What's particularly interesting is the Bible can be interpreted in psychological terms. For example, when Jesus calls the gods of Canaan demons, he is really talking about the demonic energy prevalent in the psyches of men (and women) and the way it takes form in the material world thus, an idol is created in which man's psyche fervently obsesses. Such worshiping is viewed as signs of a weaker culture by the Hebrews. So Ba'al and all his forms are diminished to the role of demonic energies, or destructive. Now, some will argue they really aren't destructive, it's all a big misunderstanding, but in reality, to the Hebrews, the demonic forces were the very essence of destruction and would lead to the ultimate downfall and death of an individual. This was their true understanding of them and they didn't romanticize the way modern Satanists do. To them, an individual such as Ramirez who hides in the dark, looking for households without dogs to warn by barking, only to strike by surprise, torment, terrorize then kill, would be someone under the influence of evil, or a Satanic energy. He would be channeling Satan and it would lead to the ultimate destruction of Ramirez, which it did, along with several others. So, there you have a clear representation of the energy and can discern it in other situations where one person is hell bent on destroying others, including themselves. When noticing, you are in the mindset of Jewish mysticism and how they view this particular energy even though it's not necessarily how everyone views it. I go along with the Jewish interpretation because they are the ones who came up with it in the first place, so why take away the meaning they assigned to it? It's like taking the god Zeus and giving him a whole new identity even though he's a Greek god.
techstepgenr8tion wrote:
The other thing about the old testament - you don't hear about hell fire or brimstone, nothing about a war in heaven, nothing about a devil taking people and angels to hell. The OT seems to constructively be God's skeptic.
The -el suffix means 'of God' and the four archangels of the quarters - Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, Uriel - all have names similarly describing themselves as aspects, or in Michael's case a certain kind of redundancy in the sense that his name seems to mean 'likeness of God' where Gabriel's name means 'Strength of God', Raphael is 'Healing of God', Uriel 'Light of God'. I don't know what 'Cynic of God' or 'Skeptic of God' would be in Hebrew but you might essentially be able to identify that as the being that was dubbed ha satan. It would be the portion of God's personality that sees flimsy, weak beings of dubious integrity that would want to kick them for existing and it was as if in Job the higher mind was having it out with that aspect.
The OT seems to be humanity's skeptic, always doubting mankind and placing God as their ultimate judge. Think of the movie, True Grit. A man kills his benefactor then takes off in the wilderness while no one does a thing, significantly reducing the odds he will ever be caught to pay (humanist construct) for his crime. In this story lies an example of what I am talking about. Such an individual, and I am sure Hebrews had plenty like them, too, would answer to no one unless, we tell ourselves, there's an unseen God who he will, eventually, answer to. That helps the ones he victimizes deal with being victimized. They tell themselves, fellow men cannot catch this guy and bring him to justice but God, one day, he will face God and God will do the punishing we are not allowed due to circumstances of our material incarnation.
I do agree with the idea Satan is just another of the el - "of God" beings however since he is not a part that honors the goodness of God, he is deprived of the "el" suffix. It is a way of calling him out on his cynicism. He hates mankind because God loves mankind. This is the reasoning behind Satan wanting to destroy humans. He is jealous of God's love for them. It is angels alone who should bask in the glory of God.
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When reading Job I found something else really interesting - it seemed to keep hinting strongly at an alchemical process as the push the boundaries of their own discursive logic. When they talked about the futility of life, the redundancy, it seemed to be driving at an idea that there's a much larger and longer-run structure than simply a person's incarnation; perhaps reincarnation but they never admitted that outwardly in Job. Rather they tried to fish around for causal understanding of what happens and why, Job's friends kept trying to verbally drag a confession out of him that he'd done something to deserve it (and they kept pressing him harder each time he didn't tell them what they wanted to hear - probably because the idea that God would allow such a thing scared too much to accept), some fourth guy comes in who doesn't know Job who tries to let all three of them have it, finally God shows up and says 'None of your business, you know nothing of what's happening here, and Job's right - he didn't do anything wrong'. After that he gives twice everything back to Job (albeit new humans don't replace humans lost) but it seemed to very much not be a meaningless episode because the implicit suggestion is that Job came out a stronger person and having faced such despair may have lost his fear of such things.
Job was numbed by the experience so he will no longer fear loss. The story is about a man who appears righteous but has lost everything. Most of the Old Testament theme concerns men who take action against the Mosaic Law, only to face reprimands and repercussions from God but what about the poor guy who everyone loves and has done nothing, goes to the temple every week, has never cursed God, stolen, murdered or committed adultery, yet catches leprosy, has his home sacked, looted, and burned to the ground, or loses his family in a tragic accident? No one has written a book for such an individual who needs counseling on how to cope. So, along comes the book of Job. It's like counseling for a grieving man and it offers hope. One day, God will give you a better wife, better kids, better farm, more money, more favor, just be patient and hold on. It addresses the response that might have been common then and happens now, "what did you do to deserve this? You must have done something!" I see Christians using this line of reasoning today. When a whirlwind happens, must be because you committed a secret sin of some kind, otherwise this terrible destruction wouldn't occur in your life. God is saying, shut up! You have no idea what you are talking about and it's none of your business anyway! Christians need to read this book more often. It addresses the way we judge each other in times of tragedy.
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Overall the way things balloon out in scope nothing in the story of Job seems to suggest anything like a battle for the salvation or perdition of man. Even the story of Adam and Eve in the garden and the eating of the apple (as well as the identity of the Necthash) has very different interpretations from the popular outlook and the Gnostic Luciferian version with Christ and Sophia as the tempters is just one of the better known, the other would be that the entire fall was leaving a much less ideal state - ie. lacking conscious volition - and in gaining conscious volition (ie. ego consciousness) gaining the awareness of desirable and less desirable situations, ie. good and evil. In that later story it was the evolution of humanity from a prior animal state where all hunting for food, mating, killing, etc. was not done with any sense of a morality. In fact it seems like the 613 Levitical laws were meant to even push that gap open wider and this is something if I remember correctly that Paul said a lot to in the book of Hebrews. Similarly the dive of humanity from pure/unexperienced souls down into the nater of matter (involution) and the return back to whence we came (evolution) is the underlying meaning of Jesus' parable of the prodigal son.
It seems like a simple story for a Rabbi to disclose during a time of sickness, suffering, and loss. They try to make sense of it. If the person experiencing it appears righteous, he will have a more difficult time explaining it to others who will add to his misery by determining, he
must be an evil person putting on a good act. These Bible stories were for Rabbis to tell others as a form of counseling before the invention of psychology.
20 Jul 2015, 2:39 am
