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quotesfrommyreading · 1 year

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Enoch, an apocryphal text thought to be written sometime between the third century B.C. and the second century A.D., is named for the biblical Noah’s great-grandfather. One reason Langlois didn’t know much about the book was that it didn’t make it into the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament. Another is that the only complete copy to survive from antiquity was written in an ancient Ethiopic language called Ge’ez.

But beginning in the 1950s, more than 100 fragments from 11 different parchment scrolls of the Book of Enoch, written largely in Aramaic, were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. A few fragments were relatively large—15 to 20 lines of text—but most were much smaller, ranging in size from a piece of toast to a postage stamp. Someone had to transcribe, translate and annotate all this “Enochic” material—and Langlois’ teacher volunteered him. That’s how he became one of just two students in Paris learning Ge’ez.

Langlois quickly grasped the numerous parallels between Enoch and other books of the New Testament; for instance, Enoch mentions a messiah called the “son of man” who will preside over the Final Judgement. Indeed, some scholars believe Enoch was a major influence on early Christianity, and Langlois had every intention to conduct that type of historical research.

He started by transcribing the text from two small Enoch fragments, but age had made parts of it hard to read; some sections were missing entirely. In the past, scholars had tried to reconstruct missing words and identify where in the larger text these pieces belonged. But after working out his own readings, Langlois noticed the fragments seemed to come from parts of the book that were different from those specified by earlier scholars. He also wondered if their proposed readings could even fit on the fragments they purportedly came from. But how could he tell for sure?

To faithfully reconstruct the text of Enoch, he needed digital images of the scrolls—images that were crisper and more detailed than the printed copies inside the books he was relying on. That was how, in 2004, he found himself traipsing around Paris, searching for a specialized microfiche scanner to upload images to his laptop. Having done that (and lacking cash to buy Photoshop), he downloaded an open-source knockoff.

First, he individually outlined, isolated and reproduced each letter on Fragment 1 and Fragment 2, so he could move them around his screen like alphabet refrigerator magnets, to test different configurations and to create an “alphabet library” for systematic analysis of the script. Next, he began to study the handwriting. Which stroke of a given letter was inscribed first? Did the scribe lift his pen, or did he write multiple parts of a letter in a continuous gesture? Was the stroke thick or thin?

Then Langlois started filling in the blanks. Using the letters he’d collected, he tested the reconstructions proposed by scholars over the preceding decades. Yet large holes remained in the text, or words were too big to fit in the available space. The “text” of the Book of Enoch as it was widely known, in other words, was in many cases mistaken.

Take the story of a group of fallen angels who descend to earth to seduce beautiful women. Using his new technique, Langlois discovered that earlier scholars had gotten the names of some of the angels wrong, and so had not realized the names were derived from Canaanite gods worshipped in the second millennium B.C.—a clear example of the way scriptural authors integrated elements of the cultures that surrounded them into their theologies. “I didn’t consider myself a scholar,” Langlois told me. “I was just a student wondering how we could benefit from these technologies.” Eventually, Langlois wrote a 600-page book that applied his technique to the oldest known scroll of Enoch, making more than 100 “improvements,” as he calls them, to prior readings.

His next book, even more ambitious, detailed his analysis of Dead Sea Scrolls fragments containing snippets of text from the biblical Book of Joshua. From these fragments he concluded that there must be a lost version of Joshua, previously unknown to scholars and extant only in a small number of surviving fragments. Since there are thousands of authentic Dead Sea Scrolls, it appears that much still remains to be learned about the origins of early biblical texts. “Even the void is full of information,” Langlois told me.

— How an Unorthodox Scholar Uses Technology to Expose Biblical Forgeries

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bellonathedragonborn · 2 years

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For Elder Scrolls shiptober I decided to post some pictures of Karmir and Enoch’s wedding. After the wedding Karmir turned his husband into a werewolf.

#Bellonaseries #Karmir Heartlily #Enoch #shiptober #tes #the elder scrolls #elderscrolls #gay couple

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jaylee202-blog · 1 month

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youtube

#Book of Enoch #Book of Giants #Nephilim #The Watchers #The Fallen Angels #Samyaza #Azazel #Dead Sea Scrolls #Ancient text #Ethiopian Bible #Spiritual #Bible #The Flood #Youtube

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georgiasedify · 2 months

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Enoch

The book of Enoch

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shamballalin · 2 months

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Rev. Linda (Lin) Hourihan, HHCP ~ Empathy ~ Compassion ~ Love Can Save The World

Who am I and why might people want to hear what I have to say? I am an international, ordained, interfaith Universal Life Church Minister, metaphysician, author ~ blogger ~ internationally board-certified holistic health counselor, New Paradigm Multidimensional Transformation™ (NPMDT™) Teacher of the School of Esoteric Science™, certified Reiki Master Teacher and Qigong Teacher. I no longer…

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agreenroad · 5 months

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THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS BOOK OF GIANTS DETAILS ANTE-DILUVIAL FALLEN SONS OF GOD/WATCHERS, TURNED INTO NEPHILIM, GIBBORIM, REPHAIM

The "Book of Giants" is contained in this work…Qumran and Apocalyptic bt Florentino Garcia Martinez📖 https://t.co/gtvsQdZL8dfree to borrow from the Internet Archive pic.twitter.com/sTCXq4fxHD— Steph Kent (@covertress) April 30, 2024 THE BOOK OF GIANTS USED TO BE IN THE BIBLE, BUT GOT PULLED OUT; WHY? Fallen Angel Demonology Explained in Obsessive Detail | Mr. Mythoshttps://t.co/LlaGQWT89fA…

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mostlysignssomeportents · 9 months

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A year in illustration, 2023 edition (part one)

(This is part one; part two is here.)

I am objectively very bad at visual art. I am bad at vision, period – I'm astigmatic, shortsighted, color blind, and often miss visual details others see. I can't even draw a stick-figure. To top things off, I have cataracts in both eyes and my book publishing/touring schedule is so intense that I keep having to reschedule the surgeries. But despite my vast visual deficits, I thoroughly enjoy making collages for this blog.

For many years now – decades – I've been illustrating my blog posts by mixing public domain and Creative Commons art with work that I can make a good fair use case for. As bad as art as I may be, all this practice has paid off. Call it unseemly, but I think I'm turning out some terrific illustrations – not all the time, but often enough.

Last year, I rounded up my best art of the year:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/25/a-year-in-illustration/

And I liked reflecting on the year's art so much, I decided I'd do it again. Be sure to scroll to the bottom for some downloadables – freely usable images that I painstakingly cut up with the lasso tool in The Gimp.

The original AD&D hardcover cover art is seared into my psyche. For several years, there were few images I looked at so closely as these. When Hasbro pulled some world-beatingly sleazy stuff with the Open Gaming License, I knew just how to mod Dave Trampier's 'Eve Of Moloch' from the cover of the Players' Handbook. Thankfully, bigger nerds than me have identified all the fonts in the image, making the remix a doddle.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/12/beg-forgiveness-ask-permission/#whats-a-copyright-exception

Even though I don't keep logs or collect any analytics, I can say with confidence that "Tiktok's Enshittification" was the most popular thing I published on Pluralistic this year. I mixed some public domain Brother's Grimm art, mixed with a classic caricature of Boss Tweed, and some very cheesy royalty-free/open access influencer graphics. One gingerbread cottage social media trap, coming up:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

To illustrate the idea of overcoming walking-the-plank fear (as a metaphor for writing when it feels like you suck) I mixed public domain stock of a plank, a high building and legs, along with a procedurally generated Matrix "code waterfall" and a vertiginous spiral ganked from a Heinz Bunse photo of a German office lobby.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/22/walking-the-plank/

Finding a tasteful way to illustrate a story about Johnson & Johnson losing a court case after it spent a generation tricking women into dusting their vulvas with asbestos-tainted talcum was a challenge. The tulip (featured in many public domain images) was a natural starting point. I mixed it with Jesse Wagstaff's image of a Burning Man dust-storm and Mike Mozart's shelf-shot of a J&J talcum bottle.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/01/j-and-j-jk/#risible-gambit

"Google's Chatbot Panic" is about Google's long history of being stampeded into doing stupid things because its competitors are doing them. Once it was Yahoo, now it's Bing. Tenniel's Tweedle Dee and Dum were a good starting point. I mixed in one of several Humpty Dumpty editorial cartoon images from 19th century political coverage that I painstakingly cut out with the lasso tool on a long plane-ride. This is one of my favorite Humpties, I just love the little 19th C businessmen trying to keep him from falling! I finished it off with HAL 9000's glowing red eye, my standard 'this is about AI' image, which I got from Cryteria's CC-licensed SVG.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/16/tweedledumber/#easily-spooked

Though I started writing about Luddites in my January, 2022 Locus column, 2023 was the Year of the Luddite, thanks to Brian Merchant's outstanding Blood In the Machine:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/26/enochs-hammer/#thats-fronkonsteen

When it came time to illustrate "Gig Work Is the Opposite of Steampunk," I found a public domain weaver's loft, and put one of Cryteria's HAL9000 eyes in the window. Magpie Killjoy's Steampunk Magazine poster, 'Love the Machine, Hate the Factory,' completed the look.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/12/gig-work-is-the-opposite-of-steampunk/

For the "small, non-profit school" that got used as an excuse to bail out Silicon Valley Bank, I brought back Humpty Dumpty, mixing him with a Hogwartsian castle, a brick wall texture, and an ornate, gilded frame. I love how this one came out. This Humpty was made for the SVB bailout.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/23/small-nonprofit-school/#north-country-school

The RESTRICT Act would have federally banned Tiktok – a proposal that was both technically unworkable and unconstitutional. I found an early 20th century editorial cartoon depicting Uncle Sam behind a fortress wall that was keeping a downtrodden refugee family out of America. I got rid of most of the family, giving the dad a Tiktok logo head, and I put Cryteria's HAL9000 eyes over each cannonmouth. Three Boss Tweed moneybag-head caricatures, adorned with Big Tech logos, rounded it out.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/30/tik-tok-tow/#good-politics-for-electoral-victories

When Flickr took decisive action to purge the copyleft trolls who'd been abusing its platform, I knew I wanted to illustrate this with Lucifer being cast out of heaven, and the very best one of those comes from John Milton, who is conveniently well in the public domain. The Flickr logo suggested a bicolored streaming-light-of-heaven motif that just made it.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/01/pixsynnussija/#pilkunnussija

Old mainframe ads are a great source of stock for a "Computer Says No" image. And Congress being a public building, there are lots of federal (and hence public domain) images of its facade.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/04/cbo-says-no/#wealth-tax

When I wrote about the Clarence Thomas/Harlan Crow bribery scandal, it was easy to find Mr. Kjetil Ree's great image of the Supreme Court building. Thomas being a federal judge, it was easy to find a government photo of his head, but it's impossible to find an image of him in robes at a decent resolution. Luckily, there are tons of other federal judges who've been photographed in their robes! Boss Tweed with the dollar-sign head was a great stand-in for Harlan Crow (no one knows what he looks like anyway). Gilding Thomas's robes was a simple matter of superimposing a gold texture and twiddling with the layers.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/06/clarence-thomas/#harlan-crow

"Gig apps trap reverse centaurs in wage-stealing Skinner boxes" is one of my best titles. This is the post where I introduce the idea of "twiddling" as part of the theory of enshittification, and explain how it relates to "reverse centaurs" – people who assist machines, rather than the other way around. Finding a CC licensed modular synth was much harder than I thought, but I found Stephen Drake's image and stitched it into a mandala. Cutting out the horse's head for the reverse centaur was a lot of work (manes are a huuuuge pain in the ass), but I love how his head sits on the public domain high-viz-wearing warehouse worker's body I cut up (thanks, OSHA!). Seeing as this is an horrors-of-automation story, Cryteria's HAL9000 eyes make an appearance.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

Rockefeller's greatest contribution to our culture was inspiring many excellent unflattering caricatures. The IWW's many-fists-turning-into-one-fist image made it easy to have the collective might of workers toppling the original robber-baron.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/14/aiming-at-dollars/#not-men

I link to this post explaining how to make good Mastodon threads at least once a week, so it's a good thing the graphic turned out so well. Close-cropping the threads from a public domain yarn tangle worked out great. Eugen Rochko's Mastodon logo was and is the only Affero-licensed image ever to appear on Pluralistic.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/16/how-to-make-the-least-worst-mastodon-threads/

I spent hours on the sofa one night painstakingly cutting up and reassembling the cover art from a science fiction pulp. I have a folder full of color-corrected, high-rez scans from an 18th century anatomy textbook, and the cross-section head-and-brain is the best of the lot.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/04/analytical-democratic-theory/#epistocratic-delusions

Those old French anatomical drawings are an endless source of delight to me. Take one cross-sectioned noggin, mix in an old PC mainboard, and a vector art illo of a virtuous cycle with some of Cryteria's HAL9000 eyes and you've got a great illustration of Google's brain-worms.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/14/googles-ai-hype-circle/

Ireland's privacy regulator is but a plaything in Big Tech's hand, but it's goddamned hard to find an open-access Garda car. I manually dressed some public domain car art in Garda livery, painstakingly tracing it over the panels. The (public domain) baby's knit cap really hides the seams from replacing the baby's head with HAL9000's eye.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/15/finnegans-snooze/#dirty-old-town

Naked-guy-in-a-barrel bankruptcy images feel like something you can find in an old Collier's or Punch, but I came up snake-eyes and ended up frankensteining a naked body into a barrel for the George Washington crest on the Washington State flag. It came out well, but harvesting the body parts from old muscle-beach photos left George with some really big guns. I tried five different pairs of suspenders here before just drawing in black polyhedrons with little grey dots for rivets.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/03/when-the-tide-goes-out/#passive-income

Illustrating Amazon's dominance over the EU coulda been easy – just stick Amazon 'A's in place of the yellow stars that form a ring on the EU flag. So I decided to riff on Plutarch's Alexander, out of lands to conquer. Rama's statue legs were nice and high-rez. I had my choice of public domain ruin images, though it was harder thank expected to find a good Amazon box as a plinth for those broken-off legs.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/14/flywheel-shyster-and-flywheel/#unfulfilled-by-amazon

God help me, I could not stop playing with this image of a demon-haunted IoT car. All those reflections! The knife sticking out of the steering wheel, the multiple Munsch 'Scream'ers, etc etc. The more I patchked with it, the better it got, though. This one's a banger.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

To depict a "data-driven dictatorship," I ganked elements of heavily beribboned Russian military dress uniforms, replacing the head with HAL9000's eye. I turned the foreground into the crowds from the Nuremberg rallies and filled the sky with Matrix code waterfall.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/26/dictators-dilemma/#garbage-in-garbage-out-garbage-back-in

The best thing about analogizing DRM to demonic possession is the wealth of medieval artwork to choose from . This one comes from the 11th century 'Compendium rarissimum totius Artis Magicae sistematisatae per celeberrimos Artis hujus Magistros.' I mixed in the shiny red Tesla (working those reflections!), and a Tesla charger to make my point.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/#demon-haunted-world

Yet more dividends from those old French anatomical plates: a flayed skull, a detached jaw, a quack electronic gadget, a Wachowski code waterfall and some HAL 9000 eyes and you've got a truly unsettling image of machine-compelled speech.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/02/self-incrimination/#wei-bai-bai

I had no idea this would work out so well, but daaaamn, crossfading between a Wachowski code waterfall and a motherboard behind a roiling thundercloud is dank af.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/03/there-is-no-cloud/#only-other-peoples-computers

Of all the turkeys-voting-for-Christmas self-owns conservative culture warriors fall for, few can rival the "banning junk fees is woke" hustle. Slap a US-flag Punisher logo on and old-time card imprinter, add a GOP logo to a red credit-card blank, and then throw in a rustic barn countertop and you've got a junk-fee extracter fit for the Cracker Barrel.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/04/owning-the-libs/#swiper-no-swiping

Putting the Verizon logo on the Hinderberg was an obvious gambit (even if I did have to mess with the flames a lot), but the cutout of Paul Marcarelli as the 'can you hear me now?' guy, desaturated and contrast-matched, made it sing.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/10/smartest-guys-in-the-room/#can-you-hear-me-now

Note to self: Tux the Penguin is really easy to source in free/open formats! He looks great with HAL9000 eyes.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/18/openwashing/#you-keep-using-that-word-i-do-not-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means

Rockwell's self-portrait image is a classic; that made it a natural for a HAL9000-style remix about AI art. I put a bunch of time into chopping and remixing Rockwell's signature to give it that AI look, and added as many fingers as would fit on each hand.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/20/everything-made-by-an-ai-is-in-the-public-domain/

(Images: Heinz Bunse, West Midlands Police, Christopher Sessums, CC BY-SA 2.0; Mike Mozart, Jesse Wagstaff, Stephen Drake, Steve Jurvetson, syvwlch, Doc Searls, https://www.flickr.com/photos/mosaic36/14231376315, Chatham House, CC BY 2.0; Cryteria, CC BY 3.0; Mr. Kjetil Ree, Trevor Parscal, Rama, “Soldiers of Russia” Cultural Center, Russian Airborne Troops Press Service, CC BY-SA 3.0; Raimond Spekking, CC BY 4.0; Drahtlos, CC BY-SA 4.0; Eugen Rochko, Affero; modified)

#pluralistic #illustration #collage #fair use #creative commons #stock art #blogging #art #practice makes perfect

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kinginthemask · 1 year

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The Journey of Prophet Enoch

Illustrations for my original stories based on The Book of Giants (The dead sea scrolls)

This story is about Azazel, the leader of the Watchers, who fell in love with a human and came to the earth, establishing a mysterious kingdom of Nephilim.

Enoch was called by God to preach repentance unto them, that the earthly races might avoid God's wrath and destruction.

(In my oc design Azazel is the greatest one of the angels of death, different from Lucifer or other fallens.

#Azazel #fallen angel #The watchers #my oc art #christian mythology #Book of Enoch #angel of death #fantasy illustration

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reality-detective · 1 year

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If the Sun is 93 million miles away... How can it be in the clouds? Maybe because the Sun and Moon are inside the Firmament?

You will find your answer in the Book of Enoch beginning on chapter 71. Click the link below 👇 and read it for yourself.

Scroll down you will find all the chapters and then: "You Decide" 🤔

#pay attention #educate yourselves #educate yourself #knowledge is power #reeducate yourself #reeducate yourselves #think for yourselves #think about it #think for yourself #do your homework #do some research #question everything #ask yourself questions #do your research #do your own research #history research #it's biblical #bible lesson #bible study

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glitterfartsprinkle · 2 months

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mkay so last night I was showing my friend my tumblr blog, and i could only watch as his face contorted into horror as millions of reblogs of Enoch began to pour as i scrolled and scrolled down anyways can you guys guess my favorite character

#glitterfartsprinkle

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yakool-foolio · 1 month

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For once Ryunosuke is talking exactly like Sholmes would... confusing a trophy for a backscratcher. Herlock Sholmes, Master Of Unlocking. Jill Valentine would be proud.

UHHHHHH GUYS ARE WE NOT GONNA ADDRESS THE BOMB? SHOLMES I HAD FAITH IN YOU POINTING OUT THE BOMB BUT THIS IS NOT WHAT I MEANT!

Head retrieved! But no identifying features to conclude what the Professor truly looks like. This does poke a hole in my 'Asman is the Professor' theory since Asman definitely wasn't wearing a medieval helmet when he participated in the experiment and killed.

Ayyyyy there's the man of the hour! Quite an entrance; I half expected Enoch to do the splits after several backflips. At least he's actually seeing the time bomb for what it really is. Also his theme is a bop, love the ticking clockwork percussion. Enoch I think you underestimated how stupid this band of weirdos is.

Sholmes and Sithe are exes??? Probably not but it's very entertaining to think about AH FUCK I'LL TALK ABOUT THIS LATER PEOPLE GOT FUCKING BLOWN UP ON THE OTHER SIDE OF TOWN-

MYSTERY MAN IS IN COURT LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

My friend group is going to cower in the corner from all my screaming. All it took was for mystery man to uncork the bottle with his sword and I am completely at this game's mercy. DRAG ME THROUGH BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS TGAA I DARE YOU! HIT ME WITH ALL YOU'VE GOT!

Me yelling at mystery man standing perfectly still in court:

I didn't even consider the possibility of an accomplice, now I'm stuck scrolling through the names of people featured in this case in my head to figure out who it could be. Waaaaaaait it's Sithe? This could be very, very interesting. I think I can patch this hole back up in my 'Asman is the Professor' theory now that Sithe's words are under scrutiny. I'm just waiting for this thing to pop and fly off into the sunset at this point. It's shaky but I'm rolling with it. SINCE WHEN DID ANYONE BRING IN THE WAX MODEL IT JUST APPEARED OUTTA THIN AIR?!

(To Whom It May Concern - @raymondshields)

#live neo reaction #ace attorney #ace attorney spoilers #the great ace attorney #tgaa #tgaa spoilers #tgaa2 #tgaa2 spoilers

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kalevalakryze · 10 months

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Just Call (I'll Be There)

Relationships: Shin Hati/Sabine Wren Characters: Shin Hati, Sabine Wren, Sabine Wren's Howler, Murley The Loth-Cat Tags: Fluff, Loneliness, Accidental Cuddling, Fluff Without Plot, Maybe Plot, I Don't Know, Self-Indulgent, Modern Universe Notes: This idea hit me while I was driving a few days ago. I'm still working on getting out of my writers block, and preparing for galaxycon in five days (stares in so much sabine armor to print and sand and paint still)anyways, I really needed some of the softer side of wolfwren, so this is really just self indulgent fluff Word Count: 3,517 AO3 Link: Here!

The motor mounts rocked and clanked as the key was turned in the ignition. The hundredth try to get the car started and find some semblance of heat in this damned cold was met with yet another failure.

She should have listened every time Baylan had told her to take her car in to get the timing chain replaced, but she’d been so… well… none of that mattered much anymore, did it? Three in the morning and stranded on some backroad, colder than the tundras she’d grown up playing in, with half a bar of cell service, and her phone’s rapidly depleting battery.

“Trakhny mene,” The woman groaned, breath fogging into the freezing air as the keys were yanked from the ignition and tossed fruitlessly aside into the scattered remains of her backpack, poured over the seat in her haste for the hot hands pack that was currently on its last leg stuffed in her left glove.

She couldn’t put it off any longer, lest she wanted to become a frozen corpse for someone to see on their trip when the sun finally crested the rolling hills. Pulling her glove off with her teeth, Shin was at last faced with the dim glow of her phone screen, and the sinking realization of her short contacts list.

Marrok, Baylan, Morgan, Thrawn; After what happened, there was no way she could call any of them… Enoch was a maybe, but they already knew that would spiral into something uncontrollable that would bite her in the ass worse than frostbite. Tano… was an option, but not one she wanted to admit defeat to.

The group she started to hang around with! She didn’t have all of their numbers, but she had Rorik’s, and he’d mentioned something about being awake at ungodly hours too- The line rang, though with each unanswered trill, Shin felt the cold seep deeper into her bones until the voicemail prompt screeched through the speakers.

Yanking her phone away from the horrifically loud monotone of ‘voicemail full’, Shin’s head slumped back in her seat, letting her eyes close as the traitorous feeling of tears and a runny nose picked at the numbed skin on her face. “Don’t you dare,” She whispered more to herself than anything else in the vehicle... Certainly not anyone on the other line, since there was no one.

The cold rattled deep in their chest, but the shaking in their fingers had begun to subside, and while she knew that was a bad sign, she was too thankful for the unobstructed scrolling to care.

She passed a contact once, twice… Traitorous, blurry eyes glanced towards the name, and the plethora of ‘hate’ emojis smashed into the contact name. Wren… She wouldn’t expect this as an offer of a new leaf for them, and wouldn’t make her decide on who or what she wanted to be… if she even picked up. Their rivalry had its moments of calm near friendship, but coming out and asking for it? Asking for help? It was mortifying for the young woman.

A tremble of cold brought the shiver back, thumb bumping the contact as her hands were reignited with the icy heat of feeling once more. Before they knew it, the line was ringing and… Kriff, it wasn’t like Sabine would actually pick up, letting it ring wouldn’t hurt; she’d have more time to consider calling Baylan, or Thrawn, or-

“Nnng, Hello?” Sabine’s voice was thick with sleep, Shin could hear the springs of the mattress creaking under the Mandalorian’s body weight as she sat up. “Shin?” Confusion underlay the fog of sleep, tinged with the pleasantness that only came from a nice sleep, one that Shin had surely interrupted.

Shame and discomfiture had their throat swelling, certainly it was her abject horror at receiving an answer that kept her voice stuck in their throat, rather than the ache of cold and loneliness that had swelled with the sharp wetness that had been building in her eyes since the timing chain had snapped. The silence continued with only the slow click from Shin’s blinking hazard lights filtering through the speakers.

“Are you okay…?” Sabine finally questions, sounding more awake than she had when she’d answered. Part of Shin wanted to find joy in ruining the Mandalorian’s sleep. The other part just wanted the hypothermia to kick in already so she wouldn’t have to remember any of this.

“Shin…? I can hear your… is that your hazards? Did your car shit out?”

The call clicked as quickly as Shin’s frozen fingers could smash against the screen, stuffed back into her glove just as quickly to find some sort of solace. Her heart thudded heavily in her aching chest, and the phone, warm from use, was finally dropped into her lap uselessly as she turned her gaze to the frosted-over windows.

Fat snowflakes drifted to the earth slowly, performing a slow dance for only Shin to see. It wouldn’t be a horrible way to die, really. If she died here, no one would be able to taunt them or use this against her, or-

The vibration from her phone startled them, causing them to jump in the seat, knees banging against the steering wheel and head slamming into the ceiling of the car hard to send the device tumbling to the ground. There was a mad scramble against the floor of the car, eventually finding the phone tucked up under a lip of the mat, offering Sabine’s contact flashing on the screen, and a smear of dirt streaking across the screen.

“Hey, where are you?” The woman was moving, clearly, with the jangle of keys and the sound of rustling fabric. “No, Tota, you can’t come. Go lay down with Murley,” She could hear the woman chide, along with a muffled whining from the beast on the other end.

Still, Shin was silent, even as she listened to the door slam and the keys in the lock as they transferred through Sabine’s speaker. “Please don’t make me do all the hacker shit to find you, come on,” The Mandalorian groaned into the phone, frustrated already with Shin’s shadowy antics.

“The Biox detour,” Shin answered at last in a shaking voice. The craggy whisper must have been enough for the woman to go on, because once the door of the jeep slammed shut, the line was filled with the mechanical sounds of typing.

“What’s your closest mile marker?”

“Three two seven,” Shin’s forehead slumped into the window. She was just so cold; embarrassment gave way in short order.

“Can you stay on the phone with me?”

A cautionary glance at her phone had the woman contemplating. Thirty percent… they might be able to cut it. “Maybe,” She answered truthfully, already turning her screen brightness all the way down to preserve what power she could.

“Just stick with me, should be… fifteen minutes?”

This gave Shin pause; Sabine lived almost thirty miles from the back road, she knew, because the route was only taken in emergencies to avoid proximity to the woman. Before she could ask for clarification, the sound of a radio turning on drowned out any further thought.

At some point, the quiet calm of Sabine’s radio, and the soft way the woman had sung along to the music had lulled the blonde into something like sleep. She didn’t notice the headlights that flashed in her rearview, or Sabine’s careful questions to try and figure out if it was in fact, Shin that she’d pulled up behind. They didn’t have the energy to tune back into the word until knuckles rapped at her icily obscured window.

“Shin?” Sabine called, watching the figureless shape move in the car as the woman picked herself off the window, cold hands fumbling at the door handle to force it open. Sabine helped open the door the rest of the way, wincing at the uncomfortable screech as the meta swung open. “Jeesh, you’re a sight for sore eyes-”

Their cheeks and nose were red, hands tucked painfully under their armpits, lanky frame tucked into the coat that was meant to protect them from the weather, with exhaustion and too much else to unpack swirling in grey eyes. Sabine took one look at them, and the dying amber lights flashing had the woman shaking her head and cursing, reaching to grab at Shin’s arm with a surprising gentleness.

Shin was led to the passenger side of the purple jeep, Sabine kept them on the inside, even though no cars dared to pass through the treacherous turns this late at night. Something about chivalry, or another thing they were too frozen to bother remembering.

Inside of the passenger seat, blankets waited, tucked to the side closest to the center console to give her room to clamber inside to the safe warmth offered by blasting heaters and the rumble of the idling engine. In a stroke of kindness that Shin was too preoccupied to consider, Sabine helped them into the vehicle and even carefully wound warm blankets around their hands. “I’m gonna go check out your car and see what I can do. Do you need anything from it?”

“My bag is on the seat still,” Their first breath not full of arctic breeze was met with the warm citrus smell of Sabine, the blankets were comfortable, and Sabine was reaching across them to pull the buckle across and click it into place around them. The door was shut gently, but by then, the blonde was already sinking into the calm embrace of sleep once again, nose twitching as the heat finally seeped into her skin to begin thawing her out.

There was some rustling as the back door was opened and her bag was thrown in, and the sounds of Sabine trying to start her car, but it was all in the back of her mind as the muddled haze of rest slowed the world down around her.

“Shin?” Their eyes blinked open slowly. Only one overhead light was clicked on, Sabine was hovering her fingers in front of the heater closest to her. “You with me?” There was a droopy, lopsided smirk on the purple-haired woman’s face as she tugged her seatbelt across her chest and shut off her light.

“Shcho?” They asked dumbly, blinking sleep from her eyes as Sabine pulled away from the shoulder, reaching over to fix the blankets around their hands, warm fingers brushed against cold knuckles, bringing a shiver to their spine. At least they still had feeling in her hands.

“Nothing, babe.” There was warm laughter in Sabine’s voice as the woman’s head drooped into the armrest, the radio clicking as the music started back up, nice and low that they could catch the gentle hum as Sabine went along to the melody. The drive took longer, this time, no longer needing to hurry, and with the just-woken-up adrenaline freshly faded at last, Sabine was keener to following the laws of the road than she had been the first time.

Every now and then, the warm amber glow from streetlights would cut through the darkness. She could hear Wren talking quietly on her phone at some point, offering directions to where her car had gone down at and whatever she’d figured out was wrong with it, reaching over occasionally to adjust the blanket around Shin’s ever-present tremble.

They seemed to fine-tune back into consciousness in the last few turns before reaching Sabine’s parking garage. Forcing her eyes open, Shin let out a quiet groan as she sat up properly, untangling her hands from the blankets to rub at her eyes. As Sabine scanned into the garage, Shin pulled off their gloves to make sure their fingers were still in working order. Balling their hands up into a fist experimentally, and fisting into the soft material of the blankets in their lap, they were relieved to find that each digit was in working order.

“How long were you out there?” Sabine finally broached as they moved through the different levels, glancing away from the silent garage around them to peer at her sometimes-enemy, golden eyes full of more worry than Shin wanted to think about.

“What time is it now?” They peered groggily at the green display on the radio as their weight shifted into the chair. 0429 blinked in the corner of the screen and Shin huffed. “I went down at two.”

“What the fuck?” Sabine’s brows furrowed, nose crinkling cutely as her head whipped around to stare at them. “Why did you wait so long to call?” Shin turned away entirely now, staring at the different cars as they passed to the middle level, where Sabine finally backed into a spot. “Okay-” A deep breath from the Mandalorian as the car was put into park. “Fine, it took you a minute,” She brushed a hand through the scraggly purple strands of hair on her head, still mussed from when she’d been woken up.

Silence hung thick between them once more as the car idled. “Thank you,” Both women started at once. Sabine stopped with an easy smile, considering Shin looked as if thanking her may have been equal to admitting guilt.

“I’m not saying it again, you osel.” The blankets were moved until Shin could stuff them up by their face and look pointedly out the window, even though there wasn’t much to look at other than the dark tint that greeted her from the neighboring car.

“Yeah, alright, alright. That’s fair.” Sabine reached over the console to unbuckle Shin’s seatbelt for her, ignoring the intensity of the glare on her as she began gathering her phone and keys. “Thank you for calling me,” The death glare dropped with the unmasked look of confusion, whole and near heart stopping as silver eyes went wide.

“Sccho?”

“Like,” Sabine huffed, now it was her turn to look away as a dark blush rose to her cheeks. The fraying material of her steering wheel cover suddenly became much more interesting. “I’m glad you called me instead of…” Sabine let her words trail off. The business with Thrawn was no secret, and if anyone knew what it was like to avoid ‘crawling back’ to family, it was Sabine Wren. “So.. you know… Thanks,”

Shin huffed, regaining her composure and forcing the mask back in place. The last thing she wanted to talk about was her Father’s eclectic philosophies that had led to his abandonment, or the people he’d allowed into his life that had only egged on these decrepit ideas. She would rather face Sabine Wren and her pitiful understanding sympathy than be dragged into the cult that Baylan had found himself in the middle of. “Whatever…”

“Yeah… come on, let’s get inside.” Sabine slipped from the car, and while Shin was trying to untangle herself from the blankets, the Mandalorian had jogged around to the other side of the vehicle to open Shin’s door. Doting on Shin, the older woman tucked the blankets tight around their shoulders, even as their hands tried to weakly bat her off. “Here, lemme grab your bag-” The door was shut as Shin moved to the hood of the car so Sabine could get in the backseat and grab the backpack, now semi-neatly tucked back together, with only a few of her research papers poking past hastily closed zippers. “I tried to grab everything I saw up front,” She explained sheepishly as the bag was tossed over her shoulder and she began leading the way into the building.

Huffing, Shin pulled the blanket further around themselves to fight off the chill from the garage, ducking under Sabine’s arm as she held open the glass door connecting the complex to the garage level. “Thank you,” They grumbled, eyes rolling at the resounding beam of a smile shot her way as the other woman followed them inside. Shin already knew the way to the apartment number, spotting the six hastily scribbled into the wood next to the metal nine bolted into the door, something Sabine had joked about the first time she’d brought Shin to her place.

Tota and Murley were both waiting for them in the living room. While Tota had been very excited to see Shin, Murley only seemed to grow more pissed off as Sabine ushered Shin inside and shut the door.

“Yes, I know, we were gone for so long, but I brought your best friend!” Sabine cooed to Tota as he crowded them. Shin shucked off her shoes at the front door, brushing past Sabine’s side to garner the Howler’s attention so the Mandalorian could do the same.

“My best friend is a rat-dog?” Shin questioned monotone as he tried to jump on her and lick her face. “Original,”

“Oh you love him, shut up,”

Shin moved to the couch, making sure to steer clear of the hissing Loth-cat as she dropped onto a cushion to begin unwinding herself from the many layers.

The studio was small. From her spot on the couch, Shin could see the corner by the large paned window full of canvases and the paint splattered easel. A tarp sat under everything, but it hadn’t done much to stop the flecks of paint that had stained the hardwood around it, or the glass closest to the easel. The bed, still messy from Sabine jumping up to save them, was stuffed against the far wall, just a few feet from the edge of the couch, a perfect distance for Murley to jump to when he realized their guest had no intentions of leaving the couch. And the kitchen was tucked into the corner at Shin’s back, with the only other closed off room being the bathroom crammed into the corner by the front door.

There was clattering in the kitchen as Sabine worked through different cabinets and prepared a pot to warm everything she’d need for hot chocolate, and the microwave was soon humming radioactively. “Bo-Katan brought over some leftover Pog soup,” She explained when the aromatic smells began to fill the apartment. “Number one way to warm up when your stubbornness keeps you on the side of the road for two hours,”

“Zatknysya,” The blonde had finally managed to unwind herself from the blankets and her coat, though she was quick to tuck back into a warm blanket when cool air touched bare skin. She never wanted to be cold ever again.

“I know you’re chilly-” She could already tell that Sabine was about to say something asinine from the lilt in her voice as the microwave door was opened. “But at least we have bowls!” The woman came around the edge of the couch, balancing two plastic bowls in one hand, and two ceramic mugs in the other. One of which specifically had paint water, do not drink etched into the purple coating. “Okay, grab one before I drop these and die,”

Biting her tongue to stop her lips from betraying her in a smile of her own, Shin reached up to grab a bowl, balancing it in her lap as she reached to grab the dark green mug from waiting hands. “Thanks,” Sabine flopped into the seat beside them, groaning when Tota jumped up to crowd the last cushion and push into her personal space. “No, none for you. The last time I gave you anything, you vomited in my shoe,” She scolded. Tota’s ears moved to lay flat against his head as he gave the woman his best sad eyes. “Nuh uh,” Sabine pointedly looked away from him to focus on her own bowl. “You’ll live, no upset stomachs for you today,”

Shaking their head, Shin tucked thankfully into the warm meal. The shivering had stopped by the time she finished the soup, and she could finally say that she no longer felt like a popsicle. At some point, they’d started to sag into Sabine’s side, ignoring the noise from the other woman’s phone as she scrolled through mindless videos. They didn’t even notice the bowl or mug being taken from weakening hands, only curling into the warm body at their side.

It was getting harder to convine themselves that there wasn’t an air of home with Sabine Wren. And even harder, when the Mandalorian’s arm wrapped around her shoulders and allowed their head to tuck into her neck, that there may be something more than their hesitant relationship may have previously let on.

Sleep had found Shin in the early hours of the morning, with Tota’s body stretching across Sabine’s lap to rest his head on Shin’s thigh, with Murley climbing to the back of the couch to press a clawed mitten into the thi material of their shirt, and with the warm press of soft lips against her forehead as the sun had begun to kiss the small apartment with its warm glow.

If Sabine’s contact had somehow made it to the top of the list and was starred as an emergency contact, neither woman said anything, and Shin didn’t bother to change it. After all… Sabine kept her word; she’d always come for her.

#wolfwren #shinbine #shin hati #sabine wren #star wars #murley #howler #fanfiction #fluff #self indulgent

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apilgrimpassingby · 2 months

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Demons of the Hebrew Bible

Since today is also the day for Lord of Spiritsposting, I've decided to make a post I considered yesterday - the demons of the Hebrew Bible. This will be a long post, so I'm inserting a "Keep Reading".

Azazel: Appears only once in Leviticus 16, as the being in the wilderness to whom the goat with the people's sins laid on it in the Day of Atonement ritual is given (this isn't sacrifice, because the animal isn't killed or offered on an altar, among other things). Becomes a Devil figure in some later Jewish literature like the Book of Enoch, and is associated with deserts, sin and goats - the name literally means "the goat that goes away" (an archaic translation gives us the word "scapegoat"), and the seemingly-random reference to goat demons in Leviticus 17:7 comes just after Azazel's appearance.

Deber: The most prominent of the gang, appearing (usually in conjunction with other figures on this list) in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, Habakkuk and the Pentateuch a total of 49 times, usually unleashed as punishment for some sin by Israel (compare "handing people over to Satan" in St. Paul's letters - 1 Corinthians 5:5, 1 Timothy 1:20). A nocturnal demon of pestilence and destruction associated with the underworld in Canaanite mythology.

Hereb: Rendered as "the sword" in English; the next most prominent one, appearing 29 times and, like Deber, in conjunction with the others. A demon of violence and destruction associated with blood-drinking (Isaiah 34:5, Jeremiah 46:10) and flesh-eating (Deuteronomy 32:42, Jeremiah 12:12) and probably the rider on a red horse from Revelation 6:3-4.

Lilit: Appears just once, Isaiah 34:14, where she's dwelling in some ruins. Usually translated as "screech owl" or "night bird", but some use "Lilith". In Mesopotamian mythology, the lili are a class of nocturnal female demons associated who kill babies and are associated with owls, so the translation as "screech owl" is acceptable. The Songs of the Sage from the Dead Sea Scrolls refer to liliyot (feminine plural) as a class of demons: "And I, the Instructor, proclaim His glorious splendour so as to frighten and to te[rrify] all the spirits of the destroying angels, spirits of the bastards, demons, liliths, howlers...

Livyatan: Usually anglicised as Leviathan, and appears five times: Job 3:8 and chapter 41, Psalms 74:12-14 and 104:26 and Isaiah 27:1. Based on those appearances, he's a multi-headed fire-breathing sea serpent immune to weapons who battles with Yahweh and (of course) always loses. The myth of a god fighting a sea serpent is a staple of world mythology. Likely correlates to the beast from the sea of Revelation 13:1-10, since Leviathan is paired with a beast from the earth (Behemoth; Job 40:15-24) - also compare Revelation 13:4 ("Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”) to Job 41:33-34 ("On earth there is not his like, a creature without fear. He sees everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride").

Nephilim: Famously appear in Genesis 6:1-4 as the warriors born of the sons of God and the daughters of men, understood in Second Temple Jewish texts such as the Book of Enoch and the Septuagint to be giants born of fallen angels and human women. They appear by the name Anakim or Rephaim in Genesis 14:5, 15:20, Deuteronomy 1:28, 2:10-11, 2:20-21, 3:11, 3;13, 9:2 and Joshua 11:21-22, 12:4, 13:12, 14:12, 14:15 and 15:8 and war with giants appears in 2 Samuel 21:16-22, 1 Chronicles 20:4-8 and, of course, 1 Samuel 17 (the David and Goliath story).

Qeteb: Appears just 4 times (Deuteronomy 32:24; Psalm 91:6; Isaiah 28:2; Hosea 13:14), together with Deber in the Psalms and Hosea appearances and together with Resheph in Deuteronomy; if there's any lesson from this post so far, it's that plague demons hunt in packs. A diurnal plague demon whose name is rendered in English as "destruction"; nothing more to be said.

Ra'av: The third most prominent one, appearing 35 times; a famine demon whose name is rendered in English as "famine" or "hunger" who is unleashed on Israel as punishment together with (surprise!) Hereb and either Deber or Resheph. Probably the rider on a black horse from Revelation 6:5-6.

Rephaim: The spirits of dead kings who dwell in the underworld not doing much, translated in the ESV as shades and appearing in Isaiah 14:9 and 26:14; the same imagery and concept is being used by Ezekiel 32:20-30.

Resheph: A demon of plague and conquest worshipped as a god in Canaanite and Egyptian culture, depicted as a bearded archer on a white horse. Appears just 6 times in the Hebrew Bible (Deuteronomy 32:24; Habakkuk 3:5 Psalm 78:48; Job 5:7, Song of Songs 8:6); the name is rendered as "plague" or "pestilence" or occasionally "fire" or "sparks" because the name literally means "burning". Probably the rider on a white horse from Revelation 6:2.

Sources and Further Reading

"Before Him Went Pestilence (Hab. 3:5) - Biblical Lexis and Semantic Field of Epidemics" by Jozef Jankovic for The Old Testament Society of South Africa

"A Land of Giants" by Frs. Andrew Stephen Damick and Stephen DeYoung on The Lord of Spirits

"War, Famine, Disease, Death and Hades" by Fr. Stephen DeYoung on The Whole Counsel of God

"Who is Azazel?" by Fr. Stephen DeYoung on The Whole Counsel of God

Who is Lilith - Ancient Development and Origins of the Demon Queen by Dr. Justin Sledge on ESOTERICA

Or in short - stop making it all about Lilith. Use some other Hebrew Bible demons.

#hope you like it #hebrew bible #old testament #demons #lilith #leviathan #azazel #nephilim #the lord of spirits

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