Quotes from Brian Godawa

How deliciously ironic that something so apparently beneficial to the mind as education could be twisted into a tool of power to lull young minds into thoughtless adherence.

According to the Bible, pointing out wrong is part of dwelling on what is right, exposing lies is part of dwelling on the truth, revealing cowardice is part of dwelling on the honorable, and uncovering corruption is part of dwelling on the pure.

Even the God of the Bible uses different names for himself in different instances to communicate his different attributes. While this is not familiar to modern readers and can cause difficulty in keeping all the names and identities straight, I have chosen to employ that peculiar technique as a way of incarnating the ancient worldview and mindset. So reader be warned to watch names carefully and expect them to be changing on you even when you are not looking.

the toledoth or genealogy, 'These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood. The sons of Ham were Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan.' Now by careful exegesis of the tablet text, I noticed that there was an unusual repetitive reference to 'Ham, the father of Canaan.' Hermeneutics, or the art of textual interpretation, would tell us that such repetition points toward an unusual identity of the object.

For us to demand that the Biblical text be scientifically or historically "accurate" as we define those terms is not a high view of Scripture, it is a low view of Scripture. It is in fact imposing our own prejudices upon the text by refusing to understand it within its context. This is called cultural imperialism and it is the height of hubris, or human pride.

Canaan was a tall lanky man. As part of the slave force of Nimrod's growing kingdom, he did not receive any more rations than his fellow slaves, and thus he suffered, for the need of his larger frame which rose a head above the others exceeded that of the others. He entered Ishtar's tent behind Sinleqi, moving slowly and unresponsively. His malnourished body looked skeletal, with his eyes sunken in their sockets. The voice of Ishtar boomed across the space, "Welcome, Canaan!

The mind of man is never so cunning as when it is involved in the art of self-justification.

We have lived as slaves most of our lives. We do not know how to make choices

Noah had complained for so long about wanting to be left alone. Now he had his wish—to the utmost. He was finally, totally and utterly, alone. And he realized what a complete selfish fool he had been.

An angel could traverse between worlds, but would become subject to the limitations of both. Uriel knew this from experience. But a Naphil lived in both worlds at once. In some ways Nephilim were stronger than mal'akim, but the mal'akim angels had one significant advantage: They were immortal, Nephilim were not. Nephilim could die. That point gave Uriel some small satisfaction.

Uriel looked back up from where he came and muttered, "Now that is a deep pit." "You came back for me," Noah blubbered, barely able to speak. Uriel smiled with a big grin. "You know Elohim. He hounds you until you freely obey." He had that hint of irony that Noah had learned to love so dearly. Noah burst out laughing in tears. Uriel could see that Noah was a new man. He shared the laugh with Noah, helped his weak companion to his feet, and embraced him.

In your blood runs the future of a people who have the power to change the world. I am the god you will need to help you be able to do so." "B-but I am cursed of Elohim," said Canaan, "to be a slave to the sons of Noah." Ishtar bent down and whispered with a hiss, "When I am done with you, you will rule over the sons of Noah! And Elohim will choke on his curse as you choked on this food.

What exactly is a cherubim?" Salah began. "Cherub," corrected Uriel. "Cherubim is the plural. They are the carriers of the throne chariot of Elohim. They were also guardians of the tree of life and the gates of Eden," said Uriel. "What do they look like? Do they look like you?" Salah's childlike innocence amused Uriel. "They are far more terrifying than me." "That isn't saying much," Noah jested.

not a single scrap of actual historical or archeological evidence for this theorizing, it also reeks of modern imperialism by projecting stupidity onto the writers of some of the most intelligent and poetic literature in history. Such arrogance is easily dismissed when one studies the ancient cultural context of divine names as expressing character traits related to specific situations.

3 Maccabees 2:4-5 Thou didst destroy those who aforetime did iniquity, among whom were giants trusting in their strength and boldness, bringing upon them a boundless flood of water. Thou didst burn up with fire and brimstone the men of Sodom, workers of arrogance, who had become known of all for their crimes, and didst make them an example to those who should come after.[43] [notice "making an example for those after" that is also referenced in Jude 7]

The sinner uses sin-tainted reason (Eph 4:18) and empirical observations to rationalize a prejudice against God (Rom. 1:18); he does not use it to discover truth wherever it leads. As

poetry rose in Noah's heart: The pillars of heaven tremble and are astounded at his rebuke. By his power he stilled the sea; by his understanding he shattered Leviathan. By his wind the heavens were made fair; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent. Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand? And Noah knew that Elohim was his guardian who controlled even the sea dragon of chaos.

But when one researches the meaning behind the original Hebrew words, their truer fuller meaning comes to light. Elohim is revealed as a more generic plural reference to the Creator as all humankind can know through general revelation.[7] El Elyon has a linguistic affinity to the Ugaritic "Elyon Ba'al" a name for the Most High God of Canaan, and therefore a polemical stance against him. Ba'al is not the Most High, the God of Israel is.[8]

El Shaddai, carries with it a possible derivation of "God of the mountain," a common understanding of deities in the ancient Near East as revealed in power on mountains (Mount Sinai and Mount Zion are God's locations of self-disclosure).[9] Finally, Yahweh is the "eternally self-existent one" who is the unique covenantal name of Israel's deity in opposition to the nations.[10]

Yahweh chooses what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. He chooses what is weak to shame the strong, and what is low and despised—the things that are not—to bring to nothing the things that are. The only thing I can offer you is that Yahweh did not choose Israel because she is more righteous than other nations. She is not. He chose her so that our faith in him may not rest in our own goodness, but in the power of Yahweh, who delivers us from our own evil.

Sometimes a piece of literature is intended to be factual or historical, sometimes poetic or figurative, oftentimes both. So it is the literary context that determines how a scripture should be understood, not our expectations that we bring to the text. Since the Bible is literature with different genres and styles of writing, we should be literary in our interpretation, not literal.

When Yahweh told Moses he revealed himself to the forefathers as El Shaddai, but not as Yahweh, he was saying that they only knew him in a limited sense that was not as full as he was about to reveal. The Mosaic revelation of Yahweh on Sinai would be a dramatic world changing self-disclosure of God's unique character through his Law, a new revelation of God. This is what would separate them from the nations as a holy people of God's own choosing.

The giants had been brought to all these cities to accomplish mighty feats of industry for the Rephaim. The purpose had been to glorify the gods and build an empire of power for the pantheon. But it had all gotten out of control. Now, the entire civilization was in jeopardy of collapsing. The giants were large, strong, warrior-like, and organized. They appointed leaders to press their demands upon the Rephaim rulers of all the cities. Revolution seemed inevitable.

In the section below on Babel Inheritance, Deuteronomy 32:9 is shown to describe Yahweh as dividing the nations up at Babel and allotting the peoples under the authority of other gods, while keeping Israel as his own people. Yahweh would be the name he would use to mark the strong demarcation between his people and the people in slavery to other gods.