I’ll be blogging a few thoughts on each speaker and topic for our upcoming (August 18) Naked Bible Conference. You can read the full abstract of each speaker and topic at the website. My thoughts here are just to give you all a heads up as to why I invited the...
PanBabylonianism
PanBabylonianism: The Wellspring of Middle Earth PaleoBabble
I came across this essay recently. It’s from the out of print book, Mesopotamian and the Bible, edited by Mark Chavalas and Lawson Younger. The essay is by Chavalas, a scholar of biblical studies and ancient Mesopotamia: Chavalas Assyriology and Biblical Studies...
Recent Interview on Revolution Radio (UK) – Divine Council, Gnosticism, and More!
Here’s the interview on YouTube, send to me by the host, Paul Stevenson:
Debunking the Anunnaki and Nibiru Mythologies on The Leak Project
I was recently interviewed on the Leak Project, which is a Coast to Coast AM-like podcast. It was fun. We talked about a lot of subjects related to paleobabble and ancient astronaut myths. Enjoy!
An Assyrian Origin for the Trinity?
Some readers may be aware of claims in this regard popularized on the internet. The idea is actually fairly old, but in recent years has gained steam via the work of a credentialed Assyriologist, Simo Parpola. A few years ago I had the role of soliciting papers for an...
Understanding Pan-Babylonianism
I’ve blogged about the 19th century academic trend (one is tempted to call it a craze) referred to as Pan-Babylonianism before. In simplest terms, this was the era following the heels of the decipherment of cuneiform, which made the literature of the ancient...
Joseph Farrell’s 150-Year Learning Curve on Yahweh and Cuneiform Texts
A few days ago I exchanged emails with Cris Putnam who blogs at Logos Apologia. The conversation was in regard to how Dr. Joseph Farrell had published certain ideas about the name Yahweh in cuneiform texts that people who are actually in this field (ancient Semitic...
Sachs, Velikovsky, and Sitchin
A short time ago I blogged about the work of C. Leroy Ellenberger, at one time a first-tier defender of Immanuel Velikovsky who later came to doubt and then refute that brand of catastrophism, sent me a link I thought I’d share with readers. Leroy’s link...
Aryan Mythology as Science and Ideology
I recently came across this interesting scholarly article on how Aryan Paleobabble was used by the Nazis. It’s a good academic introduction tracing their rationale and (mis)use of archaeology, linguistics, and social science data.
The Pan-Babylonian Approach to the Hebrew Bible by Ancient Astronaut Theorists: Still Dead After All These Years
I’ve blogged before about “Pan-Babylonianism” — the idea that the content of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is basically plagiarized from Babylonian (more widely, Sumero-Mesopotamian) material. No serious biblical studies scholar or...
Genesis 1 as a Polemic Against Ancient Near Eastern Religious Cosmologies
We might as well jump into this. As a way to get everyone into the conversation, here is an article to read. It’s by Gerhard Hasel and entitled, “The Significance of the Cosmology in Genesis 1 in Relation to ANE Parallels.”
Is Zecharia Sitchin Anti-Semitic?
I don’t believe so (Sitchin is Jewish). That said, it seems Sitchin and his followers don’t realize how his ideas open themselves to that charge. How? Aside from pure imagination, a lot of Sitchin’s ideas presuppose a dependence of the Hebrew Bible...