Episode 35: Isaiah and the Messiah 2: Idolatry in Ancient Israel and During the Exile

Big thanks to our first podcast supporter! Thanks to ddrjqy! Just this last week I spent a bunch of money on new context books, so I appreciate the support.

This week we're going to explore the ancient Near Eastern world of polytheism and henotheism (the religion of pre-monotheistic Israel) in order to understand why the prophet Isaiah is having so much trouble convincing the exiled Jews that they really can trust God and that the idols of the nations are nothing. What were idols? Were they actually gods? What does it mean for a god to be jealous? Why didn't they believe that God could save them? What are cosmic functions and how did the concept of regional authority work?

This is all incredibly important foundational information for discussing the disputations and idol polemics that we find throughout Isaiah 40-55 and without this knowledge, it is very easy to make some wrong assumptions based on the faulty modern views of paganism put forth by the new age/Wiccan movement.