researching polytheism of the Jews

by DeWandelaar 24 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  DeWandelaar

  I was researching the history of the Jews and in wikipedia it is said that in origin the Jews were Polytheists by default and became monotheist in a later period of time. I was not aware of this (neither do many others) and am therefore putting some of my findings here:

  First of all the obvious things. We read in the first book of the Bible that God is talking a lot in the Plural... like he is talking to himself...

  Genesis 1:26 for example says: Then God said, o “Let us make man 8 in our image, p af after our likeness. And q let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

  Genesis 3:22 says “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.

  We continually see that God is talking in the plural... you also see this happening in the acts after the flood.

  Now... who are the other gods? Who did the people believe in?

  The less obvious things can be read in the following texts:

  Genesis 33:20... Jakob makes an altar... 20 There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel. 6 (so who was Jakob making an altar for: JHWH? Or "El"?

  Also read Genesis 35:7 and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, 1 because k there God (Elohim) had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.

  Now the next text is even more interesting: Genesis 14:18

  18 And tMelchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was upriest of vGod Most High.)

  Now check this in the Interlinear translation:

  

  I do see to-El ...

  Have we ever looked closer to names like Israël? Daniel? ... They all have the deity-name "El" in their names.

  Interesting isn't it?
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  mP

  You can find a lot of pagan gods in various key religious words in judaism.

  El = Canaanite god as you note.

  Amen = Egyptian god, Amen=Amun etc

  Adonai=Lord=Assyrian god

  Samson = sun a pagan god.

  Strange how the jews copied or used pagan god names in these key words.
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  cofty

  Interesting topic that I want to know more about. I think there are some good discussions on this in the archive.

  Thanks for raising it.
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  *lost*

  Israel - from the Hebrew name Yisra'el meaning God contended.

  In the OT Israel, who was formally jacob, wrestles with an angel.

  Daniel - Daniyyel meaning god is my judge
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  DeWandelaar

  What is especially interesting is the fact that the bull was symbolic to El and his son Ba?al Hadad... It therefore makes a lot of sense why, of all animals, the animal that was made by Aaron (and Rehobeam later on) was actually a calf... it also shows that for some reason they took it from the Egyptians(?)... who probably took it from the Canaanites... And to what country was Israel going to? Canaan... and the circle is round again (at least in my mind :))

  I must say that researching the hebrew texts make some things confusing. "El" is translated by "God" all the time and sometimes they do not use "El" but Elohim or the-Elohim... what I DO know is that the Hebrews actually copied a lot of things from other cultures...

  I mean: if you look at the time of Jesus people where familiar with "Hades" and "Tartarus" while these things had not particurly to do with the Hebrew religion but have their roots from Greek Mythology (or even before that).
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  adamah

  Yup, 'Elohim' ("the Divine Counsel") is PLURAL, where 'Eloah' is the singular form referring to the Big Kahuna, Hisself. Eloah likely is where the Islamic name for God is derived: 'Allah'). Funny how that works out, huh? It's good to point out that little fact when a Christian indignantly declares Islam's Allah to be Satan, where Allah is just an altered name for their God, and is just as fake. So they're actually committing blasphemy, calling Eloah Satan!

  The Divine Counsel is seen in the opening of the Book of Job, where Satan (a title meaning 'the accuser') was serving on Team Jehovah, the one who tests humans to ascertain their loyalty to God. Notice how the relationship is depicted as Satan being in submission to the Will of God, following his orders and asking for permission.

  The shift from pantheism (spirits/minor Gods) to montheism is actually more of a marketing trick, since the minor deities (Gods) were simply downgraded to angels. Name change, rather than a shift to "true" monotheism.

  Here's a helpful site which explains the roots of Elohim:

  http://www.thedivinecouncil.com/

  Adam
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  mP

  And "sin" as in sin, sinai etc is another pagan god.

  Single monosyllabic words with either L or R are common in many god names, el, ra, bel, allah in the middle east.
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  jgnat

  Don't forget the Asherath poles.

  
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  slimboyfat

  An interesting book I came across a few years ago argued that Elohim and Jehovah were separate deities and that Jehovah was the junior God.

  http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Angel-Israels-Second/dp/0664253954/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

  Larry Hurtado has written a lot about Jewish monotheism at the turn of the era which touches upon earlier polytheistic notions.

  http://www.amazon.com/One-God-Lord-New-Monotheism/dp/0567089878/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376493201&sr=1-1&keywords=Hurtado+monotheism
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  *lost*

  www.abarim-publications.com

  The meaning of the name Israel is unclear, although it is most likely a compilation of the

  verb (sara) + the noun (El) the common abbreviation of Elohim.

  The meaning of the verb (sara) is uncertain and explained in many ways.

  chiefly because it is limited to contexts which discuss the struggle of Jacob with the Angel of the Lord,

  insinuating that where our language uses the common verb 'struggle', the hebrew uses a word that is specifically reserved for a certain action:

  the action of struggling with God.

  BDB theologial Dictionary reports (sara) the arabic cognate of persist, persevere, and relates to the word (sora) rows, which only Isaiah uses in 28 v25

  More interesting even is the word (misra) a unique word that probably means rule or dominion, and which Isaiah uses in the highly messianin passage of 8v6.

  It gets even better when we look at the verb (sarar) meaning to rule, reign, act as prince.

  Derivative (sar) means prince, and (sarah) means princess

  and is (near) equal to both the name of Jacobs g.mother Sarah and the root-word of Israel.

  Daniel (there are 3 or 4 mentioned in the Bible)

  the name Daniel consists of 2 parts

  the first part (din) meaning to judge, contend, plead. The post fixed yod indicates posession: my judging, contending etc.

  It should be noted that judging in Biblical days was much more a governmental enterprise than a legal one.

  the final part (El) the abbreviated form of Elohim, the Hebrew denotation of the genus God.