/lit/ - Literature

I studied the Torah as part of my curriculum (Jew). I'm not a believer but those are pretty interesting stories and I greatly enjoyed them. If you're serious about it then you should do comparative reading with older Mesopotamian myths like the Enuma Elish, it's also historical to a degree in some places so you can compare ancient sources if you don't believe me. Its historicity is more so apparent in Kings I & II, it's also the most interesting part of the entire bible imho (if you like game of thrones this should be right up your alley).

There's also a more secret, esoteric reading to the bible, and I'm not talking about schizo mysticism or kabbalah. You need to remember that these stories were molded and compiled in an environment of mystery schools (Egypt, the Levant, Babylon, etc.), a time during which any spiritual figure was most likely part of one or more of these. But you see, Jews (and really any religion at the end of the day) have this pretense of canonical purity, so they can neither admit nor allow for the chance of profane/pagan/heretical themes being expressed in the bible, let alone by their prophets. So you really gotta read between the lines.

I had this epiphany when I read a booklet (like 50 pages) titled "The Alchemical Keys to Masonic Ritual" by some 33rd degree Freemason. Nevermind what the book's specifically about, but it mentions "raised salt" which is a magical substance that can heal anything. When I read that passage I had a flashback to Bible class when we went over the prophet Elisha (you'll read about him in Kings 2) who cleansed a spring by using "salt". There are three dumb ways in which you can interpret it: (1) regular salt has healing properties, and Elisha just dumped salt into the spring - that's what our teacher told us - which is fucking stupid because you'll need barrels for that and he doesn't have that, (2) be a fedora and gloss over it as just another silly, nonsensical tidbit in a wacky book, (3) it was regular salt but the spring was still cleansed because godidit. The fourth and only intelligent way to interpret it is as an esoteric ritual, as alchemy - I hope you understand that the point isn't that alchemy is real, the historicity of this event doesn't matter, what's important is that the mystery cult influences are recognized.

also Jesus was an alchemist