The Bible & The Ancient Near East

Here are some gems from the book I've been reading, "Ancient Near Eastern Thought & the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible" by John H. Walton.

• The cultures of this time period had no dichotomy between natural and supernatural.  Everything was supernatural regardless if you were an Israelite or some other religion.  Religion was life.  This different worldview has so many implications for Christians today since we tend to think of God who intervenes once in a while (miracles.)  Actually, the ancient mindset was that God is constantly interacting within creation.  This makes me think of how we tend to view miracles as only special events when they really happen all of the time since God is always interacting within the cosmos.
• The Garden of Eden story is really a story of the garden being like the holy of  holies in the Temple.  The created world served as God's Temple.  The actual Temple had symbols of the Garden of Eden like the menorah which is a symbol of the tree of life.  In short, the Garden of Eden story uses Temple language.
• When Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden, the biggest loss wasn't paradise but losing out on God's presence.
• The Tower of Babel story which I always assumed was a story about humans trying to get to God is really a story of trying to get God to come down to them.  The ancient Near East is filled with stories of towers that serve this purpose.  Bible translations misinterpret this story because of a lack of understanding of the ancient worldview.

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