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What did God mean by “the iniquity of the Amorites”? Why did He single out a group of people that most of us have only heard of, if we’ve heard of them at all, in the list of nations that the Israelites had to push out of Canaan? There must have been something unique about the Amorites for God to call them out.Continue Reading

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The central feature of the temple at Urkesh was not a chapel or sanctuary, a place set apart for prayer and contemplation, or even a meeting hall for communal worship. It was a deep pit dug into the earth used to summon deities from the netherworld, including the chief god of the Hurrians, Kumarbi.Continue Reading

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In 1984, a husband and wife team of archaeologists began work at a site in northeastern Syria that should be far better known than it is. Their discoveries could be the link between the earliest post-Flood civilizations, the mysterious “sons of God” mentioned in Genesis chapter 6, and the myths of Greece and Rome.Continue Reading

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The first identity of this rebellious Watcher to appear in the historical record is not Saturn or his Greek analogue, Kronos. The Titan king and his Phoenician equivalent, Baal Hammon, don’t appear until the first millennium BC. Enlil of Akkad and Sumer appears in the written record around the end of the Uruk period, roughly 3200–2800 BC. But there is another identity worn by Saturn in ancient times that predates even Enlil.Continue Reading

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The people of the ancient Near East, which is roughly defined as the lands of the Bible during the Old Testament period, never really said goodbye to their ancestors. The dead hung around, always near, part of everyday life. In fact, they required the care and attention of their descendants, and through the rituals of the living, those who passed on remained an active part of family, tribe, and community.Continue Reading

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The story in the Book of 1 Enoch would make a compelling supernatural thriller. It has two main villains—Watcher-class angels named Shemihazah and Azazel. Shemihazah is the leader of the rebel faction—their king, if you will. But the sins of Asael form another narrative that’s worth our attention.

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