The Legends of History

Chemosh. It’s one of those names the bible vilifies from its very onset. Naturally, it would do so. As one of the pagan gods that lured Solomon off the righteous path and one who openly received the offering of child sacrifice, you can see why Chemosh is held in such contempt. The bible has some choice words for him - he is ‘vile’, he is ‘detestable’, he is a deity who in spite of his relatively m...

Now you’ve probably heard the term thrown around quite a lot recently, with some misinterpreting Baal as a demon or as a deity that was built exclusively for the act of child sacrifice, but the worship of Baal is a little bit more complex. And yes, whilst child sacrifice was believed in some scholarly circles to be a form of Baal worship, this wasn’t the only practice - in fact, the more I look at...

When I’ve spoken about Moloch or Molek in the past, I’ve often referred to him as a deity - the likes of whom was worshipped by the neighbouring tribes of ancient Israel and by dissenters of the Israelite community themselves. The way Moloch is referred to in certain biblical passages makes it seem like there could be no other alternative....

The bible has its fair share of foreboding names, but two of them that seem to repeatedly stick out are Gog and Magog. These names are even now, met with some trepidation and fear amongst believers, who, depending on their interpretation of scripture, might view Gog and Magog as either specific, evil individuals, enemies of God’s and his chosen people or perhaps lands or territories that threatene...

The Old Testament God is often described as being pretty wrathful. This is a deity who drowns the entire world, who obliterates cities, who brings plague and pestilence to those who defy him in even the slightest of ways. Yet underneath this violent exterior, there are those who would say that this same God is full compassion and mercy. In fact, some would go as far as to say that when God deliver...

The biblical stories often present rivalries between women who, regardless of their position or status, seem to be keen to lock down a husband and produce him with heirs. Whether you look at Abraham’s wife Sarah, who ends up in a conflict with her handmaiden Hagar, or whether it’s the feud between the sisters Rachel and Leah, a man’s love interests could certainly cause him significant drama and h...

One of the biggest controversies I’ve seen in modern times surrounding Islam is the concept of the 72 virgins - those that according to some beliefs are rewarded to a Muslim upon his reaching of paradise. Whilst the Qur’an doesn’t actually ever mention 72 virgins, nor is there an explicit mention of any sexual gratification one might receive from them, various Hadith literature, these being report...

Much of the modern understanding of Moloch comes from the biblical accounts of Leviticus, both Books of Kings and the Book of Jeremiah, where Moloch is quite neatly established as a gruesome God of the Canaanites, who required the sacrifice of children. Throughout these accounts, God is seen to warn his people not to partake in such worship and that this practice was so despicable it could even be...

Whether the giants in the bible pertain to the likes of Goliath, who in some beliefs is a giant in the sense that he’s an exceptionally large human or whether the giants pertain to the likes of the Nephilim who were, in most circles, blood-thirsty monsters, certain believers will be under the impression that giants, whether human or not, did exist in ancient times. Therefore, in today’s episode, w...

The Genesis account tells us that in the antediluvian world, when humanity began to increase in number, the ‘sons of God’, (presumed to be angels in some interpretations) came down from the heavens and married the mortal women, whom they found to be irresistibly beautiful. Whilst Genesis alone is somewhat indefinite regarding what this actually means, extra-cannonical texts such as the Book of Eno...

The bible is full of unsettling events that don’t always leave the reader feeling particularly comfortable. Amongst all the parables and narratives, some of which can be taken literally or allegorically depending on your faith or fancy, there are a number of darker, more insidious events that turn an otherwise holy book into something quite chilling.

The Juedo-Christian writers weren’t the only ones capable of creating monsters. The Greeks populated their world with a number of equally terrifying creatures; those that weren’t always divinely created, but existed as if by some cruel joke of nature. One need only look at the Empusa to see that notion realised, a being that whilst known as a shapeshifter, often chose to portray itself in some str...

Belial. The very name itself comes with a sense of foreboding. To the laymen, Belial is simply just another demon in a long list of equally evil creatures, and whilst some readers of scripture are more than content to leave it as that, the name evokes in others a dark curiosity. And it’s just as well that it does, for the mere term Belial has an intricate history within the pages of the bible and...

At the end of the nineteenth century, there was a folkloric belief in Britain that the Isle of Man, a Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, was once inhabited by fairies (known then as ‘little people’), who lived in the forests and mountains. In fact, it remains a common superstition that the fairies of this land are still very much there, though choosing to avoid the hubbub of the city, relegated th...

The way the bible presents the angels in heaven, we are indeed led to believe that all the angels picked a side and that none were left sitting on the fence. A third of them were tempted and deceived by Lucifer into joining his rebellion, whilst the majority - the two thirds, remained loyal to God. Yet, from the early Middle Ages onwards, various authors and poets have spoken about the possibility...

By his nature, Satan is a divisive character; his very reason for being is to create division amongst humanity and lead as many people off of the righteous path and away from the benevolence of God. Yet, he’s also divisive in the sense that there exist several traditions and narratives that paint him in various different shades; from evil tempter, to fallen angel, to ‘divine adversary’ or ‘divine...

Moloch, sometimes pronounced as Molech, is a name that appears several times in the Hebrew Bible, primarily in Leviticus, but also showing up in the Book of Kings 1 and 2 and also in Jeremiah. Usually if we look across the different translations of the bible, we are able to find slightly different sentiments about characters - perhaps infer slightly different connotations depending on the author’s...

The word ‘demon’ finds its origins in ancient Greek, where it was known as Daimon - a spirit or divine presence that didn’t always have the negative connotation that it does today. Indeed, poets such as Hesiod and Plato often found the good in these incorporeal beings and found them to be trustworthy guides and or intermediaries that could pass between the mortal realm and the realm of the gods, d...

With most traditional narratives, the hero usually wins. You might say it’s reflective of our own desire to see ourselves on top and that the hero’s victory is a self-serving component that’s necessary in telling a good story. After all, the archetypal hero seeks to balance the scales of justice, to restore a sense of peace and rid the evil (or the villain) from his or her seat of influence. Yet,...

Yep.  I did it.  I finally went ahead and read through Zecharia Sitchin’s work. A work that many of you might know is highly controversial, frequently scoffed at by mainstream historians and often ridiculed.  For those of you who don’t know, Zecharia Sitching was an author who wrote… well, a ton of books, on an idea that he believed was the  ‘hidden’ truth behind our own origins. Stemming from Sum...

The concept of hell throughout many cultures in history exists as a place of suffering and punishment. It is a realm home to those who have broken the laws of their respective beliefs and have transgressed most immorally, to the point that forgiveness is beyond them. Murderers, thieves, rapists and tyrants - these are the likes that one might encounter should they venture down into the depths of a...

The story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is probably the most foundational narrative in Judeo-Christian thought. Found in Genesis 2–3, it establishes the origin of sin, suffering, and death through the concept of The Fall. Central to this narrative is the act of disobedience: both Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But what if Adam had resisted? What...

He murdered his own mother. He kicked his pregnant wife to death. He fed Christians to beasts for sport, doused them in oil, and lit them like torches to amuse his guests. He fancied himself an artist, an actor, perhaps something of a god. And yet, when Emperor Nero finally fell—abandoned by the Senate, declared an enemy of Rome, and left to take his own life in disgrace—there were those who let l...

Long before she was demonized in medieval folklore, Lilith lurked in the margins of scripture - some might say, hiding in plain sight depending on their translation. Though absent from most canonical biblical narratives, she emerges—briefly yet provocatively—in Isaiah 34:14, a passage describing the desolation of Edom, where wild beasts and night creatures gather. In some translations, she is name...

In the volatile theological battleground of the 2nd century, one man stood as the bulwark of orthodoxy against a movement that threatened to fracture early Christianity from within. His name was Irenaeus of Lyons—bishop, theologian, and polemicist—and through a combination of theological rigor, strategic clarity, and institutional influence, he became the man who effectively killed what we know as...