YHWH another pagan god

homme perdu

I have read several post in the past that claim that YHWH(Jehovah) is of pagan origen. I never bothered to research this until now. Can someone give me some info?

Satanus

The Deity Temple - Room Two
The Deities in the Myths of Ugarit
Yw, Yawu, Yhwh, Iahu, Ieuo

Yw, Yawu, Yah, Iahu, Ieuo
Yw or Yawu is given as the original name of Yam in the Myth of Ba`al from Ugarit, and is probably the same as Ieuo in Philo of Byblos' Phoenician History. He is possibly to be identified with Yahweh. Coincidentally, a likely pronunciation of Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh really is Yahuh (Yahoo!). The name of this deity was used in theophoric personal names in a number of Canaanite cities and continues in use in Isra'el today - as in "Natanyahu"

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/2938/mindei.html#yam

S

minimus

He's the same as ADONIS (adonai).

Satanus

Here is another one. Sorry, it's a bit long.

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YahwehYawUgarit

Yahweh-Elohim's Historical Evolution (Pre-Biblical)

02 September 2001

This brief article investigates the "historical evolution" of the Hebrew God, variously called Yahweh, Yaw, Yah, Yahu, El or Elohim, over a period of 3,000 years (the 4th -1st Millenniums BCE).

In a "nutshell," it is my understanding that Yahweh is an amalgum, a conflation or fusion of various and sundry earlier gods and goddesses, having absorbed their functions, epithets and achievements.

It is my understanding that the Bible has provided false clues to generations of bible scholars, leading them on a "merry chase" into the Negeb and Sinai for the origins of Yahwehism.

Lambert has noted that for the Mesopotamian cosmographers, their efforts were not so much the creation of new gods and new concepts from whole cloth, but rather the taking of older concepts and adding a "new Twist." This is my understanding in regards to Yahweh-Elohim, he is the result of "new twists" derived from a "re-working and transformation" of older concepts by the Hebrews, who followed in the footsteps of their Mesopotamian counterparts.

Scholars have identified some of the motifs and concepts found in Genesis as existing in Sumerian works of the 3rd millennium BCE (but said motifs and concepts perhaps being of the 4th millennium). Genesis explains how man in the form of Adam, came to lose out on a chance to obtain immortality. His God denies him access to the Tree of Life, whose fruit, if consumed, confers immortality. This is apparently a later Hebrew reworking of the Adapa and the South Wind myth. Adapa, symbolizing man, has an opportunity to obtain immortality. All he has to do is eat and drink the food of the gods offered him by Tammuz and Ningishzida on behalf of Anu. Adapa refuses both on the prior advice of his god Enki, who forewarned him he would surely die if he consumed anything. So, Mankind lost out on obtaining immortality because HE OBEYED HIS GOD. Enki did not want "his servant" Adapa to possess immortality, he was willing though to give great wisdom or knowledge to Adapa (teaching him powerful incantations, spells and curses, allowing Adapa to break the wing of the south wind god, and thus stopping sea breezes from reaching lower Mesopotamia). So, in Genesis and Adapa, we have motifs of lost immortality, food conferring immortality, a god denying man immortality, man's aquisition of forbidden knowledge (Anu being upset to learn Enki has taught the man powerful incantations to use against the gods) but reworked and transformed. Adam loses out on immortality because he disobeyed, whereas Adapa obeyed. Yahweh-Elohim then, is a re-working and transformation of the Sumerian god of Wisdom and Knowledge, Enki, also called Ea or Ia (any relation to Iah/Yah ?).

In Sumerian myths Enki is associated with warning the Babylonian Noah, called variously Ziusudra, Atrahasis or Utnapishtim of an impending Flood which will destroy the world and all mankind, telling him to save himself and animals by building a boat. In the Hebrew re-working Enki becomes Yahweh-Elohim and Utnapishtim becomes Noah.

Enki (called "the Trickster god" who plays "tricks" on the gods as well as man) confounds the language of the people of the earth. Originally they all spoke one language, but he causes many languages to be spoken. This motif is reworked by the Hebrews into God's confounding man's one language because of their hubris in building the Tower of Babel.

Enki's residence is under the earth (which floats upon the freshwater ocean) in the depths of the Abzu/Apsu at Eridu in Lower Mesopotamia. From this place emerges a freshwater stream that is the source of all the rivers of the world. He sits upon a throne decorated with pots from which flow two streams of water, indicating he is the source of the earth's streams of freshwater. Yahweh's throne is portrayed as being over a stream of freshwater that leaves the temple in Jerusalem and travels eastward to the Dead Sea, rejuvenating it.

Marduk, the supreme god of Babylon, in a myth called the Enuma Elish, after slaying Tiamat (who personifies the flooding Salt Sea Ocean), holds his bow up for praise and places it in the heavens as a "bow star constellation," a type of memorial to his ending the threat of a flood to destroy the gods who dwelt on the earth. Yahweh-Elohim, like Marduk, places his bow in the heavens after bringing to an end the Flood, as a rainbow.

Gaster-

"Thanks to the rediscovery in recent times, of considerable portions of Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Hittite, and Canaanite literature, it is now possible to recognize in the Bible several traces of ancient Near Eastern mythology. These appear in three forms : (a) direct parallels; (b) allusions; and (c) survivals in figurative expressions.

In all cases they are accommodated to the religion of Israel by boldly transferring to Yahweh the heroic feats of the older pagan gods...Direct parallels to ancient Near Eastern myths are represented principally by (a) the fight of Yahweh against the dragon; (b) the stories of Creation and Paradise; and (c) the tale of the Deluge...All this is simply the Hebrew version of the story told in the Ugaritic myth of Baal concerning the victory of that god over the draconic Yam (alias Nahar), the genius of the Sea and Rivers..." (p.481, Vol. 3, T.H. Gaster, "Myth, Mythology," Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible. Nashville, Tennessee. Abingdon Press. 1962)

In Ugaritic myths the supreme god is called El or Bull-El. He is portrayed as bearded and gray-haired. He is the father of the gods and the father of mankind, ab-adm. As Yahweh-Elohim is a type of "father" to man, I suspect a borrowing of concepts by the Hebrews from the Ugaritic motifs. God is alternately called El or Elohim (the latter being a plural of majesty). Bull-El is the father of Baal (alternately called Baal-Hadad) and Yam (alternately called Yaw). Baal is identified with thunderclouds which bring rain to nourish the earth. Thunder clouds are called "Adad's Calves." The thunder is Baal's voice. Baal's brother, who contends with him for rulership of the earth, is Yam, meaning "Sea," alternately called Nahar or "river." He acquires a new name from El, Yaw.

Bull-El or El dwells in the depths of a mountain, at the source of the double deep (tehom), that is the source of the fresh and salt water oceans. So he is to a degree associated with the sea. Enki dwelt in the watery depths of the Abzu, and was asociated as being the source of freshwater streams or rivers. I suspect the Ugaritic myths are but reinterpretations of the older Mesopotamian myths. Tiamat the female personification of the salt sea ocean in Babylonian myths has been transformed into a mere body of water, tehom, in the Ugaritic myths, and the Hebrews have drawn from the Ugaritic imagery in associating Yahweh-Elohim in the opening lines of Genesis with tehom (English: "the deep").

Bull-El's wife is Athirat, whose name means "she who treads upon the sea" (Athirat is alternately rendered as Ashirat or Asherah). El being called "Bull-El" suggests his sons are born as "bull-calves" and become "bulls" at maturity. Thus Baal-Hadad is shown at times standing on a bull hurling lightning bolts. Thunderclouds were called "Adad's Calves." As Yahweh-Elohim appeared at Mt. Sinai as a Thundercloud, he is in Ugaritic imagery, "a calf" of Adad. I note a golden calf is made at Mt. Sinai shortly after Yahweh's appearance as a Thundercloud. Jeroboam honors Yahweh-Elohim with two golden calves set up at Dan and Bethel. I suspect this is harkening back to the reality that Yahweh-Elohim was portrayed alternately as a "bull-calf" in his manifestation as a Thundercloud. The Bible's writers are in denial of the true origins of Yahweh-Elohim and have "covered up" the fact that he is really a conflation and fusing together of Bull-El, Baal-Hadad and Yaw/Yam of the Ugaritic Myths.

These Ugaritic myths are dated ca. 1500-1200 BCE. Ca. 1200 BCE is the beginning of Iron Age I A, when Israel settles the land with hundreds of agrarian settlements extending from Galilee to the the Negeb, as portrayed in the book of Joshua.

We are informed that an agrarian Israel under the Judges, whose simple rural village life appears to be reflected in the Iron I period, worshipped Baal and Yahweh. Some Israelites bore Baal names. Israel's first king, Saul, had sons bearing Baal names. Hosea informs us that at times Yahweh was called Baal.

I suspect that the animosity between Baal and Yahweh, ca. 1200-587 BCE is arising directly from the 1500-1200 BCE Ugaritic myths, and the animosity between Baal (Baal-Hadad) and his brother Yam or Yaw, to see which would become "lord of the earth."

The Hebrews came in later ages to conflate and fuse the earlier (1500-1200 BCE) mythical protagonists. Eventually Yahweh-Elohim came to absorb the names, epithets, and feats of his rivals and other gods. It is my understanding that Yahweh-Elohim is a conflation and fusing of the sea and river god Yaw (sea is Yam in Hebrew) and Baal-Hadad (Baal being asssociated with thunderclouds and Yahweh-Elohim manifesting himself as a thundercloud at Mt. Sinai), as well as the persona of El (Bull-El), the father of Baal and Yam, and of mankind (Ugaritic ab-adm). Thus Ugaritic adm meaning "mankind" was later transformed by the Hebrews into Adam, the first man and eponymn for mankind.

In the Ugaritic myths Baal conquers the tannin of the sea, so does Yahweh.

In Mesopotamia, since Sumerian times, the 4th-3rd millenniums BCE, Inanna, "the Queen of Heaven," is honored yearly in a marriage ceremony in the Spring. Her human husband Tammuz, is represented by the king who mates with a priestess representing the goddess. This brings the favor of Inanna upon the people and guarantees good harvests and protection from their enemies. I suspect that the Hebrews have borrowed this sacred marriage concept and transformed it. A God, Yahweh-Elohim, marries his people instead of a Goddess marrying her people. I note that the prophets ranted and raved against the "Queen of Heaven," small wonder, when they have taken from her the notion of a sacred marriage bestowing blessings upon the nation !

Yahweh's triumph over other gods in some cases is due to his absorbing these gods, that is their powers and feats are attributed to him and denied to the older gods, who are labeled as "false gods," of wood, stone and metal.

I thus understand that the rantings and ravings of the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, et al, is over Israel's refusal to give up their cherished traditions and understandings of Yahweh-Elohim as Bull-El, Baal, and Yaw/Yam; these prophets have a "new concept" to offer about God and not all the populace has bought into it.

It follows that if the Israelite Yaw is really a recast Yaw of the Ugartic myths, that the Hebrew meaning of his name, revealed suppossedly to Moses at Mt. Sinai, "I am that I am," is false, and is probably a speculation from a late period.

I note that Moses' name in Egyptian is part of a so-called "sentence name," meaning "is born," as in Thothmoses meaning "Thoth is born." The Hebrews have falsely explained it as "drawn from [the water]" alluding to Pharaoh's daughter drawing him from the Nile as an infant. If Holy Writ can't be trusted for the correct meaning of Moses' name, why should we trust it for the meaning of Yahweh's name ?

Archaeology has found no evidence of the Exodus in Sinai or near the traditional Mt. Sinai. The Bible dates this event to ca. 1446 BCE (1 Kings 6:1) which is in the Late Bronze Age. There are no graves of the thousands who allegedly perished in the worship of the Golden Calf, yet there are graves in the Sinai from Early Bronze Age times. Some argue the Exodus was ca. 1200 BCE, towards the end of the Late Bronze Age, Israel introducing the Iron Age, yet no Early Iron exists in the Sinai or at Kadesh-Barnea (Ain Kudeirat or Ain Kadeis in the lower Negeb).

No archaeological evidence in Sinai to substantiate Israel's 600,000 warriors and their families (extrapolated to be 2 million souls !) means No Moses, No Joshua, No Yahweh coming down upon Mt. Sinai -its all a myth ! The origins of Yahwehism are not Sinai and the Negeb; Yahwehism is from Syria (Ugarit) and Phoenicia. Those seeking it in the southern wilderness are following a false trail, provided by the biblical texts, which have proved to be notoriously inaccurate by the findings of archaeology for time periods before 1000 BCE.

Perevolotsky and Finkelstein on the lack of evidence of an Exodus in the Sinai-

"But, so far, no remains from the Late Bronze Age (15th-13th centuries BC- the period in which these events were supposed to have taken place) or even from the subsequent Iron Age I have been found anywhere in the whole Sinai peninsula, except for archaeological evidence of Egyptian activity on Sinai's northern coastal strip. Accordingly, no progress has been made in locating the Israelite encampments, in identifying their route, or in fixing the site of Mt. Sinai." (P.28, Aviram Perevolotsky and Israel Finkelstein, "The Southern Sinai Exodus Route in Ecological Perspective." pp.27-41. Biblical Archaeology Review. July/August 1985. Vol. XI No.4)

Finkelstein and Silbermann on a lack of evidence for the Exodus and the traditional Jebel Musa being Mount Sinai near St. Catherine's Monastery-

"Some archaeological traces of their generation-long wandering in Sinai should be apparent. However, except for the Egyptian forts along the northern coast, not a single campsite or sign of occuation from the time of Ramesses II and his immediate predecessors and succesors has ever been identified in Sinai. And it has not been for lack of trying. Repeated archaeological surveys in all regions of the peninsula, including the mountainous area around the traditional site of Mount Sinai, near Saint Catherine's Monastery, have yielded only negative evidence: not even a single sherd, no structure, not a single house, no trace of an ancient encmpment. One may argue that a relatively small band of wandering Israelites cannot be expected to leave material remains behind. But modern archaeological techniques are quite capable of tracing even the meager remains of hunter-gatherers and pastoral nomads all over the world. Indeed, the archaeological record from the Sinai peninsula discloses evidence for pastoral activity in such eras as the 3rd millenium BCE and the Hellenistic and Byzantine periods. There is simply no such evidence at the supposed time of the Exodus in the 13th century BCE.

The conclusion -that the Exodus did not happen at the time and in the manner described in the Bible- seems irrefutable when we examine the evidence at specific sites...Israel camped at Kadesh-Barnea for 38 of the 40 years of the wanderings...It has been identified by archaeologists with the large and well-watered oasis of Ein el Qudeirat in eastern Sinai, on the border between modern Israel and Egypt. The name Kadesh was probably preserved over the centuries in the name of a nearby smaller spring called Ein Qadis. A small mound with the remains of a Late Iron fort stands at the center of this oasis. Yet repeated excavations and survys throughout the entire area have not provided even the slightest evidence for activity in the Late Bronze Age, not even a single sherd left by a tiny fleeing band of frightened refugees." (pp. 62-63, "Did the Exodus Happen ?" Israel Finkelstein & Neil Asher Silberman. The Bible Unearthed, Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. New York. The Free Press. 2001. ISBN0-684-86912-8)

I must caution the reader here, that Finkelstein and Silberman have "overstated" the situation about there being not a "single sherd" in the Southern Sinai of the Late Bronze Age period. They are simply wrong. There are sherds in abundance from Egypt in the Southern Sinai from the Late Bronze Age period, AT THE TIME THE BIBLE PLACES THE EXODUS IN. Please see my article titled "Exodus Memories of Southern Sinai (Linking the Archaeological Evidence to the Biblical Narratives)."

Finkelstein and Silberman, utilizing the latest information from archaeological findings have posited that the Primary History, Genesis-2 Kings, was written toward the end of the late 7th century and first half of the 6th century BCE, and that current events and concerns have been retrojected by the biblical narrator,into hoary antiquity and the 3rd and 2nd milleniums BCE.

Finkelstein and Silberman, noting some sites mentioned in the book of Joshua came into being only in the last decades of the seventh century BCE (meaning this is the earliest that the Primary History, Genesis- 2Kings, could have been written) -

"This basic picture of the gradual accumulation of legends and stories- and their eventual incorporation into a single coherent saga with a definite theological outlook- was a product...of Judah in the seventh century BCE. Perhaps most telling of all the clues that the book of Joshua was written at this time is the list of towns in the territory of the tribe of Judah, given in detail in Joshua 15:21-62. The list precisely corresponds to the borders of the kingdom of Judah during the reign of Josiah. Mreover, the placenames mentioned in the list closely corrspond to the seventh-century BCE settlement in the same region. And some of the sites were ocupied only in the final decades of the seventh century BCE." (p.92, Finkelstein & Silberman)

"All these indications suggest that the Exodus narrative reached its final form during the time of the 26th Dynasty, in the second half of the seventh and first half of the sixth century BCE." (p. 68, "Did the Exodus Happen ?" Finkelstein & Silberman)

Conclusions-

Yahwehism did not arise from a series of revelations to Abraham in Canaan and the Negeb ca. 2000 BCE -there was no well of Beersheba before 1200 BCE, the Philistines did not arrive in Canaan until ca. 1174 BCE- this is a myth. Neither did it arise through a revelation to Moses in the 15th century BCE while he was wandering the Sinai wilderness (ca. 1446 BCE, cf. 1 Kings 6:1), because archaeology reveals no Late Bronze Age presence at Mt. Sinai (2 million people). The fact that Northern Israelite names bear the theophoric Yaw suggests that they remained truer to their polythesistic religious heritage.

I have posited that Yaw is Yaw/Yam of the Ugaritic Myths (1500-1200 BCE). Later ages fused Ugaritic El (Bull-El), Yaw and Baal together into the persona of Yahweh-Elohim. In taking on the attributes and feats of these gods, Yahweh also took on their wives and consorts. Athirat (Ashtirat, Attart, Asherah) wife of El, became fused with Baal's consort, Anat ("the Queen of Heaven" in Late Bronze Age myths), Yaw/Yam's wife was Ashtoreth/Asherah, "the bride claimed by the tyrant sea" in an Egyptian papyrus.

Yahweh was also called Baali by Israel (Hosea 2:16.) Attart-shem-Baal ("Attart-name of-Baal") suggested to Leick, that Attart may be a MANIFESTATION of Baal. If correct, male and female gods could, at times, be aspects of each other. Perhaps Yahweh as Baali became a manifestation of Attart-shem-Baal ? Thus Attart as Asherah is a manifestation of Baali-Yahweh (God is bi-sexual, male and female) ? Langdon shows a coin from Gaza with a double faced head, male and bearded facing left, female to the right. Perhaps he is right in understanding this to be Yaw/Ashtart ?

Langdon-

"Yaw was associated with the Canaanitish Mother-goddess. `Ashart-`Anat, as we know from the name of the deity of the Jews at Elephantine, `Anat-Yaw, where two other father-mother titles of divinities occur, such as Ashim-Bethel, `Anat-Bethel, in which the titles of Astarte are combined with the sun-god Bethel. It is precisely at Gaza. where Yaw as a sun-god appears on a coin (fig. 23), that coins frequently bear the figure of this `Ashtart-Yaw, Anat-Yaw, Anat-Bethel, corresponding to the Phoenician Melk-Ashtart, Eshmun-Ashtart. Fig. 24, of the Persian period, is charcteristic of this male-female, or female-male deity, and the heads, being joined, prove that under these names was worshipped a deity who combines the attributes of both." (p.44, fig. 24. Stephen Herbert Langdon. The Mythology of All Races- Semitic. Vol. 5. Boston. Marshall Jones Company. 1931. pp. 454)

Leick-

"Attart-shem-Baal (Canaanite Goddess). Her name means 'Astart name of Baal.' In the Baal myths she appears as a manifestation and consort of Baal. Her character resembles that of Anat, as a goddess of war and the chase. Her fertility aspect is more pronounced in the Old Testament, where she is called Ashtoreth. In an Egyptian papyrus from the 19th Dynasty she is called the 'bride of the tyrant sea.' (p.16, "Attart-shem-Baal," Leick)

The origins of Yahwehism are not to be sought in the Negeb or Sinai, the biblical clues are false, archaeology reveals the events could not have occurred in the periods the Bible claims -biblical scholars have been led on a MERRY CHASE into the Negeb and Sinai- the origins are in the north, preserved at Ugarit in Syria and to a degree in Phoenicia as well.

Israel did, however, preserve a notion that their ancestors were Syrians ("Arameans"), the archaeological evidence extrapolated from the Ugaritic myths about the struggle for supremacy to claim the title "Lord of the Earth", between Yaw/Yam and Baal seems to bear out the northern Israelite theophoric Yaw vs. Baal scenarios and confirms that Aramaean/Syrian religious beliefs are, to a degree, what is behind Yahwehism.

Deut 26:5, RSV,

"And you shall make response before the Lord your God. 'A wandering ARAMEAN was my father; and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous.

Bibliography and Suggested Further Readings :

Mythology-

T.H. Gaster, "Myth, Mythology," G.A. Buttrick, Editor. The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible. Nashville, Tennessee. Abingdon Press. 1962. p.481, Vol. 3.

John Gray. Near Eastern Mythology, Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine. London. Hamlyn. 1969. ISBN 0-600-03638-3. hdbk. pp.141. J.C.L. Gibson. Canaanite Myths and Legends. Edinburgh, Scotland. T&T Clark Ltd. 1978. (Legends from Ugarit in translation)

Alexander Heidel. The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels. Chicago. University of Chicago Press. 1946, 1949, reprint 1993. ISBN 0-226-32398-6 pbk.

Alexander Heidel. The Babylonian Genesis, The Story of Creation. Chicago. University of Chicago Press. 1942, 1951, reprint 1993. ISBN 0-226-32399-4 pbk.

Samuel Noah Kramer. History Begins at Sumer, Twenty-seven "Firsts" in Man's Recorded History. Garden City, New York. Doubleday anchor Books. 1956, reprint 1959. pbk.

Samuel Noah Kramer. Sumerian Mythology, A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania Press. 1944, reprint 1997. ISBN 0-8122-1047-6 pbk.

Samuel Noah Kramer & John Maier. Myths of Enki, the Crafty God. New York & Oxford. Oxford University Press. 1989. ISBN 0-19-505502-0

Gwendolyn Leick. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. London & New York. Routledge. 1991. ISBN 0-415-19811-9 pbk.

Stephen Herbert Langdon. The Mythology of All Races- Semitic. Vol. 5. Boston. Marshall Jones Company. 1931.

Archaeology-

Micheal Avi-Yonah & Ephraim Stern, Editors. Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land. 4 vols. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Prentice-Hall. 1975-78.

Israel Finkelstein & Neil Asher Silberman. The Bible Unearthed, Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. New York. The Free Press. 2001. ISBN0-684-86912-8.

Burton MacDonald. East of the Jordan, Territories and Sites of the Hebrew Scriptures. Boston. American Schools of Oriental Research. 2000. ISBN 0-89757-031-6 pbk

Avraham Negev, Editor. Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land. Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Publishing House. 1972.

Ephraim Stern. Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, The Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian Periods (732-332 BCE). Vol.2. New York. Doubleday. 2001. ISBN 0-385-42450-7

Main Page Archaeology Menu OT Menu NT Menu Geography Menu Illustrations Menu

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Leolaia

Yahweh was the name of the patron deity of ancient Israel in a henotheistic context and originally in a polytheistic pantheon. You could label Yahweh as a "pagan" deity inasmuch as the Israelites and Jews of the Iron II and Persian periods were heirs to the religious legacy of their Canaanite forebears of the Bronze and Iron I periods. The name El, as applied to God in the OT and the related epiphets El-Elyon, El-Shaddai, El-Olam, etc., similarly reflect this Canaanite origin.

The name Yahweh is philologically of Northwest Semitic origin and is unattested outside of ancient Israel...and early OT texts picture Yahweh as a deity very much in the character of Baal. The evidence suggests that Yahweh originated as a title for Baal (possibly shortened from Yahweh-Sabaoth), so that Baal was worshipped under the name Yahweh, interchangeably, and was viewed as the divine king of Israel, allotted over Israel by the creator El-Elyon. Then under royal henotheism, Yahweh was identified with El and the two merged together; as a result, El's consort Asherah became Yahweh's wife. Then eventually Asherah was assimilated to Yahweh as his divine "face", "presence", e.g. Shekineh. By the time Yahweh had assimilated with El, worship of Baal had been reintroduced from Syro-Phoenicia and this version of Baal (viz. Baal-Shamem) differed from the original cult of Baal-Yahweh. The rivalry between the Yahwists and the Baalists in this later period inspired much of the anti-Baal polemic in the OT.

There have been attempts to link Yahweh to the Ugaritic title Yw, applied to Yamm, the god of the sea, but I find these quite unconvincing. This title was attested only in one passage in one text, and importantly Yahweh was the enemy of Yamm (and Leviathan and Rahab) in Israelite mythology. Although Yahweh cannot be the same deity as Yw/Yamm, it is possible that Yw was a more general title or epithet (meaning "Son" or "ruler" or what not) that could have been applied to Yahweh. This is especially possible considering that Yamm was given the title Yw when he was enthroned in his palace. However, the philological connection between Yhwh and Yw is tenuous, and the derivation of Yhwh must lie elsewhere tho Yw could have been a contributing assimilating factor.

There also have been even more specious attempts to link Yhwh to an Egyptian moon god y;h. I see no evidence at all for such an association; Yahweh was never designated as a moon-god in any known text, there is no other cultic similarity between the two gods, and the only reason for linking the two seems to merely be the phonetic coincidence between the names. That is not enough to posit a relationship. Pastor G. Reckart, who especially pushes this folk etymological thesis, attempts to derive the names from the Hebrew yr'ch "moon" which is philologically impossible and would not be seriously suggested by any respectable linguist.

Elsewhere

Here is a scripture where YHWH announced that it was changing its name from Baal to its new name.

(Hosea 2:16) And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, [that] thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.

Leolaia

Elsewhere....The book of Hosea is filled with such language and is important for being both very early and one of the few texts from the northern kingdom. Here is another important text from Hosea 6:1-3 which describes Yahweh in meterological language (like Baal) and connects his rain-like appearing to the dying-rising motif (displaced to the nation itself):

"Come, let us return to Yahweh; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know, let us press on to know Yahweh; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth".

See also Hosea 14:9 which paronomasiaically evokes the names of Asherah (= represented as a tree of life) and Anat in an arboreal setting.

ljwtiamb

Whoa Satanus:

That's a heaping load o' readin'!

Don't you have the picture book version or can I get the movie version on VHS or DVD?

Satanus

ljw

Sorry, no dvd. How about a couple of pics?

#1 Yhwh creating.

#2 Yhwh as a fire elemental ala the moses burning bush.

Ps, unfortunately, yhwh was not into vids, or even writing to any extent. There are rumors that he did write something or other on some rock slabs. These have unfortunatly been lost. Not sure if yhwh is going to republish them. Word is that he has gone into some serious resting.

franklin J

just curious.....why should YHWH be any different than any OTHER God in recorded history?

YHWH another pagan god

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