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Find the answers to all those questions you were too embarrassed to ask in Sunday School. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. Hosted by Luke Taylor.
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Taking Hermon Back: The Transfiguration and Psalm 89
Matthew 17 & Psalm 89
Introduction
This year, we’ve talked typology. We’ve talked about what happens when you see the glory of God. We’ve talked about Mount Hermon. Today, I’m gonna put these pieces together.
Today’s episode ties up a lot of things we’ve been learning about this mysterious mountain, because it’s the place where the Watchers came down to the earth in Genesis 6. And throughout the Old Testament, this mountain and the whole Bashan region was the epicenter of evil, a stronghold of fallen angels, a bastion of giants and their ghosts!
But not only that, it’s the exact place where Jesus declared His intention to build his church in Matthew 16, and the mountain where He transfigured in Matthew 17.
And perhaps that’s the most mysterious thing about it of all. Because of all the places for Jesus to go and make these declarations—why there? Why not pick one of the holy mountains like Sinai or Zion?
Going to Hermon to start your church is kinda like going to Dairy Queen to start your diet. But Jesus didn’t look at things the way we do in the natural. Jesus was supernatural. In other words, some of the things Jesus did…were weird.
And I’d like to explore why He chooses this spot for the Transfiguration in the Bible.
Turn with me to Isaiah 14, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]
(Continued)
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be picking up right where we left off last week, studying the Transfiguration.
I can remember once attending a Sunday School class years ago—around 2012 or 2013—and the Bible story one week was about this. I asked the teacher, “hey, what was the Transfiguration all about?” Like, this whole thing of going up on the mountain and creating an explosion of light and God speaking feels really significant. And yet…I wasn’t sure how it fit in to the Biblical story. And frankly, the teacher didn’t know either. And this question has lingered with me for much of my life since then.
But then this year, the Lord has shown me that the Transfiguration took place to recreate the setting of Sinai and the covenant established with Moses. That’s what we discussed last week. How a covenant mediated by Moses was created at Sinai, and at the Mount of Transfiguration, a new covenant was inaugurated, mediated by Jesus.
And not only that, there’s a lot of significance to the location: Mount Hermon. I took some time last week to prove that this story took place at Mount Hermon, a significant site of rebellion from the Old Testament. I had to prove it because the text doesn’t explicitly tell us. You may have been wondering: considering the significance of Mount Hermon, why doesn’t the Bible say which mountain Jesus climbed for the Transfiguration? And there are two answers I can think of to that question.
1- because it doesn’t matter. And that’s a legitimate conclusion that someone could draw; that the Bible didn’t say the particular mountain where the Transfiguration took place because it doesn’t matter where the Transfiguration took place, it could have been on any mountain.
Or 2- because God wants us to put these pieces together through careful study. And that’s where I land on this question. This is actually a recurring pattern throughout the Gospels where something significant happens at a particular location, but the location isn’t named.
For example, we all know the story of where Jesus walked on water- and most of you probably know it happened on the sea of Galilee. But the first three Gospels that were written didn’t even mention which sea it was. Only the Gospel of John- which was written decades later- bothered to mention that Jesus was standing by the Sea of Galilee at the beginning of that chapter. But even there, the story doesn’t point that fact out. We can piece it together. We can prove it. But it’s not a detail that’s explicitly told.
Or what about the place where Jesus ascended up into heaven? Ask just about any Christian and they can tell you: oh yeah, it was the Mount of Olives. OK, here’s a question: which of the four gospels tells you that? *crickets.* None of them tell us that Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives. That detail is slipped into the Book of Acts, but none of the four biographies of Jesus’ life and death tell us this fact. Does that mean the location of His ascension wasn’t theologically significant? Of course it was; Zechariah 14 tells us that the Mount of Olives is the exact place Jesus will return when He comes back to this planet. It’s definitely important. It’s just not a detail the Gospel writers said plainly. But you can figure it out if you piece things together.
This is a piecing things together podcast, so for the rest of our time today, let’s talk about what the location of the Transfiguration on Hermon would have meant to the spiritual world.
Part 4- The Mountain of El
If you’ve been reading your Bible for very long, you notice that the devil likes to make his own twisted copy or counterfeit to everything that God does. God has a Kingdom; Satan has a kingdom. God has prophets; Satan has false prophets. God has miracles and signs; Satan has false miracles and signs. God has a gospel; Satan has a false gospel. God has a Christ; Satan will have an antichrist. It’s a recurring theme throughout the Bible.
And on this podcast, we’ve discussed how God has a Divine Council. This is a group of spiritual beings who assist God in ruling the world. They are literally called “the gods” in Scripture: the territorial spirits assigned to various sectors of the world. Also called the Sons of God or the Watchers. We see them mentioned in Psalm 82, Daniel 4, Job 1-2, and I Kings 22. If Satan wants to set himself up like God, then doesn’t it follow that Satan would try to set up his own divine council?
Well, guess what: that’s exactly what Satan did. If you study ancient religions from that area of the world, you find that Mount Hermon was regarded as the Mountain of Assembly of the gods. In the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian religions, they called these beings who would assemble the Anunnaki. (The word Anunnaki means “royal offspring,” which sounds like a synonym for “Sons of God.”) And I’m using that word “assemble” very deliberately; it was called the Divine Assembly. It was Satan’s version of the Divine Council. Some scholars call it the Infernal Council. In those religions I mentioned, they were created by a figure known as El. (El is a generic word for God.)
Here’s a quote from Derek Gilbert’s book The Great Inception: According to Belgian scholar Edward Lipinski, Hermon was known to the ancient world not only as the secret dwelling place of the Anunnaki, but also as specifically the mountain of the divine assembly of the northwest Semitic god El, the creator god of their pantheon. Mount Hermon is where El held court with his consort Asherah and the "seventy sons of EI."
It’s quite interesting that it was believed there were 70 members of the Infernal Council. In Genesis 10, when God set up the table of nations, there were 70 people groups who spread out around the world. 70 nations starting off. Deuteronomy 32 says that the nations were split up according to the number of the Sons of God.
The Canaanites also believed that their god, Baal, ruled from Mount Hermon. In fact, Mount Hermon is actually called “Baal Hermon” in Judges 3:3 and I Chronicles 5:23.
Baal was also known as the storm god in the ancient pantheon of the Canaanites. That’s why, when Israel fell into Baal worship under King Ahab, God turned off the rain for 3-and-a-half years. He was showing that He’s the one who controls the rain, not Baal.
In Greek mythology, the pantheon of gods is ruled by a storm god named Zeus. If you know anything about Greek mythology—if you’ve seen Clash of the Titans or even the Disney movie Hercules—then you know about how Zeus is the head honcho of these Greek gods. His trademark symbol and accessory is a lightning bolt. He rules the gods from Mount Olympus, a mountain of the gods. If you’ve ever seen it depicted visually, it’s a mountain with its top even higher than the clouds. Now, Mount Olympus was thought to be in Greece, but you can see the parallels there to Mount Hermon.
By the way, I did an episode back in December of 2024 about how Zeus is actually an identity of Satan. There was an altar to Zeus in Pergamum that Jesus called the Seat of Satan. Note also that Jesus said He saw Satan fall like WHAT from heaven? Like lightning. An interesting choice of words if Satan likes to masquerade as Zeus. Baal the storm god is also identified with Satan in Mark 3 and Matthew 12. So I believe that Zeus, Satan, and Baal are all the same guy, going by many different names, showing up in different religions as the ruler of the kingdom of gods. Of course, his kingdom is the kingdom of darkness.
Now, I do not typically make it a practice to quote from a lot of pagan mythologies and superstitions or to use that as a basis to influence what I believe when it comes to the spiritual realm. They can be really interesting, but I never go down that road too far because you never know how true any of it is. However, it can be really interesting that as you study these ancient religions, you do start to see how they all overlay or sync up in some fascinating ways.
In fact, I recently received an email from a longtime listener and weirdo, Noah, who said: “every time I look into it further, I just keep finding links to ancient Greek Mythology, and how it basically tells the same story”
And I would agree with that. So can I prove that there was a council of rebellious Watchers who liked to assemble on Mount Hermon on a regular basis, in a way that makes a dark mockery of the Divine Council? No, I can’t prove it. But there seems to be a lot of evidence for it. In fact, let’s add in a few pieces of biblical evidence.
Isaiah 14 has long been regarded as a condemnation of the devil, who somewhat mysteriously shows up right here during an oracle about the King of Babylon. In describing the devil, it says these words
In verses 12-14
“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
13 You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
The Mount of Assembly in the far reaches of the north? I used to think that was a reference to Satan trying to usurp God’s throne. But the Mount of Assembly was actually considered the Infernal Council on Mount Hermon. Remember where Hermon is? At the northernmost tip of Israel, right on the border of Israel, Lebanon and Syria. Where does Isaiah 14 say is the mount of assembly? In the far reaches of the north. So I believe that is not necessarily talking about how Satan tried to steal God’s throne, but about how Satan is trying to actually set up his own copy of the divine council here—with the rebellious Watchers.
Recall also that during the temptation of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness,
Matthew 4:8-9 says
…the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
Now, how could the devil do that? How can you observe all the kingdoms of the world from one mountain? I once had a listener, Rick, write in with that question last year, and I was like, “I don’t know Rick.” But here’s a theory I have now: Hermon is a very high mountain, the highest mountain in Israel. If the mountain was Mount Hermon, and this was Satan’s Mount of Assembly, and he had all the fallen Watchers up there who were disloyal to God, then he could have offered Jesus their allegiance, and this is a way he could have offered the world to Jesus from a single mountain.
Part 5- parallels with Psalm 89
And there’s one more place that I think shows us the Infernal Council of Satan: Psalm 89. Now, this is one of the chapters in the Bible that those familiar with Divine Council theology often point to as an example of the Divine Council.
And it very well may be. But I have a theory that this Psalm is actually about the Infernal Council, because interestingly, instead of the Hebrew calling these Watchers the Bene Elohim—or Sons of God—it calls them Bene El—Sons of El. Now, most scholars will tell you that El and Elohim basically mean the same thing. And that’s mostly true. But the nuance I’d like to point out here is that the Infernal Council was known in ancient times as the Council or Assembly of El.
A second thing to keep in mind about Psalm 89: it is about the Messiah, and it seems to be about the Transfiguration. I heard Pastor and author Doug Van Dorn say that recently in an interview. But I haven’t found anywhere that Doug expanded on that, so I had to do my own study. So here we go. Let’s return to what we were discussing last week about the Transfiguration, viewed through a lens of Psalm 89.
Psalm 89:1-2
I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever;
with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.
2 For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever;
in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”
Now verse 3 is where it starts to get really interesting:
Verses 3-4
3 You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to David my servant:
4 ‘I will establish your offspring forever,
and build your throne for all generations.’” Selah
Covenant. What was Jesus establishing on the Mount of Transfiguration? A new covenant. So we see a covenant mentioned here. It also says “I will establish your offspring forever.” Now, this could be looked at as a promise to David, but what do we also know about this new covenant? By creating the church, Jesus was creating new Sons of God. You and I. (I John 3:1-2). Christians are called sons of God. It’s not a coincidence that the Watchers of the Old Testament were also called Sons of God.
Remember also this: in pagan mythology, with the Anunnaki in the assembly on top of Mount Hermon- the word Anunnaki means “royal offspring.” But in Psalm 89, God says to the Messiah: “I will establish your offspring.”
We know from scripture that someday we will rule and reign with Christ over this planet as members of His new council. We are the offspring being established. The psalm is using this language because Jesus is telling the fallen Watchers that they will be replaced as the rulers of this world.
Now, next it gets into what many see as Divine Council language. But again, I wonder if it’s not perhaps more targeted toward the Infernal Council.
Psalm 89:5-7
5 Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord,
your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones!
(Remember that phrase for the end of today’s lesson: the assembly of the holy ones)
6 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord?
Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord,
7 a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones,
and awesome above all who are around him?
When it says “heavenly beings” in verse 6, that is literally in Hebrew “the Sons of God.” The ESV obscures it by translating it as ‘the heavenly beings.” But instead of calling them “Bene Elohim” in the Hebrew here—the typical designation of the Sons of God—it calls them Bene El—Sons of El. It uses the designation that the pagans and Canaanites often applied to the assembly of Baal on Mount Hermon.
Let’s skip down to verse 12:
The north and the south, you have created them;
Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name.
Tabor and Hermon are mentioned right here- the two mountains which are the most popular theories for the location of the Transfiguration. And they both get mentioned in the same verse in Psalm 89. That is so strange.
But wait- why would Hermon joyously praise God’s name? This was the mountain of evil and rebellion. It doesn’t make sense.
But I believe that when Jesus transfigured here, He was taking Hermon back. He wasn’t just invading enemy territory: He was retaking enemy territory. Why do I say that? Let’s look at how Peter describes this mountain in his first epistle later on, talking about this moment.
I Peter 1:16-18
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.
Peter calls it “the holy mountain.” We might think of it as the unholiest mountain ever. But Jesus redeems. I believe Jesus reclaimed Hermon and sanctified it at this moment. I believe the Infernal Council was disbanded or scattered at that moment. Maybe they reconvened later, I don’t know; but they lost their HQ.
Back to psalm 89. Speaking of the future messiah,
Verses 26-27 say
26 He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father,
my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’
27 And I will make him the firstborn,
the highest of the kings of the earth.
What did God say about Jesus at Hermon?
(Matthew 17:5)
This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased…
The Father and Son both acknowledge each other.
Psalm 89:28
28 My steadfast love I will keep for him forever,
and my covenant will stand firm for him.
Once again, a covenant is mentioned.
Psalm 89:29
29 I will establish his offspring forever
and his throne as the days of the heavens.
Once again, offspring are mentioned. The Royal Offspring will not be the Annunaki. It will be this new group that Jesus is creating with His covenant.
And the end of this section is
Verses 36 and 37
36 His offspring shall endure forever,
his throne as long as the sun before me.
37 Like the moon it shall be established forever,
a faithful witness in the skies.” Selah
Offspring are mentioned again. It mentions a faithful witness—remember, there were earthly and heavenly witnesses to this covenant being established at Hermon. Moses and Elijah were there. By the way, who are the two figures most often theorized as the two witnesses in Revelation 11? Moses and Elijah. So this could perhaps be why they are called Two Witnesses. They were the witnesses of a new covenant.
And these verses mention the sun and moon. The Watchers or Sons of God were often referred to as the shining ones. Job 38:7 calls them “morning stars.” Satan was called the Day Star earlier in Isaiah 14. It said he wanted to exalt himself above the stars of God. The word for serpent in Genesis 3 also means “shining one.” So these angelic or divine beings are often identified by their bright light.
What was Jesus doing when He transfigured? He shone with a bright light. I’m sure it was a brighter light than they were able to emanate.
So everything Jesus did on that mountain was launching an opening salvo at the whole demonic kingdom. He declared His intentions right there at the base of Mount Hermon- the mount of rebellion. He went up on it and shined brighter than any of the Sons of God. He created a new covenant to create a new Divine Council, and He did it right where the Infernal Council thought they had a safe space.
Now, we didn’t finish Psalm 89. If you finish it out, it takes a very negative turn after verse 37. It sounded really triumphant up until verse 37, but then in verse 38 it starts talking about this future Messiah being cut off and rejected and bearing wrath. And it ends on a much more depressing note than how this psalm began. It’s actually kind of backwards; usually the psalms will start negative and end happy. Why does this psalm start happy and end sad?
I believe it’s following the trajectory of Jesus’ ministry in mediating this new covenant. It starts victorious and joyful on Mount Hermon, right in the middle of enemy territory. But the new covenant was only inaugurated at Hermon; it wasn’t completed there. To finish that covenant, He had to go to the cross. And that’s what verses 38 through 52 of that psalm talk about: the cross before Him.
Part 6- This Mountain
Now, as we close down, I have two more things I want to talk to you about from this story. We’ll stay with Hermon for now.
Jesus got a little angry right after he came down from the mountain after the Transfiguration. As they descend the mountain, there’s a crowd of people at the bottom. His disciples are there and they’re struggling to cast out a demon out of a young boy. The father of this child comes running to Jesus and says this in
Matthew 17:16…
16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” 17 And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
In my opinion, Jesus heard a lot of dumb stuff and He usually kind of rolls with the punches. He’s typically quite patient with His disciples. He does get mad sometimes, but it’s not His general personality. There aren’t very many times that He lashes out or gets exasperated.
But right here, He kinda loses it on them. He calls them a faithless generation. Why was He so upset?
The reason is that they had forgotten the previous conversation. We kinda forget it, too, because it got a bit interrupted by this whole Transfiguration thing. But one chapter ago, Jesus gave them the keys of the Kingdom! They should be able to bind, loose, throw down and cast out. They should be able to handle one demon in a child.
And for you and I, the same thing is true. We should be able to handle demons. In fact, notice what Jesus said we can handle: if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to THIS mountain, ‘move from here to there,’ and it will move…”
He didn’t say “a mountain.” He said it about “this” specific mountain. And what mountain was that? Mount Hermon. He was standing at the bottom of that mountain when He said these words. The mountain of the angelic rebellion of the Old Testament. The headquarters of Bashan and the entire demonic kingdom. The epicenter of evil. And Jesus just totally neutralized it. At the base of Mount Hermon, Jesus announced that the gates of hell will not prevail against His church. Then He invaded hell’s base of operations and took it back.
So now He’s saying, “I just decimated their whole operation and you guys can’t handle one little demon in a kid?” No wonder He was a little miffed.
But the question for us today is: what are we doing with the power we have?
You have the keys of the kingdom. You can bind demons. You can release angels. You can close the gates of hell. And if their entire mountain home base is in your way, just move it.
And that would be a great place to end today’s episode, but I have one more surprise to share from this story.
The Infernal Council—Satan’s version of the Divine Council on Mount Hermon—was known as the Assembly of the Gods; and Hermon was known as the Mountain of Assembly. And in Psalm 89, as it referred to this group, it described them in Verse 5 as “the assembly of the holy ones.”
Assembly. There was a particular word for that in the Greek, and you can see it there when you read Psalm 89 in the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament. The council right here—the assembly—is called the ekklesia. It can mean assembly; it can mean congregation; but in the New Testament, it usually means something else.
On that mountain, Satan had his ekklesia. But when Jesus visited Hermon in Matthew 16, He said these words:
(Matthew 16:18)
…on this rock I will build MY EKKLESIA, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Ekklesia is the same word translated “church.” Jesus was not just reclaiming Hermon. He was not just inaugurating a new covenant. He was establishing a new Divine Council, and building His own Ekklesia.
This has been Luke Taylor. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on Weird Stuff in the Bible.
Citation for Mountain of El research: Edward Lipinski, author of El’s Abode in Orientalia Lovaniensa Periodica, 1971
For book: end the chapter with these words “And now you know the rest of the story.”
(Assuming you gave the Paul Harvey info in the intro)