not. Yeah, I need what you have. Yep. I'm skiing a rid of you. Yes, yeah, that's right. For me to flourish as a human, you have to die. Yeah, it is a zero sum kind of way. Zero sum of viewing reality.

That's right. And in the biblical narrative, that's the fundamental portrait of a human stepping off the shared divine throne of ruling the world. Once humans choose to redefine good evil in that kind of way, we are no longer participating in the divine rule of creation.

We are asserting a beastly animal life. So the divine rule is a non-zero sum generous, cooperative way of life. Yeah, Genesis one. Genesis one. Yeah. Where when you say a beastly way to live, living like animals, is territorial and exerts power

through violence. Yeah. Yes. What else would you say? And it's a, I guess in the biblical vision, it's a short-sighted view of flourishing. Where if I define my own tribe and family's flourishing, even if it's at the expense of another, oh well, my tribe's flourishing, that's a sub-human form of existence. If humans are called to be the image of God, that's a sub-human form of existence. If humans are called to be the image of God, that's a sub-human

way of existing. So yeah, just notice again, just some now in Genesis 1 through 4, how much humans relationship to animals and the creative developments of those images, how significant these are. It's a really fundamental images in the biblical story. Yeah. Here's another one from Genesis 3. This is interesting. After the humans are told that there's going to be this hostility between people who give into the serpent and the seed of the woman.

Actually, so let's pause, we'll click on that again. So what's that telling us is there's going to be a future human who comes who strikes the serpent. Yeah. And that human's going to be, however, in hostility with people who give into the serpent. So there's going to be a line of humans who preserve this true humanness. And that line's always going to be in hostility with people who are acting like animals, giving into the serpent. And that that's telling you what that's what the whole story is going to be about.

But eventually there will be one human who will deal not just with the seed of the serpent, but deal with the serpent itself. And there you go. And then you just have to keep reading. It's about a son of man who will come. Another point in Genesis 3 is the consequences that God assigns to the man in Genesis 3, 18. Where he says, cursed is the ground on account of you. It will sprout thorns and thistles,

and you will eat the grass of the field. That's what the animals do. That's the diet of the animals in Genesis 1. That's right the animals do. That's the diet of the animals in the first one. That's right. In Genesis 1 humans get the fruit trees and they get the seeds of the... In vegetables, with a fireman stuff. Right.

And the animals get the green plants of the field. Now you're driven out into the wilderness and you're gonna be forced to eat like animals. Yeah. So humans give into an animal in Genesis 3. They are assigned to the realm of the animals. They take on the diet of animals and then in Genesis 4 in the cane story, they begin to act like violent animals.

And this is how nebuchadnezzar is depicted. Exactly right. Exactly right. Yeah. The image of his hair grows long, his nails get long and he's out just eating. And he eats the grass. He eats the grass. He eats the grass the field.

It's the same phrase. Yep. So Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel is being depicted as a new Adam figure who reaches replay his Genesis 1 through 3. And he thinks he's being like the true powerful human. He elevates himself and in reality he's becoming an animal. And then God humbles him and makes him what he really is acting like, which is an animal in the field. So let's just real quick from the Genesis 3 and 4 stuff we just did. Let's just sketch through the rest of Genesis 3 to 11, which is the biblical fall narrative

as a whole. Cain is expelled. He free kills Able. After he kills Able, he's expelled and goes further east. which is the biblical fall narrative as a whole. Cain is expelled. If he kills Abel. After he kills Abel, he's expelled and goes further east. Yeah. Because parents, and the first thing he does is build a city. Build a city.

Has lots of kids. And then the seventh generation from his line is a guy named Lemek. Lemek. Lemek? What does his name mean? Oh, well, it's not a name. It's a three. There's a couple of clues here. When you read the name Lemek and you look it up in concordance, there's only two Lemek's

in the whole Bible, and it's this Lemek and then the Lemek that comes from his dead from his other brother's line. And then second. Not a common name. It's not a common name. And then if you stare at it longer in Hebrew, it's the both the vowels and the letters of the Hebrew noun for king

just turn backwards inside out. The inverted king. Yeah, he's a perverted king. He's the backwards king for the anti-king as it were. So, and this guy, Lemek, what does he do? He says, listen, Cain killed the brother, Cain killed a guy. And God put up with him and he even protected him. So, you know what? I murdered this kid the other day and I declared that God

has to also put up with me 70 times seven. More or less, I'm paraphrasing. Right. But he rewrites God's forgiveness of canes, so to speak. He uses his license. And uses it as license for even greater murder. And this is all in the context of the first human city. So there's that happening.

So all of a sudden you're watching the sea. That's not the kind of neighbor you want. No, no, no. And if cane was becoming an animal, killing his brother, this guy, he's just like. Yeah, that guy needs to be on a watch list. He's hell on wheels. You know what I mean?

He's become less than human. He believes now that his honor is exalted by needlessly murdering another human. It's different than C, where it's like, oh, I'm angry, I'm jealous, I think. You shouldn't, I should have what you get. But here, Lemx, just like absurd violence. It's animal.

It's turned up. Yeah, turned up to 11. Totally. So contrast that, then the narrative goes back. That's the line that comes from can. So contrast that, then the narrative goes back. That's the line that comes from Cain. Genesis 5 gives us the line that comes from Cain's younger brother, who's born in the place of the brother he murdered. That is named Seth, Adam and his son, Seth.

And this from Seth, you get a genealogy, your favorite part of the Bible, right? And through the line from Seth, you get a genealogy, your favorite part of the Bible. And through the line of Seth, you get to the 10th generation from Adam, and you get to a guy named Noach. Noach. And when Noach is born, no, page 11. Noach, noach for those English speakers out there. That's right. Noach is dad, says, actually, oh yeah,, Noah's dad, his name is Lemek too. He's the other Lemek in the middle.

Oh, well that's interesting. Interesting. He names Noah and says, I name him Noah for this one, well, Nocham, us from the work and pain of our hands from the ground that the Lord has cursed. So he names Noah after the comfort. Nacham is brings to comfort a relief. It's a wordplay. It's a wordplay, yeah, yeah, that's right. So we're thinking like, oh, well, if Lemek

that came from Cain is the image of the seed of the serpent, human's acting like animals, then here's the anti, here's the seed of the woman, a human who's going to bring relief and comfort from the curse and from all of this. So you get Noah and the story of Noah right in the ark. It's famous. God's gonna bring judgment on the rebellious world. But he instructs Noah to make an ark, a teva, in what's called in Hebrew. And the teva is described as a micro-edin. It's a little micro-edin.

What do you mean? Well, cause animals are there? It's gonna be in there. Yeah, look, in chapter six, verse 19, God tells Noah, of every living creature of all thrash flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you, male and female,

of birds after their kind, of the beasts, animals after their kind, of every creeping thing on the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you so you can keep them alive. So, those categories of beings, you have the bird, the sky flyers, the land walkers, then the creepers. Creepers, that's a new addition. Oh no, they're in Genesis 1. The creepers. The creepers are?

Yep, or the crawlers. The only category not represented is the creatures in the waters. Yeah, they're going to be fine. So you have a human here who is going to rule the animals, which in this case, need to save them. To save them. Where? In this little in the ark. Little incubator. And so this ark becomes a little Eden 2.0,

little mini Eden of the, right? The low floating Eden. Yeah, the human with the animals in the divinely protected space. And then it floats along the waters and then is deposited on the top of a space. And then it floats along the waters and then is deposited on the top of us. On a mountain. On the mountain.

Yeah, just like Genesis, just like Eden, Genesis too. So in other words, Noah is becoming a possible restart of the ideal. Okay, it all went downhill with him and started acting like animals. Oh, but here's a human who peacefully coexist with the animal. Yeah, and he's given a new little eaten. Totally.

And then we'll wipe everything clean and try again. Yeah, so just to emphasize, why else would the narrative emphasize all the stuff about the animals in the arc? Not for children's books. It does make good children's book material. It makes great children's books too. So people, to answer the question,

we'll then, we'll happen to the animals. Oh, okay, okay, got it. All right, to answer the question, well then, what happened to the animals? Okay, okay. Got it. All right. So you're right. There's more, a more money. But I guess there's other questions left unanswered. Like, well, one question that comes to mind is how did he tell between a male and female lizard? Yep. So there are some unanswered questions. Many unanswered. With the flood many unanswered questions.

But there are only three narratives that depict humans at peace and living within among the wild animals. Adam and the garden. Adam and even the garden. Noah. In the ark. And third one. In the creation. Wait the ark. In the ark and third one. Neucoration.

Wait for it. It's on Mark chapter one, but we'll get there. Oh, Mark one. Noah get there. Noah gets off the boat. It's bottom page 12. And God says to Noah exactly what he said to Adam and Eve, but with a tweak.

So I guess it's not exactly what he said. He's God bless Noah and said to him, in his sons, be fruitful and multiply and fear the, fill the earth. You're like, okay. Yeah. So this is a reboot. Re-bit, full reboot. Full reboot. That's right. Yeah. Now, what we expect to come next is, subdued the land and rule over the beast, right? Yeah. Genes 1. But instead, what it is, what God says is, now the fear and terror of you will be on the beast. Mmm, new development.

Yep. And every moving thing that is alive, that is your food now. Off the veggies. So the vegan ideal is over. It's as if God is here making a concession to the violent humans. Humans have shown themselves now in a path of no return. Maybe if I let you eat animal flesh, you'll calm down. You'll start to stop killing each other.

Yeah, but it's like the humans in the story are so violent. Those, the cause for the flood was just violence everywhere now. Right? It's this cane and lemmec gun wild. And so now humans truly believe that they have to kill other creatures to flourish. And so what God does is just accept that reality and now he's going to work with humans in light of that that fracturing, that shattering of the ideal. And thus we get cheeseburgers. And thus we get cheeseburgers. So again, next

step, sorry, this is trailer breadcrumbs. But basically all I'm doing is crawling through Genesis and anything related to humans and animals. It's what I'm highlighting. You're highlighting you. Yeah. No, it gets off the boat. He gets drunk sketchy stuff happens with his son, Ham. So it's like the reboot's happening. Yeah, it's so cool. It's so cool. Looking session, thanks God. Yep.

And then what does the new Adam do? He gets off the boat, all the animals are exiting and you're like, oh, it's eating all over again. He plants a garden. Yeah, great. Yes, we love it. We love it. And he gets dreadfully garden. Yeah, great. Yes, we love it. We love it. And he gets dreadfully drunk.

And then he's naked in his tent. Drunk and naked. Those are not good images from Genesis 3. And then his one of his sons comes and quote, looks upon the nakedness of his father. We don't have time to go down that rabbit hole. But it's not good. Right. It almost certainly means more than him just gazing of his father. We don't have time to go down that rabbit hole. But it's not good. It almost certainly means more than him just gazing upon his father. Getting a little peak. So what's significant about that, why I'm highlighting that, is in the genealogy that follows, in the line of ham, we're told that ham had a grandson, whose name was

Nimrod. Ham is one of, no, his son's okay. Ham had a grandson. And in the genealogy of Genesis 10, there's a narrative, the genealogy stops and it focuses on this guy's grandson Nimrod. It's an unfortunate name. Yes, totally. And what we're told is he was a mighty warrior. He's a violent dude. He's a violent dude.

He's a man's lair. And he's a hunter. And a beast's lair. Yeah, a man's lair and a beast's lair. He's the first killer of animals mentioned in the Bible. Actually, isn't God the first killer of animals in the Bible? Oh, well, human. First human.

Well, yeah, that's right. My point is, King offers a firstborn from his flock. Oh, so he kills an animal. That's right. So, but here it's not like an priestly or worship kind of role. Yeah, it's just like he's like this. Yeah. And the phrase is right next to, he's a mighty warrior, he's a man-sayer, man he's a mighty

hunter. He kills man and beast. So he's not only acting like a beast. So wait a second. Kane was raising animals to eat. He was supposed to be doing that. What doesn't say that? It just says that he was a worker, excuse me, able.

Excuse me, able was a keeper of sheep. Yeah, keeper of sheep. Able was doing that. Yeah, Yeah, a keeper of flock. Able was doing that. Yeah, Able, not canned, sorry. Yeah, and sorry, it's a detour, but like. Yeah, and then he wasn't supposed to be. The first born of his flock, his active worship. So was he raising these for what?

Doesn't say. Made for wool. Doesn't say. Yeah, yeah, you can raise sheep for wool. That's a good point. Able's, Able you can raise sheep for wool. That's a good point. Ables, ables the animal, husband, men. No.

I mean, I asked you this before, if that there was anything sniffing in there. It just feels like a broken. I actually do think there is. Now I've been thinking about it. Yeah, where are they bringing their offerings to? That whole story assumes that we're just here we are worshiping Yahweh with our rings. What's that all about? Where?

By the entrance of Eden, apparently, because they're out of the need just camped out. They just went to the east of Eden. And then that's where this story takes place. And then Cain goes further east. So is that where their offering sacrifices is the image that, and there's Jewish legends about this It's that can type of literature about them depicting this scene is happening at the before the Cherubim

Like they're offering it at the door trying to try to win their way back in. Yeah, that's interesting It is interesting. So it's all imprint this way these narratives work obviously through the gaps But I just find it fascinating that God tells them the ideal is you don't to kill things. And then able who God decides to bless is the one who actually kills an animal. An animal. And he got accepted. And got accepted. And he chooses it as a better offering. Well, not a better offering. But he regards it. but he blesses able. That's right So not only does it seem unfair that ables the second born Kind of seems unfair. Yes, and that it is what were you doing killing an animal? Yeah, that's interesting Yeah, I find interesting. I think that's very interesting. There's probably more there that I haven't thought about and that we haven't talked about

Yeah, but Nimrod's the first hunter Nimrod just goes and slays the beast. Yeah, totally. So why are we told these random details? That he's a mighty warrior and a mighty hunter. So first things we're told about him's grandson. It's a little color. The second thing that we're told is that he built Babylon.

Oh, wow. The beginning of his kingdom was Babylon. The beginning of his kingdom was Babylon. And from that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh. So the grandson of Ham becomes the archetypal. This violent man created these two empires. And these are the two empires that are going to carry Israel and exile. In the later Biblical narrative. A serial will take out the Northern tribes. Babylon will take out Judah and Jerusalem. So again, these narratives...

They're tipping their hats. The Genesis 1 through 11 are designed to set you up to understand the cosmic significance of everything that's going to happen in the story to follow. These cities were founded by the violent man who are part of this cycle of giving into the beastly. The beastly. The beastly urge to rule and destroy.

Correct. The point is if you follow the narrative thread of this human's giving into the beast, humans acting like beasts, it lead to the Nimrod and the founding of Babylon and Assyria. In the DNA of these crowns. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, why Babylon and Assyria. In the DNA of these crowns. Yeah, and then all of a sudden why Babylon and Assyria

are going to be given so much air time, and then rest of the narratives of Hebrew Bible is precisely this. They become portraits of the snake and the snake seed, people giving into the snake, acting like animals. And in Daniel's dream, the first beast of his dream is explicitly labeled as Babylon. So all that's rooted in these narratives of Genesis. You have the humans, or the line through which humanity will be restored to its role,

and you have the humans who are acting like beasts, which is most of them. And ironically, the line by which the humans are to be restored, also end up acting like animals. Totally. Yeah, even the promised chosen ones becomes act like animals and snakes, because they're humans. Because they're humans. Oh, humans.

Oh, humans. So you walk away from Genesis 1 through 11 with a full concept of that divine throne beside God that he wanted to elevate humans to as his image that is now an unoccupied throne, like the Indianian stream. Oh, yeah. What humans are being is not humans,

but beasts unleashing violence and death in the world. And what we are looking for is the fulfillment of that promise of Genesis 3.15 of a human. They're called the seed of the woman. Who's that going to be? A son of Adam. And Adam is the word for man, a son of man. You leave Genesis 3 looking for a son of man who will overcome the beast and take up humanity's strike its head. Strike the beast's head, reverse everything that it's done,

and actually fulfill what humanity's calling is in the first place. Genesis 1 through 11. We're looking for a human who can partner with God. That's right. Yeah. And as it turns out, no human is qualified for the task. Even the best ones. Yeah. Like Moses, Abraham, Noah, David, they're all, they all get crossed off the list. And so in the larger sweep, what happens is that God becomes embodied as the kind of human that he's called humanity to be. And he is that on their behalf. Genesis 1 through 11. Yeah.

It's all in there, it is. It's packed. It's like... Oh, remember, uh... It's a good Russian call. ...to set 4th of July. Sorry to be American-centric to our international listeners. It's the day we celebrate America's independence.

That's right. Americans waste huge amounts of money on exploding crap. It really bugs me when someone's like, you know, you could just lit a $20 bill on fire. It's like, that's not as fun. No. It's blowing up $20 worth of fireworks. It's not as fun.

No, it's not. So, no fireworks are pretty amazing. Anyway, one of it was these little, they were shaped like little plastic bottles with the string at the bottle neck, and you hold it and pull it out, and then it just, boom. Yeah.

So, it was one of those. I couldn't believe how hard it was to pull. How much stuff they packed into this. Oh. Like, so much stuff came out. I mean, it was only like this big. Right. I don't know, like the size of my hand.

It's like a clown car. It was like a clown car. So much confetti. Yeah. I was sweeping our driveway. Like, 20 minutes. Anyway, Genesis 1 through 11's like that. It's just everything.

It's an overstuffed popper. It's everything's in it. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bible Project podcast. and over-stuff popper. It's everything's in it. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bible Project Podcast. If you're enjoying this series, you might also enjoy our sister podcast called Exploring My Strange Bible. It's a collection of sermons and teachings

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