The Mountain E2 — Ancient Israel’s neighbors believed that the world originated as a mountain rising up out of the chaos waters. The gods ruled from this great cosmic mountain, fighting battles with nature and issuing decrees that kept the world in order. So how did this surrounding culture impact the cosmology of the Bible? In this episode, Jon and Tim discuss what the cosmic mountain meant in the Ancient Near Eastern context and how the biblical authors adapted and subverted this symbol in surprising ways.

Timestamps

Chapter 1: Recap and Intro to Cosmic Mountains in the Ancient Near East (0:00-6:52)
Chapter 2: Egyptian and Mesopotamian Cosmic Mountains (6:52-17:54)
Chapter 3: Canaanite and Phoenician Cosmic Mountains (17:54-28:17)
Chapter 4: Psalm 48: The True Cosmic Mountain (28:17-38:40)

Referenced Resources

The Cosmic Mountain in Canaan and the Old Testament by Richard J. Clifford
“The Common Temple Ideology of the Ancient Near East” by John M. Lundquist
Check out Tim’s library here.
You can experience our entire library of resources in the BibleProject app, available for Android and iOS.

Show Music

“Are We There Yet?” by The Bridge, Efechto & D. Steele
“Lozari” by L’indécis
“Lily (Floriana)” by Timothy Brindle
BibleProject theme song by TENTS

Show Credits

Production of today's episode is by Lindsey Ponder, producer, and Cooper Peltz, managing producer. Tyler Bailey is our supervising engineer. Aaron Olsen edited today’s episode and also provided the sound design and mix. JB Witty does our show notes, and Hannah Woo provides the annotations for our app. Our host and creative director is Jon Collins, and our lead scholar is Tim Mackie.

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A Mountain Rising From the Chaos Waters