Ep 264: God, Israel, and the Suzerain-Vassal Treaty

About this episode

The episode discusses the covenant between God and Israel as a form of an ancient Near Eastern suzerain-vassal treaty.

In this episode I discuss how the covenant God made with Israel in the Old Testament was a form of an ancient Near Eastern suzerain-vassal treaty. Building from the fantastic work of Sandra Richter’s ‘Epic of Eden’ book, a suzerain vassal treaty is one in which a king or imperial power, the suzerain, makes a treaty with a lesser kingdom or people, the vassal. They are asymmetrical in the sense that the suzerain clearly holds the power but also reciprocal in that both parties are contractually...

People in this episode

Host: Alex Bernardo

Topics covered

• covenant
• suzerain-vassal treaty
• Old Testament
• ancient Near Eastern treaties
• God
• Israel

Keywords

• covenant
• Israel
• suzerain-vassal treaty
• Old Testament
• Sandra Richter
• Epic of Eden

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Epic of Eden

Places: Israel

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