Naked Bible Podcast 212 — Joshua’s Conquest of Jericho and the Ugaritic Keret Epic

The basic details of the Israelite conquest of Jericho are well known. The renewal of the covenant at Shechem, the miraculous crossing of the Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant, Joshua’s encounter with the supernatural commander of the Lord’s host, the sending of the spies to the city and their reception by Rahab, the weird battle instructions to march around the city and blow the ram’s horns, and the collapse of the walls have been retold in countless Sunday School classes and sermons. But virtually unknown is that many of these details have correspondences in a story from Ugarit, an ancient city state in Syria. That story is known as the Keret (or Kirta) Epic. In this episode we talk about the similarities and how an ancient reader might have processed such parallels.

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Michael Heiser — What’s The Significance Of Elisha & The Bears (2 Kings 2:23–25)?

This is a complex issue that actually does have to do with cosmic geography and even more so, the denial of Elisha’s status as the prophet of Yahweh and as a solicitation to Elisha to play the role of an apostate priest, to join the apostate worship, to join the other gods, to be part of that system instead of Yahweh's system, to not be Yahweh’s prophet. This is a theologically significant passage. That answer might sound strange to you but it is tied up in this cosmic geographical thinking and cosmic geographical language. Article Referenced: 1. Going Down to Bethel: Elijah and Elisha in the Theological Geography of the Deuteronomistic History (Joel Burnett)

Michael Heiser — Predestination & Foreknowledge

Predestination and foreknowledge aren’t the same. Foreknowledge does not necessitate predestination. In 1 Samuel 23:1–13 it’s clear, God foreknew a possible outcome that never actually happens—foreknowledge does not command that it’s predestined to happen. In other words, the means by which God works are His own—God can predestine things if He wants, but we cannot conclude that everything that happens was predestinated. We cannot exist as God’s own image if everything is predestined (Genesis 1:27). Free will (what we choose) matters, although we may not know how it matters exactly—God is omniscient and God will use it—only God knows such things. If everything is predestined, we would have no free will and we would simply be robots. This is why God does not eliminate evil just yet. In doing so, God would have to eliminate all of humanity as well as everything else in the spiritual world having free will. God is omniscient and knows what the cost is going to be. He would rather ...

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