Prepare for an enriching and illuminating journey through the sacred text as we gather for a special Bible study event on February 10, 2024. WinGS (Women in God’s Service) is hosting a special event for ESVA women. Join us for an inspiring exploration of the Word led by the renowned Bible teacher, Jynnifer Albano.
Jynnifer Albano, known for her insightful and engaging approach to biblical studies, will guide you through an immersive experience aimed at unraveling the depths of the Word of God.
This event is a unique opportunity to deepen your understanding, ask questions, and engage in meaningful discussions about the passages, and for learning and fellowship with women of the Eastern Shore.
Reservations are required, contact Patricia for more information: sepety4@icloud.com
Paul Plante says
The history of “love” in the Bible?
How about buckets of blood in the Old Testament, instead!
But that reality aside, perhaps she could spend a moment on the controversy related to Melchizedek in the Old Testament who was both king and priest, was connected with Jerusalem, and was revered by Abraham, who paid a tithe to him.
Melchizedek appears as a person in Genesis 14:18–20, the story of Abraham rescuing his kidnapped nephew, Lot, by defeating a coalition of Mesopotamian kings under Chedorlaomer.
In the episode, Melchizedek meets Abraham on his return from battle, gives him bread and wine, and blesses Abraham in the name of “God Most High,” and in return, Abraham gives him a tithe of the booty he had amassed in that battle, which may well have included men, women and children as slaves, given that that is how things went back in those days of “love.”
And here we come to the controversy because Melchizedek is an old Canaanite name and the god whom Melchizedek serves as priest is “El ʿElyon,” again a name of Canaanite origin.
As to the Canaanites, they are best known from the biblical accounts that portray them as a hostile, pre-Israelite indigenous population residing in the “promised land” who were conquered by the tribes of Israel under the leadership of Joshua following their Exodus from Egypt.
The Canaanite religion featured worship of the supreme deity, El, and his partner Asherah, and the Canaanites also worshipped Ba’al (the god of rain and thunder), Anat (the goddess of war), and Astarte (the goddess of love and fertility).
Those of us who have read that history remember that The Canaanite religion included sacrifices to appease the gods, with cattle being sacrificed to El and Ba’al, and the Canaanites also performed human sacrifices, including children. with another important tradition in the Canaanite religion being rites of sexual fertility, which could be construed as love, I would suppose.
But back to9 the controversy because for Abraham to recognize the authority and authenticity of a Canaanite priest-king is startling and has no parallel in biblical literature.
The story may also relate to the conflict between the Levite priests descended from Abraham and the Zadokite priests of Jerusalem, who later changed their allegiance to Yahweh, the Hebrew god.
The Zadokites monopolized the Jerusalem priesthood until forcibly taken away to Babylon, at which time Levite priests asserted their own hegemony.
According to Britannica, the biblical account poses textual problems, because Abraham paying a tithe to Melchizedek is an interpretation, though a likely one, of the original biblical text, in which the matter is ambiguous with it seeming incongruous that Abraham would give a tenth of the booty to Melchizedek and then refuse to take any of it for himself (verses 22–23).
And again, some scholars have asserted that it would be unusual for an author of Davidic times to construct a narrative with a Canaanite protagonist.
Paul Plante says
As to Ba’al specifically, in the ritualistic Baal worship, adults would gather around the altar of Baal and infants would then be burned alive as a sacrificial offering to the deity, and amid horrific screams and the stench of charred human flesh, the congregants — men and women alike — would engage in bisexual orgies, which again could be construed as a form of love.