Who were the Rephaim? Analysis of Ugaritic, Phoenician and Biblical Sources to Solve this Mystery
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 มี.ค. 2022
- The Rephaim are among the attested but most mysterious entities mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, 30 times in 10 Books. But what were they? Ancient giants, kin of the famed Nephilim, the spirits of the kingly dead, supernatural physicians or something else entirely? This episode explores the Ugaritic, Phoenician and Biblical Sources to uncover the mystery.
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#rephaim #nephilim #bookofenoch
Recommended Readings:
Yogev - The Rephaim - 978-90-04-46085-0
Coogan, Smith - Stories from Ancient Canaan - 978-0664232429
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7:44 Who else is experiencing déjà vu while watching at this point
Hello Dr. Sledge I wanted to know about the large circular stone at 3:10 I really like the design and was wondering if you could post a full picture or link to one.
It almost sounds like the Rephaim were a group (Order) of Illuminated human(oid?) beings who's true nature and aspirations became clouded by zealots of the time.
Brill is a typical example of what's wrong with the world today. Everyone is out to get rich, only thinking about themselves and their clique. Knowledge is priceless and in that regard it should be equally accessible to everyone who aspires to know more. I mean, it's only ink, paper and publicly accessible content. If Brill sold 100,000 copies at $100 they could most likely sell 1,000,000 copies at $30 and triple their profits in roughly the same timeframe, likely sooner. Monopolies on this kind of knowledge are of the most deplorable kind...
@@cosmiccrunch8591 I'm pretty sure they were just a myth, and to defend Brill their books are very high quality, absolutely not public domain material, and are mostly meant to be sold to libraries which do, in fact, make them very accessible. As much as I crap on them, I literally just check our Brill books all the time. It's that easy.
@@TheEsotericaChannel Good chance they were, but myths hold truths just beyond the grasp of common reason. If we could just revert temporarily to that primitive mindset... Yeah the example price I gave is not realistic when you consider the quality of the book and its contents. I didn't mean to write public domain, meant to write publicly accessible. I was referring to the work referencing publicly accessible content, but I may be wrong there too. I didn't realize they were mainly intended to be sold to libraries. Good point on the accessibility via libraries, hadn't considered that. It would still be nice if I could afford to actually own many of the books they've published.
Dr. Sledge doesnt get enough credit for how hilarious and so on point perfect his jokes can be sometimes.
Seriously. I had to pause while I laughed
Hahahah. Same!
Agreed 😂
You forgot how dry he delivers, which makes it even more hilarious 😂
He cracks me up!!!
In modern English we still reference the hair of a dog in hangover cures. To take ‘the hair of the dog that bit you’ means to combat an alcohol induced hangover by drinking more alcohol (staying drunk). Fascinating that the association has such a long history.
Yeah that's a trip, and I suspect many more sayings are similarly ancient and far removed from their origins.
@@doomguy9049 where do you think the druids were from? 'Worshippers of the Grove' grove=asherah in Hebrew
I have to admit, TH-cam algorithm did a great job by recommending me your channel! I have been interested in all things occult and religious from the childhood but of course, I couldn't understand much. This channel came to me like a blessing! Thank you for your work, I have a lot to watch
How can anyone not love this channel? I never knew this stuff was so FASCINATING, and to have it presented by so personable and extraordinarily knowledgable a scholar -- wonderful. Thank you!!!
Wow, that's really fascinating! I'm very glad that we've recovered those Ugaritic tablets. Thank you for your wonderful scholarship.
Thank you! Really appreciate your works.
This was glorious. I wish I’d known about this when I was in Bible College. I would have been unbearable.
Hehehe
Just added Stories from Ancient Canaan to my reading list! Thanks for the great intro to the topic.
Of course, it's a great little volume!
This is very fascinating. I wonder whether the narrative of the 'fallen ones' and their 'relationships' with human women may refer to actual historical events, as in that case they must have been humans themselves in order to produce offspring? Average stature for men has increased about 4.3" since the mid 1800s in some places, and presumably even more so compared to ancient times. If that were the case then any 'tribe' of people of around 6' or more may very well have been seen as 'giants'. Thank you very much for making such high quality material available to us.
@Seamus Collins: They were said to be 30 cubits in height 🤝
You may want to research the Annunaki connection to the Nehphilim.. enjoy your journey down the rabbit hole 🐇
Bigfoot hair has been genetically tested and it has female DNA from this region with an as yet unknown origin for the father. According to many sightings bigfoot are giant psychic humans. The problem with reading the bible and other ancient sources as oppositional, like say whether the Rephaim were giant or not, is that scholars are working from remnant scraps. There was undoubtedly a lot of lost shared context. It would be like some future man reading a series of our e-mails and trying to deduce the entirety of the modern world's lived context. It would be impossible past a certain point. For instance, if they were doctors does that explain the ubiquitous 'bag' you see in relief carvings? Was it a medicine bag? People just want to hedge and not actually lend credence to ancient myths as having a possible basis in reality.
There are also many cultures in which people (especially often nobility/royalty) are believed to be descendants of demigods or other mixtures between humans and non-human supernatural beings.
Wow! I was literally reading Numbers last week and encountered the Rephaim there and then my book on Ugaritic myths by Mark S. Smith arrived and I found out there was writing of the Rephaim in there and I found the link between them and the Nephilim (Just based on the similarities of the words, thats how I backtracked to rereading Numbers' entry on a Rephaim) and now your video? Glorious.
How about numbers 21 verses 6 to 9?
@@evans808274mc9la what about it?
@xaayer maybe Evans is getting at the mending or healing idk...
Seems numbers 16:2 would be covered more in these discussions but never is.
@@xaayer the brazen serpent. Check the Hebrew words for it and also the name of brass
@@evans808274mc9la I suppose that would tie to the question of them healing but I don't see a direct connection of the characters with that item
One thing that I love about videos like these is that it helps me understand Judaism better, to peel back the redactions that made the almighty look more like Zeus than El. I feel like it helps me practice better knowing the context of what I'm doing rather than it being just "Tradition". Your video on forbidden forms of magic for example aided
me in knowing the bounds of my interest of divination. The main insight that I took from it was that it was forbidden to use divination that did not rely on G-d, or take the free will of others (Khover of Khever). It adds a clarity to torah that hasn't been present since the days of the davidic kings. Talmud and Mishna focused on preserving the law but not spirituality of Judaism to the point to where we borrowed afterlifes from the Greeks and Persians. Your explanation of the Rephaim shows what the world to come would have been to the earliest prophets, and perhaps what we should expect.
I’m paying attention to this greatly: these texts (the Book of Enoch additionally) and the Vedas make reference to tall peoples that came from the sky. I just wish we had hard data in addition to the stories.
Great episode! I love learning about the divine court/Elohim- it unravels monotheism; which we definitely need to repair its historical and social harm. And, the further clarity of Satan’s origin is VERY important to de-demonize ways of knowing.
I am so in love with this channel. You have no idea how long I have been searching about Canaan. Well two years lol. Not that long but finding good information that is affordable is hard to come across. Thank you for your insight on this subject. The Rephaim are fascinating to me.
Is what you are saying - biblical writers took the Genesis account to “one fell swoop” contain all the semi divine beings into a story that demythologized and made them easier to conquer, but still formidable?
TYYYYYYYY
I've been down so many rabbit holes of every kind of story, I'm all the way back to Religious texts 🤣
It's been good. Who'd have guessed what would make "Bible" study interesting is pathological detail 👍🏻
I enjoy your antiques and knickknacks 😊 I appreciate you and your team, Good Work!
Team? Just me ;)
This content is pure gold, thank you!
The Rephaim irresistibly remind me of the Jotnar in Norse myths. Often translated as 'giants', Jackson Crawford suggests 'anti-gods' as more appropriate - they are seldom any bigger than their usual opponents, the Aesir (gods). There is a tangled history between the Aesir and the Jotnar - often enemies, but occasional allies or even sexual partners. Hel, the goddess of the non-heroic underworld, is the daughter of Loki and a 'giantess'. Of course, the Norse myths have no gravitational pull towards monotheism - which gives them a rather different flavour.
yes!!!
Haven’t seen the episode yet, but the idea of the Rephaim translating as “The Doctors” has me giggling in geeky Galifreyan glee. Well of course they are dangerous and confusing!
Thanks for this, Dr J.
Such a good video! Thanks!
this session was so nice i liked it twice !
You seem so cool man, been listening to you for hours. Love the way you instruct, your passion about history, specifically the texts actually warm my heart. You sir, we're a great find. Also, videos are tight man - from intro, to lesson, to conclusion you have a nice lil 30 min window for each of these nuggs. Keep up the great work.
Just ordered Stories From Ancient Canaan because of this episode. Such a fascinating time and area of the world. Love your channel so much! :D
Man I love this channel thanks Justin.
loving the videos on caainties!
am glad i found this channel
OMG ANOTHER EPISODE OF ESOTERICA IS OUT *uncontrollable fangirling*
Very informative. Thanks
Very cheeky in this episode. Very interesting as always
🤘I love this guy. Well done, Justin!🤘
The picture at 14:27 is a gypsum wall panel of Ashurbanipal chilling with his wife Libbali-Sharrat at the north palace in Nineveh, it's displayed in the Brittish museum. 1856,0909.53.
Great video and presentation! In your introduction you had a crookes radiometer present. Do you discuss it in a previous video? It's an interesting device!
I wish more of my university professors could lecture this well
I’m excited to finish this, but also my view of the Hebrew Bible is that it’s likely a combination of mythologies from different regions all over the eastern Mediterranean and Mesopotamia. Likely the leftovers from the Bronze Age collapse win the Levant area. We know Egypt stopped a force coming by land around Southern Lebanon as well as the battle in the Nile. Then the Egyptian Empire lost all but the area immediately around the Nile river. This time period after the collapse and before anyone new from outside really comes in to take over the region again, you have the leftovers of the massive movement of people from all over. Mycenaeans, Hittites, Babylonians, Canaanites, etc etc, and it’s about 200-300 years or so before we see any evidence of Hebrew Scripture(oldest is around 900 BC). 200-300 years is about the time it took for the US to go from 13 British colonies to the modern country today. And I think it was probably a lot like that in this region during this time. At some point some of these different people got together and shared their stories, and someone got the bright idea of combining them into one story thus combing the peoples into one people, like uniting the 13 colonies against the British, but their enemy was probably more like bandits and warlords. They craft this origin story with all this supposed genealogy tying all of these various families together into one big family making it easier to get along and get going with the work of civilization. All the various gods and stuff are replaced with just god or lord or angels.
Yeah, like every mythology and culture, literally
I'm a new scriber I really enjoy your factual gnosis thx 4 sharing I will too. 💋
The Rephaim look like the Levant equivalent of hero cults in Mycenaean Greece.
Also reminds me of the Egyptian Pharoah Cult, later Roman Imperial Cult, and even the current Shinto Amateratsu/Chrysanthemum Throne link.
That was good! Thanks 😉
This is truly fascinating! I'm really enjoying this playlist - thanks for making & sharing it with us! ❤️❤️
Really like this one. The reason I signed up to patreon.
I love watching your videos! I always learn something new. I’ve studied some near eastern mythology, and quite a lot of Hebrew Bible (though my Hebrew is rusty these days). I’m curious if you would be willing to do a video sometime on how you hold your study of the ancient world and your lived expression of faith. You present, at least, as an observant Jew so does knowing that the Hebrew Bible is an amalgamation of other near eastern myths impact your lived expression of faith? This is a genuine curiosity, and not meant to be an indictment! I’m just curious how scholars who are also religious manage to hold both are scholarship and the religiosity. Thank you for all that you do!
I'm a Reconstructionist following the teachings of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, z"l, who rejected supernaturalism while retaining the importance of tradition. In short, it means that I take my religion very seriously while taking very little of it literally.
@@TheEsotericaChannel thank you!
Great show
CANNON !!!! Love John !!!!
I absolutely love Canaanite mythology. It's so fun.
Also isn't this idea of giant heroes eerily similar to the ancient Greek idea of the titans?
I think the Greeks got the titans from Hittites actually so it's possibly the other way around. Also, Peter references Tartarus as the place the angels who sinned before the flood are imprisoned. If that cadre of angels made the 'gods' and demi-gods then they are the titans by analogy. Also, the titans being produced from the union of Uranus and Gaia implies the union of heaven and earth, which is quite literally what the giants were supposed to be. I think it's impossible to draw perfectly matching 1:1 relationships but the general outlines tend to be pretty consistent.
Cadmus, the PHoenician prince who went looking for his sister, Europa landed in Greece and brought them the alphabet amongst other things, such as the religion of the Cabiris or the great ones/titans...
@@tamerllc4355 This is the founder of the city in the Bacchae, right?
@@stevenv6463 yes!
By El this was great!
Hi I'm Troy from Sydney Australia I grew up with out a biblical studies So I'm looking for answers or just the truth about life and about death . Thank you for this very helpful knowledge.
You might find some answers from the you tube channel mike winger
What a gem of a channel to come across. Subscribed!.
I’ve been looking forward to this one! Love your humor and insight
Thank you for your wonderful services, and providing such amazing and easily digestible content Dr. Sledge!! Your humor is just....the best. You're the best. Plus you speak so clearly and straight to the point that it is just refreshing to listen to everything you say. What a great video and a great teacher! 💜
perhaps you could one day cover some myths with asherah and el?? 🥺🤍
Thanks for the kind words!
Oh please oh please Asherah and El? I did a huge research project on Asherah and her... changes between pre -Israelite times and how she eventually became "Yahweh's Asherah".
As a pagan woman, and a religious studies scholar, this story in particular fascinates me.
I would love to get your take, Dr. Sledge.
Blessings. ✨
They used to use amethyst as amulets for hangover cures☺
Love you man, you are awesome. Thank you.
Wonderful!
haha you are truly a perfect sharer of knowledge!!
awesome channel name and video. subscribed.🍻
Thanks!
Great.info
I saw that today was April Fool’s day. I was worried that this video would have been a prank, but I’m glad it wasn’t! Such a fascinating subject matter, keep up the good work!
Do you know why it is called April Fools Day? I recommend to know it.
Welcome to the New Year!
The most fascinating facet of the OT is its vagueness, IMO.
It really expresses how mystical and preternatural phenomena is confusing and often unclassifiable
It also is a masterstroke of rhetorical preservationism, keeping at the forefront the relevant practicalities of truth while framing the mystical and miraculous within bounds of esoteric revelations without completely discounting the empirical possibility supernatural manifestation, at the same time also preventing honest plain exegesis from easily escalating into exaggerated mythic paganism without textual mishandling.
Absolutely look forward to your cast! So appreciate this!
Thank you justin
I have been very appreciative of your channel. This vid is great! Best explanation I have ever gotten about the Rephaim. Thank you
This is so interesting, enjoyed every second of this video, Rephaim from Ugarit reminds me on some later half god heroes like Hercules and the story of Rephaim from the bible who are living in Sheol reminds me on Titans who are dwelling in the underworld.
It's not coincidental.
Thanks!
allso recomended cideo, glad to bumped on you
Once i did a Ghostwriter work in Italy for a - quite famous - client Who made a lot of money with a kinda "conspiracy theory take" on esotericism. The work was quite fun bc i have a master degree in philosophy - i am a teacher now - and Always cherished the scholar study of esotericism. Seeing this video made me laugh so much remembering that time and considering that - under the adagio of my boss: "MORE ALIENS" and the influence of tons of weed - in the book i wrote i turned the poor rephaims into trans genetic mystic alien hybrid hive minds! Anyway, as Always, Amazing work! I take occasion Also to share you my most sincere compliments fot your article on Edward Kelley that made me discover the Amazing work of Tanya Luhrmann! You are always an inspiration to me!
Very interesting because it gives another meaning to רוח רפאים - ruach rephaim - spirit of rephaim - ghosts
That's a more modern usage of the term.
How i missed this video, but it popped up on my home page so it must have gained some popularity. 👍👍👍
Awesome presentation. Thank you very much!
18:00 you ask how stories of giants proportions get exaggerated. Men coming home from a fishing trip ALWAYS tell of the " one that got away"... usually a minnow, water logged tree branch or rock. The Alleged fish is usually a record for the breed.
Great stuff! I am reminded of writer Thomas Pynchon's "'Thanatoids," a fictional group roaming northern California in his eminently readable "Vineland" (1990).
Would enjoy hearing your opinions on the Epic of Atrahasis
haha love your roasting of Brill at the end of video
They bring it upon themselves
YES! Thank you for making this. :)
Lol the brill shade is always hilarious
Said it more than once already. Your presentation and approach has great class. Appreciated again as well. TY for the dedication and scholarly research based approach.
Mahe Ohna ✌️ Favour ALL
Subscribed! Your presentation fills in many important gaps in my studies so far! Thank you so much.
0:59
Interesting.
3:22
Sounds interesting.
8:36
I see.
10:26
Curious.
11:25
Didn't know that.
12:17
Rephaim in the OT.
20:58
Rephaim in Sheol.
To make whole or stitch together would be accurate. When the sons of the Fallen Angels (demons) died, they rested around their physical tomb, until a boy was left there for them to possess
What
So watching your videos has helped so much with understanding the Context for the Old Testament. I have been trying to understand the geopolitical and social environments that were formative for many of the religious persuasions and traditions that have come out of the Abrahamic lineages, and lately the lineage of Cain through to the Generation of Lamech outlined in Genesis 4:19-25 has been a tantalizing glimpse into the “Seed” of Eve through Cain, with the sons and daughter of Lamech being the Founders of the Major fields of animal husbandry, agriculture, arts, manufacturing and particularly, music.
I have come to believe that the PreFlood generations of Cain had established a fully Global government that spanned the continents of Northern Africa ( at the least ), the Mediterranean, upper Europe and Eurasia, down into the Indian Peninsula, the Far East and through to Australia, as well as across the Atlantic Ocean and dotted throughout the Pacific Basin/Ring of Fire.
What seems very clear also, is that the Human tendencies to describe those with whom one has conflicts or different perspectives on one’s own beliefs tends to cause us to Categorize “others” as demonic, while seeing “ourselves” as the ‘Righteous’ ones.
It’s been the same for every religious ideology from the Dawn of Time. That tends to make the outside observer think that there’s nothing New under the Sun.. or Moon, and lends to lively discussions such as occur in your comments section, and gives folks like myself the opportunity for honest introspection.
Thanks, Dr. Sledge. Enlightening as always.
Blessings!
You have a curious position. Are you saying that you believe the early chapters of genesis contain largely literal truths, but are still heavily tainted by ancient politics? I don't think I've ever seen this particular mixture of extreme belief and scepticism about scripture before
Dr Michael Heiser has written a lot about this.
Dr Sledge, could the earlier understanding of the Rephahim be related to the word “Elohim”, the latter of which I’ve heard was originally used to denote the 70 children of El, of which Ba’al and Yahweh were members. “Elohim” is used in Genesis as well, but in a more ambiguous and seemingly contextless and contradictory way to denote a plurality of gods which is going in the wrong direction of a burgeoning monotheistic tradition and I’m guessing this is why we don’t hear this term much if at all later in the biblical texts.
Thank you so much for this.. This was amazing. May it be possible that 'Daniil' has something to do with the 'Tribe of Dan'? Maybe there is a connection there.
Over COVID and first :-)
Ha! Glad to hear it, brother!
Woah, is the passage you refer to with El the origin of the expression "hair of the dog"?!
I love the ancient Near East. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for this wonderful lecture, wish you happy and kosher passover.
Think I'll be ordering a new book for my personal library...
Heya Dr. Sledge, I don’t at all ask this in an aggressive way, I’m just curious, but I noticed you pronounced the Tetragrammaton, and I was wondering if you would be willing to share the mindset that comes behind making that decision?
I'm an academic making academic rather than religious content. The correct pronunciation of יהוה is and will likely remain unknown. "Yahweh" is just an academic attempt to name this ancient god.
I like the mortal combat reference! Although maybe "Elhanan wins" could be more fitting??
Was expecting an April Fool's switcheroo or somethin' today...
I needed this. It confirms my own personal research.
Lucifer (literally morning star, not actually a name) found in the book of Isaiah 14:12
is referring to the fall of Nebuchadnezzar.
The term Lucifer doesn't occur in the original text
I'm starting to notice a subtext in this channel... your bank balance Vs Brill's pricing structure. ;)
Brill's prices are the only devil I believe in
Superb scholarship and engaging presentation, glad to have discovered this channel!
Thanks for making this material so accessible and enjoyable. Great video!
Hi why I watch is to match my human being experience. I soon realised no one thought like me. The older I got I was a bit concern. Following a usually path. Children husband. Worked. Then on to study. Attended church. Love parents. When to pud. You are the only person that explains. What I seen is nothing like my experience you make sense to me. All one
Honestly, I am stretching probably, but some of the tales seem like allegories to me for gnostic-like ideas: A person purifies / perfects, reaches a higher realm or builds a body or presence in a higher realm, gets help / makes friends / mates or merges with something from that higher realm, but they also exist in the material world. Can their higher realm friend be their guardian angel? Were they pulled up through the water's surface as seen from above, consciously speaking. Does that give them an edge to survive a flood? What is the flood supposed to mean, esoterically. Death? Mayhem in the material world? This is all very interesting.
Not that I think you will see this or respond, but I’m interested in having a conversation with you. I’ve recently discovered your channel - and I’ve learned so much - but I have some answers from a more historical (rather than religious history) to things that you’ve said are unknown.
Understanding our collective history has been a focus for me since I was 8. I started with religious questions, but have found many answers outside those boundaries.
you have answers? Please do tell ive been waiting forever
Great now I got to go buy an expensive book, sigh. Also thank you for getting this info out to folks like me.
A video on Remphan in the future?!?