by paradisebeauty 27 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I like a comment one Poster made on here not so long ago, "Sure Jehovah exists, they dug him up in Ugarit".
It would seem that Yahweh was a minor god back then in early Canaan, along with his wife Asherah, and only eventually morphed in to the only god worth worshiping according to the Priests in Josiah's time.
This doubtful character (Yahweh) and his murky origins make what I said above about the use of the name very apropos.
In reality the Witnesses insert the Tetgrammaton where it doesn't belong for the same reason that they add the word " other " where it doesn't belong , to back up their theology . Using words like " obviously " is typical JW bluffing .
Jan
Fukitol, you are correct, but I can understand putting YHWH in a quoted verse that originally contained the Tetragrammaton. I think the best method would be YHWH in a footnote. That would be the most honest thing to do.
DD
Phizzy, in the Ugaritic texts the only gods that had the same descriptions as the god in the bible were Baal and El. They also had the same consorts Asherah and Anat. According to the writings found there El was the high god of the pantheon but later Baal takes over as the god most revered. Most likely because he was the fertility god as well as the rain god. He after supplanting El, takes the same consorts as El and also takes on several of the same characteristics as El. There are so many names and places named after El and Baal that its almost certain that these are the gods the IsraElites worshipped and Yahweh was just another manifestation of these gods not an altogether new god or son of El. Of course we can't be absolutely for certain of this.
Its my opinion that at some time a priestly group living in Jerusalem was trying to get people to only worship their god (monotheism) so they could benefit financial much like the priests in Egypt and this is why they railed against Baal, not their chosen god. There's evidence that the god they chose may have been in fact an Egyptian god.
Recently a royal bula or seal impression was discovered of Hezekiah's, one of gods supposedly good kings. The impression showed two Egyptians Ankh's and a symbol of a sun disk with wings, this is the symbol of the Egyptian god RA.
Interesting stuff a Crazyguy ? I was thinking of a quote from theology.edu that said yahweh may have been viewed as a son of El, but as you say, it is not clear. Another quote I read said Yahweh at most was seen in Ugarit as the god of tempests.
As I said above the Jehovah of the WT, being in fact Yahweh, has murky origins.
The slow evolution from Pantheism, through Henotheism to an eventual Monotheism saw Yahweh change quite a lot !
Monotheism rather went out of fashion once the christian trinity got going.
As to your group of power hungry Priests in Jerusalem I am sure you are right, maybe the group got its start around the time of Josiah,and was still influential upon the methods used by the returnee priests from Babylon. These guys, Ezra in particular, had a huge need to cultivate an "us and them" attitude, hence their promotion of the cult of Yahweh, and of him as the only god.
They may well have been responsible for "restoring" (inserting) the name to their own Scriptures, much like JW/WT today, the motive not being accuracy, but control and power.
I think what the original intent of the WTS was to distinctly clarify that Jesus is not god but the son of god contrary to what main stream Christianity professes through its trinity doctrines. .
What becomes ironic is that the WTS/JWS uses a latinized version of YHWH created by Catholicism ( false religion)
