Why Did El Shaddai become Jehovah? Attention Leolaia

by jst2laws 21 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  jst2laws

  Dear Leolaia From reading your research, which is wonderful, I'm confused about what Moses was trying to say in Exodus. 6:3

  2 And God went on to speak to Moses and to say to him: ?I am Jehovah. 3 And I used to appear to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God Almighty, but as respects my name Jehovah I did not make myself known to them*** Rbi8 Exodus 6:2-3 ***

  Before everyone concludes I'm an idiot bear with me and I'll explain the contradiction that concerns me. What surprised me was that the Hebrew word for ?God Almighty? above is the Hebrew words ?El Shadday?. I hope everyone knows who "El" really is by now. Just in case, I have copied some of your material below:

  In Canaanite mythology, the father god El begat seventy sons (cf. KTU 1.4 vi 46, "the seventy sons of Asherah," El's consort), and in the OT we find that El assigns one god to each nation as their patron deity, Yahweh inheriting Israel:

  "When Elyon (an epithet of El) apportioned the nations, when he divided mankind, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of El. Yahweh's portion was with his people, Jacob his share of inheritance." (Deuteronomy 32:8-9)

  That is why there are seventy nations listed in Genesis 10, one nation for each god. http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/68098/1.ashx

  This El of the Chaldeans was also viewed as the creator god.

  (further down on same page) But we see traces of a creation myth of El as the creator of the cosmos. Two of El's titles are 'ab 'adm "father of humanity" and bny bnwt "creator of creatures," while his consort Asherah is qnyt 'ilm "creatress of the gods" (cf. the Yahwist creation account where bn is used of Yahweh to describe his creation of Eve in Genesis 2:22 and qnh is used of Eve to refer to her creation of man in Genesis 4:1). http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/68098/1.ashx

  So the scripture originally read: "I used to appear to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Shadday, but as respects mey name Jehovah I did not make myself known to them". And you have made the point that Shadday was a description relating to gods of the Chaldeans, especially their chief god El.

  In Hebrew, Shaddai is closely associated with El and in Ugaritic literature "Shaddai" also occurs as an epithet of El. http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/68919/1.ashx

  According to Karen Armstrong in A History of God, Moses was the one who for the first time steered the Jews toward monotheism by making Jehovah (Yahweh) the only god to worship. My confusion though is why Moses is confusing the lesser god Jehovah with the chief god El in Exodus 6:3. My guess is that he was adopting one of the "local' deities, Jehovah, but leading the Jews to believe this was really the chief god El revealing himself as Jehovah. Thus, "as respects my name JEHOVAH I did not make myself known to them." Perhaps he felt compelled to do this because the descendents of Abraham already knew El as the chief god since the people of Ur, Abraham's home town, seemed to have already worshipped this god. Do you or anyone else have a differing theory? Jst2laws
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  Leolaia

  There is no compelling evidence that the Priestly account in Exodus 6:3 is historical and should be regarded as a view held by Moses (whose historicity has also not been established). Note that the Priestly account conflicts with the Yahwist account which claims that Yahweh was known since the time of Enosh (Genesis 4:26) and used by the patriarchs (cf. Genesis 15:7-8; 28:13-22). The Deuteronomist also presents Moses as declaring Yahweh as one of the sons of Elyon (Deuteronomy 32:8-9), a view clearly older than the later monotheistic ideas of the exilic and post-exilic prophets. The Priestly tradition however preserves some knowledge that the primary god worshipped by the Israel was originally not Yahweh. As Mark Smith points out, the name of "Israel" is not a Yahwistic name but an El name, the cultic sites associated with the patriarchs (e.g. Beth-el, El-berith) are also El names, Genesis 49:24-25 in an archaic blessing poem lists a series of El epithets, etc. Regarding Exodus 6:3, Mark Smith writes:

  "The priestly theological treatment of Israel's early religious history in Exodus 6:2-3 identifies the old god El Shadday with Yahweh. In this passage Yahweh appears to Moses: 'And God said to Moses, "I am Yahweh. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as El Shadday, but by my name Yahweh I did not make myself known to them" '. This passage reflects the fact that Yahweh was unknown to the patriarchs. Rather, they worshipped the Canaanite god El. Inscriptional texts from Deir 'Alla, a site noth of Jericho across the Jordan River, attest to the epithet Shadday....The author of Exodus 6:2-3 perhaps did not know of or make this distinction; rather, he identified Yahweh with the traditions of the great Canaanite god El". (The Early History of God, p. 34)

  The conflation between El and Yahweh occurred rather early. The attestation of Asherah as a consort of Yahweh in pre-exilic inscriptions is direct evidence of this since in Canaanite mythology, Asherah is the wife of El. This fact also shows that the conflation was originally not due to monotheism. We can also note that, unlike the case of Yahweh and Baal, there are no biblical polemics against El, and El eventually became a generic word for "god", hence the expression 'l 'lhym yhwh "God of gods is Yahweh" (cf. Joshua 22:22; Psalm 10:12; 50:1). The depiction of Yahweh in Deuteronomy 32 is quite interesting because tho Yahweh is explicitly designated as a son of Elyon, he is described in language characteristic of El (cf. Deuteronomy 32:6-7). So before the outright identification of the two, there was a period when language of one was applied to the other without dissolving the distinction.

  Note: I think you meant Canaanite instead of Chaldean.
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  Narkissos

  Just stepping in as you left the door open to "anyone else"

  To me Exodus 6 is a very late, priestly attempt at reconciling the revelation of Yhwh's name to Moses (Exodus 3) and the stories of the patriarchs (especially Genesis 17, where El Shaddai occurs).

  At the time of this text, Yhwh has already ascended from his original (polytheistic) position as one of El's sons (Deuteronomy 32:8f) to the (henotheistic, or monolatrical) position of supreme god (= El, cf. Psalm 82 where Yhwh presides the assembly of the sons of El), and perhaps even to the (monotheistic) position of the only "God". Looking backward it is now necessary to show that the different divine names are but different names for the same God. From this standpoint "Abraham" and "Moses" are little more than fictional characters.

  El was actually a Canaanite, not Mesopotamian, name for the supreme god. But it is quite possible that the Exodus 6 writer holds it as a Mesopotamian name on the basis of Genesis 17. So as far as the inner consistency of the Genesis / Exodus narrative is concerned you are probably right. But this reflects a Judean view of the 5th century BC or later, and by no means a 2nd millenium BC history...

  Hope I have not helped confusing the issue further...

  Ooops... I just posted a few minutes too early to see Leolaia's post!
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  jst2laws

  Leolaia,

  Note: I think you meant Canaanite instead of Chaldean.

  Yes, but that mistake is probably typical of someone dabbling with this very interesting history as myself.

  Thanks for your immediate and intensely detailed response.

  Narkissos,

  El was actually a Canaanite, not Mesopotamian

  You two will not miss anything. Thanks for the prompt reply.

  Everyone,

  This kind of information must burst the bubbles of the average fundamentalist or bible literalist. If it disturbs you I hope you simply dismiss it for now and promise yourself to address it when you feel ready. Exposing the truth about the Hebrew scriptures, as Leolaia and Narkissos have in their own personal study does not necessarily end hope or spirituality.

  I personally believe Jesus understood all of this and that is why he never used the name "Yahweh" in his preaching. There is much to be found in studying the roots of religious belief. The results can mean acceptance of reality and a connection to true spirituality. At least that is my personal experience.

  Jst2laws
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  LittleToe

  Steve:Agreed. Ultimately there is little to fear.

  I'm interested in this El > YHWH connection, as a father and son relationship (given that some hold YHWH to be "Jesus").

  What other sons did El have, and were they absorbed into the Hebrew culture?
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  OHappyDay

  Thiis kind of information must burst the bubbles of the average fundamentalist or bible literalist. If it disturbs you I hope you simply dismiss it for now ......................................

  Nah, I've been reading this sort of stuff for years. But I consider myself neither a fundamentalist nor a "bible literalist." Call me a Bible maximalist. I read the ruminations of ANE scholars with interest, but also know that there are two sides to every story. Because ancient peoples shared a religious vocabulary does not prove that the Israelites borrowed their God from surrounding peoples.

  I peruse the minimalist scholars to get their take on things. Their thinking is evolutionary, but doesn't explain the uniqueness of Israel's YHWH, nor the ethical monotheism that developed among the sons of Abraham, the admitted son of a polytheist.

  In sum, I find the intellectual gymnastics of Bible minimalists to be engaging, but not entirely convincing.
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  Leolaia

  Baal became a son of El when he assumed his kingship, and copious evidence (presented many times in this forum) shows how Yahweh drew on Baal mythological motifs. See especially my post on the battle between Baal/Yahweh and the primeval Chaos monster, which survived into Christianity. When Yahweh ceased to function as a patron deity of Israel/Judah, due to the wholesale conflation of El and Yahweh through post-exilic monotheism, the Baal-type role formerly ascribed to Yahweh was filled by the guardian angel "prince" assigned to the nation (cf. Daniel), who grew to have Messianic connotations and the Messianic "Son of Man" figure was partly identified with Michael, the angelic "prince" of the Jews who will "stand up" (i.e. "begin to rule" as the term frequently means in the text) in Daniel 12:1-2. Thus, the battle of Chaos monster is attributed to Michael in Revelation 12. And we see how Baal motifs run through the Son of Man/Jesus traditions: Baal is the "Rider of the Clouds" and the Son of Man will be coming "on the clouds of heaven", Baal dies and is restored to life, just as Jesus is killed and raised to life, Baal rules as king over creation with El's permission as Jesus will do with the Father's blessing, and the father-son relationship is preserved.
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  JCanon

  Interesting that "Yahweh" thought of himself as being the "husbandly owner" of the Jewish nation...

  JC
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  LittleToe

  Thanks Leo. I thought it went something like that.
  The Baal (Lord) connection was too good to miss.
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  Leolaia

  Interesting that "Yahweh" thought of himself as being the "husbandly owner" of the Jewish nation...

  Just to take a guess, I think this arose as an alternative to the Asherah cult and the belief of Asherah as Yahweh's wife. Anti-Asherah polemic ran quite strong in the OT (cf. Isaiah 1:29-30, 17:8, 27:9; Jeremiah 17:2; Micah 5:13), and by making Israel the wife of Yahweh, there would be no possible role for Asherah as consort.