Cosmic Mountains in Biblical Narratives

The Mountain E3 — The biblical authors portray Eden as a cosmic mountain—an overlapping Heaven and Earth space in God’s presence. Humans are placed on the Eden mountain and given a choice: Will they trust God’s voice and wisdom, or will they seize the knowledge of good and bad on their own terms? In this episode, Jon and Tim discuss the drama that plays out on the first cosmic mountain and how it becomes the pattern for every future mountaintop story in the Bible.

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Timestamps 

• Chapter 1: Recap of What We’ve Learned So Far (0:00-12:33)
• Chapter 2: The Cosmic Eden Mountain (12:33-33:27)
• Chapter 3: The First Humans Fail the Mountain Test (33:27-58:50)

Referenced Resources

• The Tabernacle Pre-Figured: Cosmic Mountain Ideology in Genesis and Exodus by L.M. Morales (Link to PDF, since book is not available for sale)
• The Symbolism of the Biblical World: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Book of Psalms by Othmar Keel
• Check out Tim’s library here.
• You can experience our entire library of resources in the BibleProject app, available for Android and iOS.

Show Music

• “Dreamscape Lagoon” by Enzalla
• “Rain or Shine” by Birocratic & Middle School
• BibleProject theme song by TENTS 

Show Credits

Production of today's episode is by Lindsey Ponder, producer, and Cooper Peltz, managing producer. Tyler Bailey is our supervising engineer. Aaron Olsen edited today’s episode and also provided the sound design and mix. JB Witty does our show notes, and Hannah Woo provides the annotations for our app. Our host and creative director is Jon Collins, and our lead scholar is Tim Mackie.

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