The Backyard Professor

A Note on the Shema - Deuteronomy 6:4

Hear O Israel: the Lord your God the Lord is one [echad]

The common Kabbalistic reading is:

"Hear O Israel: YHWH Elohaynu (Limited, Immanent Deity) [and] YHWH
(Unlimited, Transcendent Deity) are One [and the same]."

Or perhaps:

"Hear O Israel: YHWH (Unlimited, Transcendent Deity) [and] Elohaynu
(Limited, Immanent Deity) (both the Immanent and) YHWH (the Transcendent)
are One [and the same]."

Regarding this, Leet makes another significant observation:

"The central gnosis of sacred science, then,...

Where's the Podcasts Dude?

I caught a cold this weekend and sound like an alligator chewing tin cans, so I didn't podcast. I know it's been a few weeks. Hang in there with me, I shall return with them....... Thanks for all the inquiries and ideas.

Pantheism or Panentheism, Are They The Same?

From a good acquaintance of mine:

Pantheists believe that God is everything. And panentheists like myself believe that not only is God everything, but that everything exists within God. You know the scripture: "for in Him we live and move and have our being." I believe this is literally true; i.e., we are (b)eing within (B)eing. I thought that worth pondering....

Related to this, of course, is this further elucidation....

Ineluctable Modalities Part 2

The Tarot Cards have a way of presenting us with reality, or with a higher dimensional spiritual truth, or truths in picture format. James Joyce has also presented us with a remarkably fascinating way of understanding what we interpret to be reality in his books Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. In Ulysses, we find Stephen walking along the seashore trying to figure out what is going on. He is having a monologue with himself where he says “Ineluctable modality of the visible: At least that if no more, thought through my eyes.” (Ulysses, p. 37) That is, what his eyes see, is what is, and we cannot escape what we see as being real. What we see is what is real. It is inevitable that what Stephen sees is what is, and there is nothing more. This is the conundrum he faces. He then closes his eyes  and ....

Margaret Barker's Biblical Scholarship Appreciated

In FR 19/1, Michael Heiser refers to Margaret Barker via a reference to Brant Gardner essay and claimed that: "Barker's argument proceeds on the assumption that when the Hebrew Bible refers to sons of an El-derivative deity (El, Elyon, Elohim), those sons are heavenly beings. When the text speaks of Yahweh or the "Holy One" having sons, those sons are human beings. Barker's "crucial distinction" (p. 4) is incorrect since she misses Hosea 1:10, where "sons of the living God (El)" are clearly human beings. The Mormon material I have read has not caught the error and proceeds to make apologetic points on a flawed assumption. (Heiser, FR 19:1, page 262, note 73)" I responded to this on the MAD Boards, noting that Barker in fact did not miss Hosea 1:10,

More on Saturn & LDS Temple

Saturn is the last planet visible to the naked eye, the last of the
seven classical planets of antiquity. Uranus and Neptune had both been
discovered more than 100 years before, but classically speaking, Saturn
was the last thing you would see on your way out of the solar system.
This works well with the landmarks that I spoke of.

William Lilly's An Introduction to Astrology, 1852 London edition, p
35, states that Saturn "is the supremest or highest of all the
planets, and is placed between Jupiter and the firmament…"

The Ineluctable Modality of Reality - James Joyce Part 1

The Ineluctable Modality of Reality: A Combined James Joyce, Tarot Card Exploration

James Joyce and the Tarot Cards together present us with fascinating descriptions of what reality may be; the one through pictorial means, the other through the magnificence of literature and literary description, linguistic punning, and philological bravado. Joyce describes the reality which we apprehend with our senses, to be “ineluctable modalities.” Just what does that mean? Ineluctable, according to the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, (Oxford, reprint, 1983) says it comes from the French  in – eluctari – to struggle out, that which is inescapable. (p. 472). Modality has so many meanings that this is the best The Oxford English Dictionary comes up with for a concise definition: “Those aspects of a thing which relate to its mode, or manner or state of being, as distinct from its substance or identity.”

The Quintessential Dictionary by I. Moyer Hunsberger, (Warner Books Edition, 1978) , says ineluctable is that which

The Pearl of Great Price God Weeping; A Nifty Jewish Touch

The Weeping God

Years ago Hugh Nibley showed how the Enoch literature displayed God weeping, and noted this same phenomena in the Pearl of Great Price. in the Joseph Smith version, the amazing thing is that when God himself weeps and Enoch says, "How is it that thou canst weep?" ("Moses 7:29), Enoch bears testimony that the God of heaven actually wept. It is a shocking thing to say, but here again, if we go to another Enoch text, there it is! When God wept over the destruction of the temple, we're told in one of the midrashim that it was Enoch who fell on his face and said, "I will weep, but weep not thou!" God answered Enoch and said, "If thou [Enoch] wilt not suffer me to weep, I God will go whither thou canst not come and there I will lament"—in other words, it's none of your business if I want to weep. The significant thing is that the strange conversation in both stories is between God and a particular individual—Enoch. How would Joseph Smith know that?

In another text we are told,

Throne of God in Genesis account Before the Creation

The Throne of Glory at the Creation

Rashi, (R Schlomoh ben Yizchak - b1040 C. E.) the medieval Jewish commentator and scholar, commented on the creation account in Genesis that what was hovering (merachephet) over the waters during the initial stages of creation was not the Spirit of God, but rather the throne of God.(1) He said Kiseh’ hakavod ‘omed ba’avir umerachef al peni hamayim beruach piv shel haqadosh baruch hu’ - “The Throne of Glory was standing in the air and hovering over the surface of the water by the breath of the mouth of the Holy One, Blessed be He.“2) This is quite a remarkable insight which I believe is elaborated on in the Zohar in interesting ways. This is one of those esoteric interpretations which is not in the scripture, but is assumed knowledge of those who are, so to speak, “in the know.” One of those underlying fun little ditties which is generally not known, yet is believed by the mystical Jews. How it changes or helps our understanding of creation is very interesting to note.

I find it interesting that he lived before the great flowering of the Zohar, yet understood this idea of the Throne of God, even from before the

The "Missing" Nazarene Prophecy in Matthew Possibly Found!

The "Missing Prophecy"

A previously unknown passage in a copy of the book of I Samuel found at Qumran may help explain the mysterious "missing prophecy" referred to in the nativity story in the gospel of Matthew. In the first two chapters of that story, Matthew recites five vignettes associated with the birth of Jesus and concludes each by quoting from Hebrew Scripture to show that this was done "to fulfill what had been spoken by the LORD through the prophet." Four of those references are easily found in the traditional Old Testament - that the Messiah would be born of a

virgin11 and would be called Immanuel (Isa. 7:14); that Bethlehem would be his birthplace (Mic. 5:2); that he would come out of Egypt (Hos. 11:1); and that there would be mourning over Herod's slaughter of the children of Bethlehem (Jer. 31:15).