In 1929, a farmer in French-occupied Syria hit a rock with his plow and accidentally uncovered the lost city of Ugarit — and with it, a library of Bronze Age tablets that has been quietly reshaping how scholars read the Hebrew Bible ever since.
This week, we're diving into the Baal Cycle: an elderly patriarchal high god named El, a youthful storm-riding warrior who fights the chaotic sea (and then, memorably, drinks him), a goddess who winnows Death himself like grain, and a whole pantheon that ought to look awfully familiar.
Then, in History's Mysteries, we tackle a word Dan B has used his entire life without ever quite knowing what it means: Zion. Where did it come from, why does it seem to start out as a dry rocky stronghold, and how did it stretch into a portable, symbolic, cosmic idea that runs from Jerusalem all the way to Jackson County, Missouri?
Support Data Over Dogma and get every episode early and ad-free, plus exclusive bonus content — become a patron:
https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma
Get your Data Over Dogma merch at our online store:
https://data-over-dogma-shop.fourthwall.com/
Watch every episode on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@dataoverdogma
Follow us:
Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/dataoverdogmapod
TikTok — https://www.tiktok.com/@data.over.dogma.pod
Threads — https://www.threads.com/@dataoverdogmapod
X — https://x.com/data_over_dogma
Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod
Get Dan McClellan's New York Times bestselling book, The Bible Says So:
https://static.macmillan.com/static/smp/bible-says-so-9781250347466/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
