testpodcast1.2

The speaker introduces himself as Michael Morton, host of the Mysterious Bible Podcast. He explains that the podcast will focus on the strange and difficult passages of the Bible and aims to understand their intended meaning. He mentions that the podcast will occasionally have guests and use interpretive methods to analyze the text. The speaker then delves into a specific passage from 2 Kings 2:23-24, where the prophet Elisha curses some young men who insulted him, resulting in two she-bears attacking and killing them. He expresses his confusion and frustration with the lack of scholarship addressing this passage seriously. He refers to some sources that suggest the young men were actually young adults associated with the royal and priestly establishments of Bethel. The speaker concludes by highlighting the symbolic significance of the number 42 and suggesting that the insult may have been a challenge to Elisha's authority. Hello, my name is Michael Morton and I will be your host on my Mysterious Bible Podcast. I'm a graduate of the Awakening School of Theology and the author of the Divine Council Worldview devotional available on Amazon.com in the Kindle format. I'm currently enrolled in Stark Seminary. You may be wondering what the purpose of this podcast is. My mentor and primary teacher at the Awakening School of Theology, the late Dr. Michael S. Heiser, constantly emphasized that when it comes to the Bible, if it's weird, it's important. And that will be the main focus of the show. We will tackle the difficult and strange passages of the Bible by mining biblical scholarship for the meaning of these texts in their own context. Context will be king here. We will strive to understand what the author of the texts intended to convey. There will be no pop culture Christianity here. Occasionally, we will have guests on to share their findings in their own studies. And sometimes we may go through some interpretive methods that I've learned to help us parse the text correctly. This will give us a solid exegetical foundation when we need to go the extra mile in interpreting a difficult passage. So let's begin with a famously difficult passage. 2 Kings 2, 23, and 24 said at the beginning of Elisha's ministry around 850 B.C. Verse 23. He went out from there to Bethel. While he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jerted him, saying, Go up, you baldhead. Go up, you baldhead. And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys. From there he went on to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria. In my forty years as a Christian, I cannot recall one sermon about this passage. It seems so strange and out of character for a prophet of God. So rambunctious children tease you about your bald head, and a prophet of God curses them, and God honors the curse by sending two she-bears to maul forty-two of the boys? As a parent, that is a bit disturbing because I know my kids don't always act the way they should or how I'd want them to. But what do we do with this? Honestly, it was difficult and frustrating to find much scholarship that even made an effort to address this passage seriously. Thankfully, a few excellent scholars did put in the time and work necessary to make some sense of it. I'll show you a little bit of my journey. From the Bible Knowledge Commentary, we learn this. Chapter 2, verse 23. As Elisha was traveling to Jericho to Bethel, several dozen youths and, in parenthesis, young men, not children, confronted him. No explanation, no reasoning, no sources on how they arrived at these were young men and not children. But Elisha got me off to a start that, you know, this was an option. I next turned to the Cultural Background Study Bible and got this. The age of the mockers is uncertain. The Hebrew can refer to prepubescent children, but can also refer to the younger generation. The same Hebrew word describes Rehoboam's peers in 1 Kings 12.8 as young men, and all of them are over 40. This is probably a group of young teens, and that's the end of that entry. So, I had to go deeper, and I turned to an article that was found in the Society of Biblical Literature by Joel S. Burnett titled, Going Down to Bethel, Elijah and Elisha in the Theological Geography of the Deuteronomistic History. By the way, the term Deuteronomistic History covers the period of time from Deuteronomy to Kings. And I am now going to turn to that article pretty deeply. This language for young adult males derives from the social context of the House of the Father, the basic unit of ancient Israelite social organization. Accordingly, the term Nehar is applied to an unmarried male who has not yet become the head of a household. Lawrence E. Stager provides a biblical example of this language, explaining, David, the last born of Jesse, was a Nehar Ketom, not the smallest but the youngest of Jesse's eight sons, when he fought Goliath in 1 Samuel 16.11. As Stager explains, such younger sons within the household having no prospects for inheritance found status, wealth, and prestige in military, government, and priestly service. The other term for this group harassing Elijah is Devir, which at first glance would seem to indicate that these are lads or children. On the other hand, this is also used twice in 1 Kings 12 as a sole designation for Abom's young advisors, contemporaries who had grown up with them. In the Deuteronomistic History and elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, these terms are used to designate young adult males, usually with royal associations. Accordingly, the group of males who confront Elijah in 2 Kings 2, far from being little children, are young men of the royal and perhaps priestly establishment at Bethel. Against this group of young men, Elijah pronounces a fatal curse in the name of Yahweh in verse 24. The number of them killed is 42. Forty-two is also the number of young men of Judean royalty and with connections to the house of Omri, whom Jehu slaughters later in the narrative. Chapter 10, verse 14. Forty-two figures regularly in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East as a symbolic number of potential blessing or curse, confirming that the disaster was a result neither of a natural coincidence nor the prophet's own capricious nature, but of divinest intent. Symbolic reasons for Yahweh's assault against these young men of Bethel are reflected in the words of Elisha. One possibility suggested for the name-calling's precise nuance is that it involves a contrast to the description of Elijah as hairy, a contrast that suggests a challenge to Elisha's authority. They are letting Elisha know that he is no Elijah in their eyes. In any case, the verb means something along the lines of to mock, scorn, or make fun of. This makes clear that the young men address the prophet with reproach. The significance of this grisly episode comes into focus with some attention to the Hebrew expression behind the English translation. The traditional interpretation that males thus denote their children derives from a literal translation of the phrase. All languages use figures of speech and words have ranges of meaning. My wife is a babe. By that, I am not saying she is an infant. Contrast will determine meaning. In this case, I think we should at the very least seriously consider that the Hebrew word is used in a wider context and these are not young boys, but rather they are young men native to a place that was not loyal to the God of Israel. And that concludes our very first episode. Thank you for bearing with me as I learn how to do this. God bless you. Have a great week. And that concludes our very first episode. Thank you for bearing with me as I learn how to do this. God bless you. Have a great week.