Genesis Marks the Spot Purity before Sinai 3: One Goat to Clean Them All - Episode 151
Concluding the mini-series reading from Udug-hul (Udug-hul) Tablet 12, a Mesopotamian exorcism/purification text, and tracing how a single goat in this ritual ends up doing several jobs—substitute, container of breath, apotropaic object, and finally the thing that carries evil away. From there, Carey compares the logic of the text with Leviticus 16 (Day of Atonement) and Numbers 19 (red heifer) and asks the hard question: where’s the line between ritual and magic? The answer is more nuanced than “the Bible isn’t magical.” Sometimes the Bible does very ANE-looking things—but without trying to force the deity. We also see that Mesopotamia loved protective objects (bells, cords, incense, figurines, “good” demons) and how Israel’s Scriptures both fit into and flip that world.
What we cover
- Quick recap of the first two episodes in this series
- Reading the next section of Tablet 12 (the “one goat doing many jobs” part)
- Apotropaic magic 101: bells, cords, circles, incantations, and why people felt vulnerable
- Why Mesopotamia can use the same class of being (storm demon) for harm or healing
- Parallels and contrasts with Leviticus 16 and Numbers 19
- “You don’t do a ritual if you don’t think it does something” — but what kind of “something”?
- How Israel’s rituals purify space without acting like they’re trapping a stray demon
- The seven protective figures and divine-council overtones
- A pastoral-ish landing: how might Christians still hedge their bets with low-key magical thinking?
On This Rock Biblical Theology Community: https://on-this-rock.com/
Website: genesismarksthespot.com
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GenesisMarkstheSpot
Music credit: "Marble Machine" by Wintergatan
Link to Wintergatan’s website: https://wintergatan.net/
Link to the original Marble Machine video by Wintergatan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q&ab_channel=Wintergatan