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The Burning Bush Wasn’t What We Thought

MythVision TV

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Was the story of Moses and the Burning Bush influenced by Zoroastrianism?

In this episode of MythVision, Dr. Gad Barnea examines the possible Zoroastrian elements behind the famous Burning Bush story in Exodus. The discussion explores the Persian period, the priestly traditions of the Hebrew Bible, divine and perpetual fire, ancient Zoroastrian rituals, and the striking detail of Moses removing his sandals before the fire.

The conversation also explores how biblical texts were edited and redacted over centuries, why the Burning Bush scene may have been added to an earlier version of the Moses story, and how Persian religious traditions may have influenced Yahwistic practices.

The episode also tackles a fascinating question: could the Burning Bush represent a later priestly attempt to connect Moses with the origins of the priesthood and the tabernacle?

The discussion touches on:
• Moses and the Burning Bush
• Zoroastrianism and the Persian Empire
• The divine and perpetual fire
• Moses as a priestly figure
• The Persian-period Hebrew Bible
• Biblical redaction and textual development
• Elephantine and Yahwistic religious practices
• The Priestly source
• Plato and the Burning Bush theory
• How scholars distinguish evidence from speculation

Watch the full discussion and decide for yourself what the evidence tells us.

👉 Check out Dr. Gad Barnea's Academia page for this article - https://haifa.academia.edu/gadbarnea

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20 Comments

@danp777d3 2 days ago

I love Gad so much, definitely my favorite scholar!! As an Iranian, I'd like to thank you for inviting him more often ❤️

@ColorMusicTheory 1 day ago

Thank you for another great presentation. I always look forward to Gad Barnea.

@stateofaffairs3112 2 days ago

Excellent interview! Really helps me out in writing my paper for review!

@occultexaminer 2 days ago (edited)

Mary Boyce wrote a good book "A history of Zoroastrianism". Very good interview Derek! At min 1:25:00 is where I think it gets really into the ancient male only cults of old which I do not believe ever went away.

@spiralking-daringlybold6862 23 hours ago

1:20:26 Very smart man. I like what he said about adopting and adapting to local data. It's common for cultures to project their current lens of reality onto the past, assuming present surroundings reflect ancient standards. Interestingly, this adaptability can actually reduce bias. While not set in stone, the tendency for cultures to view the majority's customs as a higher truth within their own belief system reveals something deep about conformity, projection, and community survival: adopting what works without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Shunning other people's customs isn't naturally built into traditions; it takes explicit rules to disrupt that adaptive tendency.

@Zebred2001 1 day ago (edited)

For those unfamiliar with the timeline - The Persian Shah Dareiawosh (Darius) allowed the Judeans who had returned to Jerusalem (after the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 B.C.) to rebuild the Jerusalem (second) temple around 516 B.C. Judea remained as a part of a Persian province or satrapy though. Persia was conquered by Alexander the great in 331 B.C. so there was a window of about 185 years for this Persian element to suffuse Yahwism, possibly longer.
P.S. - I have a hard cover copy of Yahwism Under the Achaemenid Empire and have read it. Not for most people and I am no specialist but I got through it. Very interesting to me. Thank you Dr. Barnea and Reinhard G. Kratz! It would be better if academics routinely referred to the period of development of TaNaKh books from their core composition to the Masoretic form as "Pre-Masoretic (Jeremiah, Ezekiel etc.)." It sure would have been helpful if the Israelites had used baked clay tablets!

@AeiThop 2 days ago (edited)

The burning bush was a bright UFO behind a bush. Just like it would seem if you sat waiting with your car headlights on high beam, behind a bush, and someone from a primitive uncontacted tribe curiously approached - he would also wonder why the bush was on fire, but not burning.

@HippyHermeticist 23 hours ago

[F]or the first time in the world archeological practice, monumental temples were found in which intoxicating beverage of the soma-haoma type were prepared for cult ceremonies.... The excavations documentally proved that poppy, cannabis and ephedra were used for making the soma-haoma drinks, and thickets of these plants were found in excess in the vicinity of the excavated temples of Margiana. (Sarianidi, 2003)

@Gerryjournal 2 days ago

Luckily today there are creams and ointments

@HippyHermeticist 1 day ago

11:19 Zoroastrian Fire Litany -
“May there be hope to that person who truly shall sacrifice to you with fuel in his hand, with the Baresman (bundle of cannabis branches/stalks/twigs/haoma) in his hand.... Then if that one brings to the fire either fuel rightly brought, or Baresma rightly spread, or the plant Hadhanaepata (sweet smelling plant/The Pomegranate Tree), to him thereupon, in fulfillment of his wish, the Fire of Ahura Mazda, propitiated, unoffended, gives a blessing.”

@danfeutz6911 1 day ago

I thought burning bush was referencing Jezabell!

@truth-e8b 1 day ago

Burning Bush is best read as:

a late priestly theophany,

embedded in Persian‑period redaction,

designed to authorize Moses as cultic mediator,

linked symbolically to tabernacle fire and priestly holiness.

Moses has never existed

@LittleAngelOfJoy 2 days ago

"Burning bush" is 99% some dudes digging a hole and filling it with 🌿🌿🌿🌿 and then putting a tent⛺ over it to hot box.

@rickgidlewski5721 2 days ago

Probably just a natural gas leak that caught fire from lightning

@urbandiscount 2 days ago

You could say it's proto-talmudic, because the talmudic literary "procedé" is similar. it's "lore about our Giants"

@SPWKarlsson 2 days ago

QANEH-BOSEM - The Burning Bush Wasn’t What We Thought...

@darthjarwood7943 2 days ago

The whole bible is an apologetic book from a monotheistic people about when they were a polytheistic peoples, attempting to make it appear they were always monotheistic...this is why when they write about the loss of battles in the past of which there are no written records they say the reason they lost had to be because god wanted them to lose, not because the others had superior numbers or superior tactics because these things mean nothing to the one god that controls everything , this pattern repeats throughout the old testament which was written after all the events contained within . The adam and eve story is how you would convert the atra hasis to a monotheistic story, one god created one man (adam) yet the earlier version told from the same peoples said it was multiple gods that made multiple men (the adamu).

@HippyHermeticist 23 hours ago

What is this to me?
Frankincense comes from Sheba,
and the precious spice reed (literally cannabis/ kanehbosm) from a distant land.
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, your sacrifices are not pleasing to me.” (Jeremiah 6:20)

@GramPong 1 hour ago (edited)

So "Science" rests on Logical Fallacies like "Appeal to Authority" (Peer Review), "Appeal to Popularity" (Academic Consensus), "Ad Hominem" (Muzzle Those Without Proper "Papers"), etc.. Do I have that right, because that's a reversal from what I was taught in college?

I'm glad I'm not part of the "New Science" crowd, and I'm a TRUTHSEEKER instead.

I'd MUCH rather be TRUE than SCIENTIFIC.

@HippyHermeticist 23 hours ago

16:06 Concerning the word that you have spoken to us in the name of Yahweh, we are not going to listen to you! 17 But certainly we will do ⌊everything⌋ that went out from our mouths, to make smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out to her libations just as we did, we, and our ancestors, our kings, and our officials, in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, for then ⌊we had enough to eat⌋, and we were well-off, and we did not see disaster. (Jeremiah 44:16–17)