The God El, Caananites, Yahweh and JW.org
by Jon Preston 10 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Jon Preston
i know Leolaia has some fantastic research on these subjects and i have marked a few of them so some can view what she has said. Leolaia has also given suggestions on books to read on the subject -- Mark S. Smith's The Early History of God and John Day'sYahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan.
But i know that thise active lurking JWs will be entering The God El, Ugaritic, Asherah, etc into Jw.org onkine library. What will they find?And is the WT being forthright and accurate in its deliction of the research on these subjects?
Ill start with the wt 03 article on the ugaritic texts
from WT 03
Treasure Trove of Inscriptions
Thousands of clay tablets were discovered throughout the ruins of Ugarit. Economic, legal, diplomatic, and administrative texts have been found in eight languages, written in five scripts. Schaeffer’s team found inscriptions in a hitherto unknown language—given the name Ugaritic—using 30 cuneiform signs, which made up one of the oldest alphabets ever discovered.
In addition to covering mundane matters, Ugaritic documents contain literary texts that opened a new door to the religious concepts and practices of the time. The religion of Ugarit appears to have borne great similarities to that practiced by the neighboring Canaanites. According to Roland de Vaux, these texts “are a fairly accurate reflection of civilization in the land of Canaan just prior to the Israelite conquest.”
Religion in the City of Baal
More than 200 gods and goddesses are mentioned in the Ras Shamra texts. The supreme deity was El, called the father of the gods and of man. And the storm god Baal-Hadad was “the rider of the clouds” and “the lord of the earth.” El is depicted as a wise, white-bearded old man remote from humanity. On the other hand, Baal is a strong and ambitious deity who seeks to rule over the gods and mankind.
The discovered texts were probably recited during religious festivals, such as the new year or the harvest. However, the exact interpretation is obscure. In one poem about a dispute over rulership, Baal defeats El’s favorite son, the sea-god Yamm. This victory perhaps gave Ugarit’s sailors confidence that Baal would protect them at sea. In a duel with Mot, Baal is overcome and descends to the underworld. A drought ensues, and human activities cease. Baal’s wife and sister Anat—goddess of love and war—kills Mot and restores Baal to life. Baal massacres the sons of El’s wife, Athirat (Asherah), and regains the throne. But Mot returns seven years later.
Some interpret this poem as a symbol of the annual cycle of the seasons during which life-giving rains are overcome by the torrid heat of summer and return in the autumn. Others think that the seven-year cycle relates to fear of famine and drought. In either case, Baal’s preeminence was considered essential for the success of human endeavors. Scholar Peter Craigie notes: “The goal of Baal’s religion was to secure his supremacy; only while he remained supreme, so his worshipers believed, would the crops and cattle so essential to human survival continue.”
A Rampart Against Paganism
Clearly evident in the texts unearthed is the depravity of Ugaritic religion. The Illustrated Bible Dictionary comments: “The texts show the degrading results of the worship of these deities; with their emphasis on war, sacred prostitution, sensuous love and the consequent social degradation.” De Vaux observes: “On reading these poems, one understands the repulsion that true believers in Yahwism and the great prophets felt for this worship.” The Law that God gave the ancient nation of Israel was a rampart against such false religion.
Divination, astrology, and magic were widely practiced in Ugarit. Signs and omens were sought not only in the heavenly bodies but also in deformed fetuses and the viscera of slaughtered animals. “It was believed that the god to whom a ritually sacrificed animal was offered identified with it and that the god’s spirit fused with the animal’s spirit,” comments historian Jacqueline Gachet. “As a result, by reading the signs visible on these organs, it was possible to have clear access to the spirit of divinities who were able to give either a positive or a negative answer to a question on future events or on the course of action to take in a specific situation.” (Le paysd’Ougarit autour de 1200 av.J.C.) In contrast, the Israelites were to shun such practices.—Deuteronomy 18:9-14.
The Mosaic Law clearly forbade bestiality. (Leviticus 18:23) How was this practice viewed in Ugarit? In the discovered texts, Baal copulates with a heifer. “If it be argued that Baal assumes the shape of a bull for the act,” commented archaeologist Cyrus Gordon, “the same cannot be said for his priests who re-enacted his mythological career.”
The Israelites were commanded: “You must not make cuts in your flesh for a deceased soul.” (Leviticus 19:28) Reacting to Baal’s death, however, El “cut his skin with a knife, he made incisions with a razor; he cut his cheeks and chin.” Ritual laceration was apparently a custom among Baal worshipers.—1 Kings 18:28.
One Ugaritic poem seems to indicate that cooking a kid in milk was part of a fertility rite common in Canaanite religion. In the Mosaic Law, however, the Israelites were ordered: “You must not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.”—Exodus 23:19.
Comparisons With Bible Texts
Ugaritic texts were originally translated primarily with the help of Biblical Hebrew. Peter Craigie observes: “There are many words employed in the Hebrew text whose meanings are unclear and, sometimes, unknown; translators prior to the 20th century surmised, by various means, their possible meaning. But when the same words occur in the Ugaritic text, progress is possible.”
For example, a Hebrew word used at Isaiah 3:18 is generally translated “headbands.” A similar Ugaritic root designates both the sun and the sun-goddess. Hence, the women of Jerusalem mentioned in Isaiah’s prophecy may have been adorned with little sun pendants as well as “moon-shaped ornaments” in honor of Canaanite gods.
My issue is this: the WT only paints the picture from Yahwehs followers' perspective. But wasnt Yahweh one of the Gods or sons of. El?
im posting because i need help discerning some of this and to compare with what WT says (for lurkers).
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Phizzy
To see exactly what is happening with the WT's take on this, we have to appreciate what Leo has shown in a number of her posts. That Monotheism in Israel was a late development, post Babylonian Exile, and that the texts of the Pentateuch etc were redacted by "Yahweh" being retrojected in to the text.
El, the god of Abraham preceded him.
The gradual evolution of Yahweh, from minor god, with a Consort or wife, of equal stature to him, to eventually being the god of Israel and thence to being the only god is a fascinating study.
None of which you will find mentioned by the WT.
Just a personal thought on monotheism in Israel/Judah. The writing we get in the Hebrew Bible and O.T is all by the Priestly class, who were the proponents of monotheism. It is my gut feeling that the ordinary folk, the farmers and carpenters and so on, continued with many gods for a long time, perhaps all the way down to the Hasmonean rule, far longer than the impression given in Scripture.
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Heaven
I think El revealed himself to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob and renamed himself as Yahweh if I remember correctly. Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou has some great videos on YouTube (BBC's 'The Bibles Buried Secrets' series). This one talks about the multiple gods including God's wife. I think she mentions El becoming Yahweh in this one as well.
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Phizzy
not exactly "renamed himself", it takes an author to rename a fictional character.
Dr. Fran. Stav. has some learned books that touch on the subject too. She is well worth watching, it is an easy on the eye introduction.
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Heaven
phizzy said: not exactly "renamed himself", it takes an author to rename a fictional character.
*Giggle* Yes, although people do rename themselves sometimes. It is a human thing.
I found it interesting that the Caananite god 'El' is also the Hebrew god 'Yahweh'. And the Jewish rabbi in the video trying to explain/rationalize it.
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Crazyguy
Looks to me as though Abraham worshiped EL and later the God Yahweh comes on the seen to Moses a mountain war god. As time goes on the priests of Israel want people to worship just this one God and start making all other gods abilities that of Yahwehs too. So Yahweh become, Baal and EL and others until he is the only God that counts in the eyes of the Priests. But this didn't completely happen until after their captivity in Babylon, until then when the wars were over the Israelites stopped worshiping their war, mountains god Yahweh and instead started worshiping other gods like Baal which was a god of fertility and made crops grow etc.
One interesting scripture that seems to highlight Yahweh being a mountain god is judges 1:19
Judges 1:19
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
19 The Lord was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain, because they had chariots of iron
I have yet to find proof that Yahweh was a god child of EL in any text yet.
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Apognophos
Crazyguy, did you read the old Leolaia thread? http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/147775/1/Deuteronomy-32-7-9-Who-is-the-Most-High#.UxebhIX4KMZ. She lays out the case for YHWH being a child of El.
I don't think your Judges verse hints at YHWH being a mountain god, but plenty of other verses do. Read this one that JWs like to ignore: Genesis 24:9-11. Also see the descriptions of God's presence that cameo-d listed here: http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/185420/1/Yahweh-The-Volcano-God#.Uxeb9IX4KMY
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transhuman68
It helps if you realise that the YHWH worshippers didn’t come from Egypt and fight their way into Canaan- but were a group that somehow evolved from among the Canaanites. The fictional story of the Exodus was anti-Egyptian propaganda written much later. Somehow the story of YHWH emerged, possibly brought by the Midianites, and was incorporated into earlier myths, I guess. It’s complicated, LOL.
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Apognophos
I'm a little fuzzy on this myself; the Midianites might have brought YHWH worship with them from the south. Certainly Moses is connected to the introduction of YHWH to Israel, and his own introduction to YHWH takes place in the wilderness of Midian, but there was also an important influence by the Kenites. Leolaia wrote some fascinating info about them here, including how they held themselves to be the descendants of Cain (even though that should be impossible because of the Flood): http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/100985/1/What-about-Lamechs-wound
The Kenites came from the direction of Egypt and they may have been the ones who introduced the story of the Exodus. They may have been closely-related enough to the Midianites that they also worshipped YHWH. Over time, because the Midianites seem to have become the priestly tribe of the Levites, the ancestral tale of the Midianites or Kenites as having come out of Egypt was glommed onto the Israelite people as a whole, because the priests were the ones writing Israel's history and proclaiming it to the people.
I believe personally that there is a genuine Egyptian connection here. Leolaia wrote a lot about the fact that Levite priests seem to have Egyptian names (for instance, Phinehas is Egyptian for "the Nubian"), and apparently the practices of the Jewish priesthood that we tend to think of as uniquely Jewish are also found in a priestly class in Egypt, including circumcision and the same habits of dress, hygiene, and diet: http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/181655/1/Moses-was-an-Israelite-Egyptian-Military-leader-who-rebeled-Any-thoughts-or-info
The suggestion (in that thread title) that Moses was himself Egyptian and was possibly a rebel or an exiled noble from the Pharaoh's court is without substantiation, but it's a fascinating idea. In any case, Egypt's influence extended up to the bottom of Israel, which we know from temples to Egyptian gods that have been found that far northeast. So it may have started as a nomadic tribe (the Kenites were apparently nomadic, possibly explaining why their ancestor Cain is cursed at the end of his story to wander the earth) coming from the direction of Egypt and later incorporating their story into the story of Egypt's patriarchs.
Think about the whole concept of Jacob living in Israel, and then moving with his sons down to Egypt, and suddenly a few generations later they're a people of slaves working for Egypt, then they escape and return to Israel. It sounds like a stretch that was made to fit pre-existing, differing tales, doesn't it? One set of stories is about Israelite forefathers and the other is about the Exodus from Egypt, and then someone combined them, just like the tales in the Bible itself consist of layers of different documents that were stitched together. The same thing would be done centuries later when Christianity absorbed local deities and festivals in order to spread to various "pagan" peoples.
Leolaia (boy, I name-check her a lot, don't I?) has even talked about how slaves would actually escape from Egypt and sometimes head northeast through the Sinai peninsula. So it's not impossible that a tribe (much smaller than the 600,000 Israelite men, though) was enslaved in Egypt and then at least some of them escaped, and found themselves in Israel adapting themselves to the local customs. Then again, escaped slaves wouldn't explain how Egyptian priestly practices got to Israel.
A further speculative step has been made by some, who suggest that Egypt's mysterious monotheistic cult of Aten is connected to YHWH. There's some vague connections, but nothing definite. The worship of Aten was practiced for a very short time, basically living and dying with Akhenaten. His actions in promoting Aten worship are reminiscent of the "good kings" in Israel/Judah who tore down the places of worship to competing gods in favor of YHWH. Which leads one to wonder, if Akhenaten installed a whole new system of worship for his "one true God", including a new priestly class... what happened to his priests when he died? Hmm....