Table of Contents
This lecture says that a prophetic warning about kings shows how a human ruler behaves, and that similar patterns recur in biblical government. He reads Bel and the Dragon as politics. Subjects stop fearing the creature, refuse more labor, and the creature sees that the balance of power has shifted. Lessons like that, he says, including the campaign around Nelson Mandela and apartheid, disappear once Yahweh and Elohim are both rendered as the same divine title. People are then left with orders rather than criticism. He claims this wording also hides disputes about who may speak, from the late arrival of votes for adult women to systems that only look democratic. He retells a night entry at Westminster Abbey and England’s long use of a Scottish crowning stone taken in the late thirteenth century. He mentions George the Third as ruler of the American colonies, punishment for complaining about hunger, and the Urim and Thummim as power objects whose method is forgotten. He offers this as an account of translation and political memory.
Key points
- He says a king passage and the dragon tale are political warnings.
- He says rendering Yahweh and Elohim as one divine title erases those warnings.
- He claims the text also conceals struggles over votes, labor, and rule.
- He treats a crowning stone and priestly objects as lingering tools of authority.
- He presents the reading as recovery of political memory buried by translation.
Topics on this site
Short quotes
you will cry out to Yahweh for mercy and he will not hear you
PortalToAscension, Yahweh Is Not God
The speaker reads a warning that a cry to Yahweh for mercy will go unheard. Watch at 1:17
it's as if the dragon has been using the same old terrorizing practices for so long
PortalToAscension, Yahweh Is Not God
He pictures the dragon as a power that has reused the same terrors until they lose their force. Watch at 5:15
they could curtail the powers of their King and they could bring in a rule of law
PortalToAscension, Yahweh Is Not God
In the later king story, he says people could limit the crown and impose law. Watch at 12:52
Video by PortalToAscension. Watch on YouTube.