bluegreywhite raindropskies

Keep falling on my head: als de hemel naar beneden valt hebben we allemaal 'n blauw hoedje - de wereld is 'n pijp kaneel: elk smurft eraan mee!

(DB) What could be more natural, then, than to adopt an older usage "Son of G d," already ascribed to Messiah in a role as Davidic king of Israel & understanding it more literally as the sign of equal divinity of the Ancient of Days & the Son of Man? Thus the Son of Man became Son of G d, & "Son of G d" became the name for Yeshua's divine nature - & all without any break with ancient Jewish tradition! The theology of the Gospels, far from being a radical innovation within Israelite religious tradition, is a highly conservative return to the very most ancient moments within that tradition, moments that had been largely suppressed in the meantime ~ but not entirely. The identification of the rider on the clouds with the one like a son of man in Daniel provides that name & image of the Son of Man in the Gospels as well! It follows that the ideas about G d that we i-dentify as "Christian" are not innovations but may be deeply connected with some of the most ancient of Israelite ideas about G d. These ideas at the very least go back to an entirely plausible (& attested) reading of Daniel 7 & thus to the second century B.C. at the latest. They mat even be a whole lot older than that?! One of the most important sources that we have for the ancient stages of the religion of Israel are some epic texts about the gods of Canaan that were found in an archeological excavation in a place called Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) early in the 20th century.

These epics reveal a very rich ancient Canaanite mythology, especially in the elaborated stories of the gods 'El & Ba'al & their rivals & consorts.

While, of course, the Israelite branch of the Canaanite group partly defined itself through the rejection of this mythology, much of the imagery & narrative allusions that we find in the works of the Israelite prophets, the Psalms, & other biblical poetic texts are best illuminated through compa-rison with these ancient texts. These fragments of reused ancient epic material within the Bible reveal also the existence of an ancient Israelite version of these epics & the mythology that they enact. In fact, as far as I (Chai) am concerned they are talking, singing, dancing & writing about everyone of "US"! 't Verschil zit in tijd/ruimte: de overeenkomst in our 'development' of "THE SPIRIT" - a 'gift & an action' - 'in mediation' ..