HISTORY, WORLDVIEW, CONTEXT MATTERS!
I want you to read, digest, and otherwise let the following statement through the gate of your mind and heart. I want you to put on your 4th century ancient Christian mind and put your 21st century worldview temporarily on a shelf.
The pictured papyrus is an example of the "primitive Gospel" still at work about 400 years after the early church began. Within this writing (prayer of protection or house blessing) you will see snippets of the early thinking and worldview of the primitive Gospel as it was in the first two years after Pentecost.
Let's have a look at the blessing, shall we?
"Protect this house with those who live here from all evil, from every kind of witchcraft, from spirits in the air and from the human eye; from terrible toil, from the bites of scorpions and snakes - in the name of the highest God protect [the house], O Lord, son of David in the flesh, born by the holy virgin Maria, you, Holy and Highest among gods, of the Holy Spirit. Honor to you, heavenly King. Amen."
Now—I want to also bring into view a creedal statement written by Paul to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3:16, which is:
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
The date range for Paul's letter to Timothy is about 62-67 AD at the earliest. If Pentecost is 30 AD, then this letter from Paul is 32-37 years after Pentecost. What does this tell us? Well, frankly, it tells us that primitive Gospel creedal statements are still in high use 40 years after Pentecost, where the New Testament isn't even fully formed, even though it is being thought of as "scripture" (see below).
Here is Peter describing Paul's letters as "scripture":
And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
NOTE: Peter is putting Paul's letters into the category of "scriptures".
Given these things, I want to now draw your attention to the part of Paul's use of the creedal statement in 1 Timothy 3:16, where the creed says, "seen by angels" and then connect it to the house blessing statement, which says, "Holy and Highest among gods". Furthermore, I want to connect the dots from the "angels" referenced in 1 Timothy 3:16 and note they are the same thing as the "gods" mentioned in the house blessing four hundred years later, giving us creedal continuity from Pentecost to the 4th century.
In the worldview of people from the Second Temple Era to the Early Church Era, there is a direct mapping of terms like Watchers, sons of God, pagan gods, and fallen angels. These are all terms for the same fallen heavenly host spirit beings—the "בני האלהים" (B'nei HaElohim).
The distinction found in the worldview of the ancient mind was that YHWH was the High and Holy, uncreated, and eternal Elohim (אל עליון or El Elyon - Genesis 14:18-20; Psalms 78:35).
This is who early Christians clearly ascribed as Jesus, seen as both Christ (Messiah) and King (Lord). This "Most High" idea shows up all over the place in the creedal statements used in the New Testament. The creeds were early formulations by the disciples by the leading of the Holy Spirit, literally in the first few months after Pentecost as they are taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all of Judea and ultimately beyond to the Gentile pagans.
So strong is this highest of all Christology's through the creedal statements, that Paul goes so far as to inject Jesus into the Jewish Shema prayer, incorporating the Gospel of Jesus within it. The linkage of this cannot be understated and demonstrates just how powerful a tool creedal statements were in the formation of the church, including our protection prayer or house blessing statement.
For example, here is the Shema Prayer from Deuteronomy:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: (5) And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. (6) And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: (7) And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (8) And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. (9) And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
Paul incorporates Jesus into the Jewish Shema in 1 Corinthians 8:6. The Shema is the central prayer in the Jewish prayerbook and is considered the most important part of the prayer service in Judaism. It is traditionally quoted as Jewish Last Rites and in times of extreme danger. It starts of with: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one" (from Deuteronomy 6:4).
Paul modifies the Shema in 1 Corinthians 8:6 to include Jesus, creating a sort of Christian Shema: "yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live." The statement is embedded into a creedal statement for Christians to recite, much as Jews would recite their Shema from Deuteronomy.
Therefore, the purpose of mentioning creedal statements and looping in the Christianized Shema by Paul is to properly elevate the primitive Gospel creeds (i.e., prior to written scripture as we know it) and then tie those to the papyrus house blessing, where we further connect the notion of "Holy and Highest among gods" four hundred years later. Such notions clearly hang on from the 1st to 4th centuries and do not dissipate until after and until our time.
400 year old creedal statement?
Reading the last part of the house blessing or prayer of protection what we find at the end is a benediction. Let's examine it closely:
... in the name of the highest God ... O Lord, son of David in the flesh, born by the holy virgin Maria, you, Holy and Highest among gods, of the Holy Spirit. Honor to you, heavenly King. Amen.
Now—it may well be that from the point of view of the people of the 4th century, when this Christian amulet prayer is written, that they are employing what is for them a very old creedal statement; having been taught through the generations since the early church and apostolic times. Pay close attention to the structure and purpose of the words of the benediction. One might consider this a creedal prayer as it is being addressed directly to Jesus!
BREAKING IT DOWN:
... in the name of the Highest God ... — Literally "HaShem" or "the Name" (see extended note at the end).
O Lord, — Identifying who is being addressed.
son of David in the flesh, — Jesus as fully man
born by the holy virgin Maria, — Acknowledge virgin birth
you, — Reacquiring of the subject (Jesus, Lord) being addressed.
Holy and Highest among gods, — Eternal nature and status.
of the Holy Spirit. — Loops in Spirit empowerment (gifts).
Honor to you, — A high Christology honorific!
heavenly King. — Establishing enthronement, The Gospel
Amen. — Polishing it off: "Be it to us as you have said!"
THE NAME: Dr. Michael Heiser, a scholar of biblical studies and ancient Semitic languages, has extensively studied and commented on "The Name" (HaShem) and the concept of the Two Powers in Heaven, as understood in the Old Testament and ancient Jewish theology.
According to Heiser, the concept of "The Name" or HaShem is deeply tied up with ancient conceptions of divine presence and nature. He claims that early Jews did not shy away from a binitarian or even binatarian perspective - that is, the idea of a Godhead composed of two entities. In this view, "The Name", or Hashem, is not just a moniker for God but embodies God's self-revelation, character, authority, and presence.
Dr. Heiser argues that ancient Jewish texts sometimes exhibit an understanding of God as a dual entity: one unseen and transcendent, and another that is immanent and can interact directly with the world. This latter form is frequently associated with "The Name". He suggests that early Jewish depictions sometimes portray "The Name" as a distinct, yet compatible and non-competitive, divine figure, reiterating the divine multiplicity within unity.
With everything in view, the entire matter is both huge and stunning! The story of the Gospel of Jesus is being compressed into such collections of small and stealthy creedal statements. Anyone in the 1st to 4th century reading these statements, who had been properly taught the backstory—the story that emerges when the statements are decompressed—would be able to use such materials to memorize the story and bring it internally into themselves, making it highly personal pointing out the only means of salvation, eternal life, and righteousness at the judgment that is coming!
More details, please!
Put yourself in the four centuries after Pentecost. You are a pagan, pantheon-believing, god-worshiping, emperor-worshiping kind of person. It's all you know. You have never heard of Jesus.
Instead—you have heard the "gospel (euangelion)" of the god-man-emperor of Rome. You've attended the cult worship temple(s), where idols of Roman gods and Emperor-god are set up. You have dutifully given your public allegiance and loyalty to both: The gods and the emperor.
Along comes some crazy and wild-eyed person telling you that there is another King, Jesus. He tells you about the King-of-kings and how he is higher than either the Roman gods or the Emperor. You hear this person speak from creedal statements like the one in the house blessing above and he starts preaching to you from it. It might go something like:
Way back in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He created us—men, humans, male and female. We were without sin, but then came the attacks. The lesser gods came down, defiled our ancient mothers and daughters, producing giants—the Titans. All of this doomed our human family to destruction where we will be destroyed by the Highest and Most Holy God of all the gods; the uncreated God will destroy the rebellious gods and all the people who follow after them and worship them.
And so on and so forth ...
The message of the story of God and the Gospel of Jesus as Lord and King, the Highest and Most Holy God who is above all of the gods, including the fallen pantheon and their demon spirit ex-giant kids—it is this message that unfolds out of such creedal statements like a flood.
And if the benediction wasn't enough, now loop in and link up the first part of the house blessing to see how it connects to the story of the benediction or creedal prayer:
Protect this house with those who live here from all evil, from every kind of witchcraft, from spirits in the air and [spirits] from the human eye; from terrible toil, from the bites of scorpions and snakes - in the name of the highest God protect [the house], ...
When viewed through the supernatural lensing of the Enochian Watcher story, Jesus as the Messiah, who reverses the damage, and the language of Paul with regard to powers, authorities, principalities, and rulers of darkness—we gain much insight into the 1st to 4th century church and how it worked, and what it taught as the primitive Gospel.
The writer of this protection prayer (house blessing) has a target: "all evil". In phrases like "every kind of witchcraft" we find direct pointers back to the "sins of the Watchers". The notion of "spirits in the air" has not only New Testament links, but ancient unseen realm gods and demon spirits operating just beyond our senses. Paul's principalities, powers, authorities, and rulers language is clearly present as is the "prince of the power of the air" (Paul in Ephesians 2:2).
Yet, the three other phrases that ought to catch our attention and bang heavily on our "strange and weird" meter are: the "human eye", "terrible toil", and "bites of scorpions and snakes"! What are these about?
Let's start with the most obvious first: the bites of scorpions and snakes. Every person with an ancient near eastern worldview will instantly recognize the reference to scorpions and snakes as evil. Genesis 3 paints the temptation of Eve as coming from a fallen Watcher—translated as serpent (or snake). This connection shines immediately through. Additionally, all of this in the house blessing or protection prayer is an inscription coming out of Egyptian Christianity, which ought to seal-the-deal on how the writer would have viewed his own words in the inscription with respect to scorpions and snakes.
Egypt is clearly in the desert and from the view of an ancient near easterner, it is filled with bad creatures, demons, evil spirits, and unclean defilement—the notion of a scorpion will instantly harken back to the Egyptian pantheon of fallen gods and demons. Specifically, the Egyptian goddess, Serket.
The Egyptians would have seen Serket (also known as Selket, Serqet, or Selcis) as "good". They would know her as an ancient goddess, known for her protective role against venomous creatures and her healing abilities. She was often invoked for protection during childbirth and for the wellbeing of the Pharaoh.
Yet, in the context of this Christian protective prayer or house blessing, the scorpion goddess (and all attending her) are portrayed with a Christ-based polemic that reaches back to the pre-Flood era, fallen gods, and the resulting giants who are now disembodied demons. Therefore, Serket (scorpion) is evil and those within the house need his protection.
Christians of the 1st to 4th centuries adopted and enhanced their inherited Jewish worldview, bringing Jesus as Messiah and King to humanity into the central space. Jesus was the judge of and demons. However, for the Christian, Jesus was the central figure and source of their Salvation, both in life and at the ultimate Judgment seat of Christ.
Ancient Jews would have rejected the worship of Serket, along with all other Egyptian deities, as idolatrous. The first two of the Ten Commandments certainly prohibited the worship of other gods and making idols (Exodus 20:3-4). Christians obviously carried this further in the revealed Jesus as the god destroyer.
In terms of a polemic argument, both Jews and Christians would have argued that Serket, as a created being (lesser elohim, in their view - see Psalm 82:1, Deuteronomy 32), lacked the power, omnipresence, and benevolence attributed to Yahweh, the God of Israel, now revealed in Jesus for Christians as Lord, King, Messiah, and Savior and source of salvation, righteousness, and eternal life.
They would have pointed to their belief in Jesus as God in his exclusive divinity, his role as the creator of all things, and his direct intervention in human history (such as the Exodus from Egypt) as evidence of his superiority over Serket and all the other gods of every pagan pantheon (in this case, Egypt).
The other terms used are a little more mysterious and harder to identify: "the human eye" and "terrible toil". Yet, it is not truly that hard once we start connecting dots such as the curse God put on the ground in the wake of Adam's sin and ultimate expulsion from Eden: Gen 3:17 KJV "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;" Here, the "terrible toil" is a reference to the overall Genesis 3 curse against humanity.
If your intuition about "the spirit ... from the human eye" is leading you to the "Evil Eye", then you are right on target. The "spirit from the human eye" in this 4th-century Egyptian prayer likely refers to the concept of the "Evil Eye." The Evil Eye is a belief that certain individuals can cause harm or misfortune to others by merely looking at them with envy or malice. This belief is widespread and can be found in many cultures around the world, including ancient Egypt. The prayer is asking for protection from such harmful influences.
The concept of the "Evil Eye," also known as "Ayin Hara" in Hebrew, is deeply rooted in Jewish culture and is mentioned in various ancient Jewish texts. It is believed to be a look or stare that is intended to cause harm or bad luck to the person it is directed towards.
The Talmud, a central text in Rabbinic Judaism, contains many references to the Evil Eye. It suggests that the Evil Eye can cause physical illness, loss of property, or even death. The Talmud also provides advice on how to avoid the Evil Eye, such as not standing out too much, not boasting about one's good fortune, and wearing amulets.
The concept of the Evil Eye is not unique to Judaism and is found in many cultures around the world. However, in Jewish tradition, it is often associated with envy or jealousy. It's believed that someone who is envious of another person's good fortune can inflict them with the Evil Eye, causing their luck to turn.
Therefore, we find both the prayer of protection or house blessing, coupled with the creedal benediction prayer to put the Lord, Jesus Christ in a place where he is the protector in all of the items being listed. Whether the threat is from other people as pagans or non-Christians, or if the threat is spiritual—emanating from fallen gods and their demon spirits—the Lord and King of all and the indwelling Spirit of God are seen as the antidote to all that might ail this ancient Christian home.
What we end up with is a writing from the 4th century AD that clearly connects backwards to not only New Testament scripture, but to the pre-scripture days between Pentecost and the writing of the New Testament in the form of powerful creedal statements, which are the highest form of Christology we are aware of from the primitive Church in its first two years. Moreover, we find that this story connects fluidly with the more ancient Jewish story—not only looping in Messianic prophecies, but the overall story of the epic war between God and fallen gods (former divine council member spirits).