Tag: Shinar

Strange Fire

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on the fire and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them.
Leviticus 11:1 (NASB)

I recently read a post regarding the “Strange Fire” of Leviticus 10:1. Aaron’s sons are killed for burning an incense that God had not commanded. The post said that God just hates when we do stuff without permission and that we should take God very seriously.

This is a bad teaching.

For starters, this wasn’t some new issue that just came up out of nowhere. God had already told them about “strange” fire and incense in Exodus. He already told them “Don’t do it.”

You shall not offer any strange incense on this altar, or burnt offering, or meal offering; and you shall not pour out a drink offering on it.
Exodus 30:9 (NASB)

But what makes a fire or flame “strange?”

Perhaps an answer is given to us in Leviticus 6: a strange fire is any fire that didn’t come from the continually burning fire that God provided.

The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it. It shall not go out, but the priest shall burn wood on it every morning; and he shall lay out the burnt offering on it, and offer up in smoke the fat portions of the peace offerings on it. Fire shall be kept burning continually on the altar; it is not to go out.
Leviticus 6:12-13 (NASB)

Good fire is GOD’S fire.

Therefore, strange fire is man’s fire. It’s not good.

So what does this have to do with Genesis?

Back in Genesis 11, we learned that Shinar and the bricks of the Tower of Babel point to Empire. Slavery. Bondage. Ur of the Chaldeans means “FLAME of the Chaldeans.” These bricks are baked in Babylonian furnaces, fueled by humanity. The furnaces are fueld by us.

Strange Fire consumes us. It devours us. It spends us like fuel to keep the machine of Empire and slavery burning. And not just us. Our children as well.

Jeremiah, in his outcry against Israel repeats this warning. This the fire God “did not command,” echoing Leviticus 11.

They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind.
Jeremiah 7:31 (NASB)

The Fire of Man is lit to bake the bricks of bondage, idolatry, and confusion.

The Fire of God stays continually burning and is the source of Life for those who seek Light and Warmth.

Scattered from Bondage

Posted on by jovial_cynic

And it came about, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
Genesis 11:2 (NASB)

The Tower of Babel story starts with humanity settling in the plain of Shinar. Babylonia.

Therefore it was named Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
Genesis 11:9 (NASB)

God scatters them after they begin building the Tower of Babel. One could argue that God doesn’t want us to settle, but I suspect that this is actually a deliverance story. Shinar is a place of darkness and bondage. He is saving us from it.

Shinar is Mordor

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell into them. But those who survived fled to the hill country.
Genesis 14:10 (NASB)

The writers of Genesis 11 seem to have intended for us to view the land of Shinar like Mordor.

The Tower of Babel was built with kiln-fired bricks and mortared with bitumen, which bubbled up from the ground like tar.

The scene is of soot, tar, and flames.

Shinar

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Genesis 11 mentions Shinar, and it’s the second time we see it in the Scriptures. The first was in the previous chapter. Nimrod built great empires in the land of Shinar.

The writers want you to see something that isn’t plainly obvious in this story. It’s subtle.

As people moved eastward, they found a plain in [a] Shinar and settled there.
Genesis 11:2 (NIV)

The [a] footnote tells us that this is Babylonia.

Babylonia is Nimrod’s Empire:

He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in Shinar.

Babylonia is the region that housed the great city of Babylon. This isn’t obvious in the text yet, but the translators want to preserve this understanding for you later. This would be the place that the Jews lived during the Babylonian exile.

Babylon is linked to wickedness, captivity, and darkness. It’s the place where Israel was held captive for about 70 years, and it was perhaps during this time that the Jewish sages began refining/organizing their scriptures.

One thing that stands out is how much anti-Babylonian messaging show up in the newly articulated scriptures, starting with “Shinar.”

The meaning of “Shinar” is unclear. It might mean “two Rivers,” or “the land between two rivers,” perhaps referring to the Tigris and Euphrates.

However, the root of Shinar is שער (s’r), which is associated with violence in various forms:

Noun שער (sa’r), means horror.
Verb שער (sa’ar) means to sweep or whirl away, like a storm.
Verb שער (sha’ar) means to break
Adjective שער (sho’ar) means horrid or disgusting

The sages of the Midrash include even more thoughts on this, saying that “Shinar” sounds like “she’ein ne’or,” which means “no one is awake” at night because they have no candles (Midrash HaMevo’ar)

It is a place of darkness.

At the time when Amraphel was king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goyim…
Genesis 14:1 (NIV)

Later, when Shinar is introduced to us again in Genesis 14, we’ll meet Amraphel, the King of Shinar.

Amraphel means “Speaker of Darkness.”

Shinar is the bad place.