Yeah, That YahWeh guy... starts off washing dishes, then some fry cook shifts, moves to chef then head chef then ends up owning the whole place. then later they claim he built the building by himself and started the business single handed with no other employees. ahh how legends grow and gods are created!!
I mean it's all so natural that literally every other cult system around them did the exact same thing with their gods and the all managed to preserve themselves as a distinct people group for thousands of years...oh no wait...
@@GeoffBoscothey basically did do the same thing though. Cities started popping up, they would choose a patron deity, whenever they went to war, it was described as a war between the gods. Whenever they conquered lands, their gods’ sovereignty grew. Cities became states, states nations, nations empires, and the gods grew alongside them. Only difference is instead of the Hebrews growing more powerful, they got kicked out of their land and had to explain how they could worship their god in another god’s territory, so they theologically subordinated the other gods to their own. Hebrews just got lucky enough to have continuity that lasts to this day and for one of their offshoots to get picked up by the world’s largest empire and give them permanent celebrity status
Yeah, I always thought it was obvious. "I am the god of your father, Abraham!" So, not the god of Moab or the other communities down the road. If there were only one god, he could just say, "I am God, the one and only!"
Scholars of ancient history know that all gods were personal, sometimes to a place and sometimes to a people, but Christianity today loathes scholarship generally.
@pansepot1490 Also: Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever the LORD our God has given us, we will possess. *Judges **11:24*
At the time it broke my heart realising Yahweh had a wife, as then my theological dominoes began falling. 4 years on I’m now bummed that she & the kids got written out, the Bible would have been way more fun and interesting as divine family soap opera, instead of one distant grump on a throne.
Mark Twain suggested the US should have a royal family of cats to fawn over. Better than royalty, way better than absent gods. Dan could do critical feline scholarship on cat videos.
YHWH - Yahweh is from the Samaritans! John 8:48 In answer the Jews said to him: “Are we not right in saying, ‘You are a Sa·marʹi·tan and have a demon’?” 49 Jesus answered: “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Genesis 12:8 Genesis came in the Name of the Father the God of Abraham YHVH Yehovah Jehovah God! Jesus said the Kingdom had drawn near for the lost sheep of Israel only! Matthew 10:5 These 12 Jesus sent out, giving them these instructions: “Do not go off into the road of the nations, and do not enter any Sa·marʹi·tan city;6 but instead, go continually to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 As you go, preach, saying: ‘The Kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.’ Matthew 4:17 From that time on, Jesus began preaching and saying: “Repent, for the Kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.” The Kingdom of the heavens has drawn near: This message of a new world government was the theme of Jesus’ preaching. (Mt 10:7; Mr 1:15) John the Baptist started to proclaim a similar message about six months prior to Jesus’ baptism (Mt 3:1, 2); yet Jesus could say with added meaning that the Kingdom had “drawn near,” since he was now present as the anointed King-Designate. There is no record that after Jesus’ death his disciples continued to proclaim that the Kingdom had “drawn near” or was at hand.
Even when God says "Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me" he's not saying that there _AREN'T_ other gods, just that we're not supposed to put them before him. Even when I was a believer I always thought this was oddly put.
I don’t know when I first realized that the Bible does not present monotheism, but I came to the conclusion on my own, from reading the Pentateuch in Hebrew and select portions of the Prophets and Writings. (I consider it a personal failure that I have not read the latter in their entirety.) The conclusion is obvious from the plain meaning of the text, and I abhor apologetic readings. I am a practicing Jew who is very comfortable with the fact that Rabbinic Judaism is only loosely based on the Bible and that it does not present a faithful reproduction of Biblical Israelite life.
@avishevin1976 Weirdly enough, and I don't know why, it might be just either cultural or just a bias on my part but I tend to see more people who are critical or at least study less dogmatically the Bible in the Jewish faith than in Catholicism or Christianity at large. I might totally be wrong on that, I'm an atheist but ex Catholic and I might just have run into less critical Catholics than Jews. ^^
Yes and compare this with Dr. Michael S. Heiser ( who was also a friend of Dan McClellan ). The explanations are different, but Heiser's view was not well defended.
Standby, the villagers are running for their pitchforks and torches right now. When I tell people the First Commandment doesn't say I'm the only God, just that I'm number one; I get some very angry looks.
I always get, "No other Gods before me" wasn't talking about actual deities or gods, but things we can make into Idols, like money and shit, so still only one God. I don't buy that argument, but I just need to do more research
Dan, with your depth of knowledge of the Tanakh / Hebrew Scriptures, ancient Judaic culture, and fluency in Biblical Hebrew, it would be very interesting if you responded to popular Orthodox rabbis, e.g., R’ Tovia Singer, or Jews for Judaism Canada, on UA-cam who claim that only strict monotheism is taught within the Torah and Prophets.
Santa stopped coming after we moved from New England to the US Virgin Islands. Christmas down there at 86F with high humidity (and a strong constant 15mph east-west wind) was just not the same as being snuggled up in front of our 1740s colonial house's 4 sided fireplace.
I've heard Christians morph the concept of monotheism not to there being only one god but the worship of only one god. So they can ignore the "lesser" or "false" gods and only worship the one.. well, the three in one.. and feel smug that they're still monotheists.
Jesus is also a lesser God because he is not the supreme God. The trinity means, 3 persons are co equal and Co eternal and one God, which is simply not in the whole bible. I mean Jesus even sits next to God with others in heaven. How can you sit next to Ronaldo and be Ronaldo at the same time😂...
@@Zahaqiel correct. some books in the bible are more strict. definitely the yhwh cult members only had their one... and in the ones shared around cannan more it is more henotheistic... IN THE later writing that became the bible with all the redactions. there clearly was a PANTHEON so polytheism was the norm, but over time it was edited down to appear as if they had always only had the one god in the fiction foundation myths. In the book itself though tells how Josiah went around smashing ashera poles and nehushtins (bronze serpents of moses story and all the other temples around.
Holy cow u stuffed a lot into this video. May be the best wrap up I’ve ever heard. An American with Germanic/european mutt heritage, which god would be closest to being our god based on geographic location? Thank you for the laser focused deep dive, excellent!
The deal there, speaking as a Pagan who's studied European traditions to an extent, is that our Germanic and other such ancestors did not feel that their gods were limited to their land. They were not universalized, but they could be worshipped in other places. Notice the religio romana was extremely generous on this point. The gods could have different epithets based on where they were and who they were syncretized with, but at the core the gods were the same in Rome as they were in Bath. Bath's principal goddess Sulis was given the second name of Minerva due to Roman perception of shared qualities. So which gods would be yours? If you want to start with the best knowledge we have of the older faith of the Germanic peoples, you look there. If you're lucky enough to have a deep genealogy, you might find a clue in an ancestor's name or place of birth. The latter could prove really useful especially. You might also learn from the names of nearby rivers or geographical names.
I'm surprised Dan didn't get into YHWH being conflated with Elyon. It's odd, though, that if Elyon and YHWH were merged pretty early on that the idea of the high God not being accessible in other nations would still be considered. I remember reading that worship of Elyon decreased in other Canaanite nations because he was seen as aloof and not really getting involved in the affairs of his children's inheritances. But the image of God (the father in Trinitarian Christianity) being a bearded, kind, and loving old man can be traced straight back to worship of Elyon.
Yeah, his videos are short and are often full of holes, precisely because it's not meant to be exhaustively comprehensive, even though he is most often correct. In his written theses, his doctorate, and his monograph ( based on his doctorate ), he usually becomes exhaustive and comprehensive. He will publish a few new monographs next year and the following years. Hopefully then, a lot of holes from his videos will be filled and clarified.
When you came on, I thought that illustration of Superman didn't look quite right ... I loved Bizarro in the 60s and 70s comics, glad the character still survives.
I low key believe that the reason the Abrahamic religions treat women so badly is because they’ve never gotten over that YHVH started out as a minor tribal war god under a female goddess.
I low key believe it’s because the guys who spent their time writing religious texts were incels. Consider the Adam and Eve story. That’s exactly what an insecure man who wants to feel superior to women yet doesn’t want to take responsibility and blames others would write.
Nor will he touch the *older* myths the Israelites borrowed from and modified to craft their own myths. --------------------------------------------------------- *The Enuma Elish would later be the inspiration for the Hebrew scribes who created the text now known as the biblical Book of Genesis.* Prior to the 19th century CE, the Bible was considered the oldest book in the world and its narratives were thought to be completely original. In the mid-19th century CE, however, European museums, as well as academic and religious institutions, sponsored excavations in Mesopotamia to find physical evidence for historical corroboration of the stories in the Bible. ***These excavations found quite the opposite, however, in that, once cuneiform was translated, it was understood that a number of biblical narratives were Mesopotamian in origin.*** *Famous stories such as the Fall of Man and the Great Flood were originally conceived and written down in Sumer,* translated and modified later in Babylon, and reworked by the Assyrians ***before they were used by the Hebrew scribes for the versions which appear in the Bible.*** ***In revising the Mesopotamian creation story for their own ends, the Hebrew scribes tightened the narrative and the focus but retained the concept of the all-powerful deity who brings order from chaos.*** Marduk, in the Enuma Elish, establishes the recognizable order of the world - *just as God does in the Genesis tale* - and human beings are expected to recognize this great gift and honor the deity through service. *"Enuma Elish - The Babylonian Epic of Creation - Full Text - World History Encyclopedia"* *"Sumerian Is the World's Oldest Written Language | ProLingo"* *"Sumerian Civilization: Inventing the Future - World History Encyclopedia"* ("The Sumerians were the people of southern Mesopotamia whose civilization flourished between c. 4100-1750 BCE." "Ancient Israelites and their origins date back to 1800-1200 BCE.") *"The Myth of Adapa - World History Encyclopedia"* Also discussed by Professor Christine Hayes at Yale University in her 1st lecture of the series on the Hebrew Bible from 8:50 to 14:30 minutes, lecture 3 from 28:30 to 41:35 minutes, lecture 4 from 0:00 up to 21:30 minutes and 24:00 up to 35:30 minutes and lecture 7 from 24:20 to 25:10 minutes. From a Biblical scholar: "Many stories in the ancient world have their origins in other stories and were borrowed and modified from other or earlier peoples. *For instance, many of the stories now preserved in the Bible are* ***modified*** *versions of stories that existed in the cultures and traditions of Israel’s* ***older*** *contemporaries.* Stories about the creation of the universe, a cataclysmic universal flood, digging wells as land markers, the naming of important cultic sites, gods giving laws to their people, and even stories about gods decreeing the possession of land to their people were all part of the cultural and literary matrix of the ancient Near East. *Biblical scribes freely* ***adopted and modified*** *these stories as a means to express their own identity, origins, and customs."* *"Stories from the Bible"* by Dr Steven DiMattei, from his website *"Biblical Contradictions"* ------------------------------------------------------------------ In addition, look up the below articles. *"Genesis 1:1-2 --- not a creation ex nihilo"* - Dr Steven DiMattei *"Yahweh was just an ancient Canaanite god. We have been deceived! - Escaping Christian Fundamentalism"* *"Hammurabi - World History Encyclopedia"* (Hammurabi (r. 1792-1750 BCE) was the sixth king of the Amorite First Dynasty of Babylon best known for his famous law code which served as the model for others, *including the Mosaic Law of the Bible.)* *"Debunking the Devil - Michael A. Sherlock (Author)"* *"The Greatest Trick Religion Ever Pulled: Convincing Us That Satan Exists | Atheomedy"* *"Zoroastrianism And Persian Mythology: The Foundation Of Belief"* (Scroll to the last section: Zoroastrianism is the Foundation of Western Belief) *"10 Ways The Bible Was Influenced By Other Religions - Listverse"* *"January | 2014 | Atheomedy"* - Where the Hell Did the Idea of Hell Come From? *"Retired bishop explains the reason why the Church invented "Hell" - Ideapod"* Watch *"The Origins of Salvation, Judgement and Hell"* by Derreck Bennett at Atheologica (Sensitive theists should only watch from 7:00 to 17:30 minutes as evangelical Christians are lambasted. He's a former theist and has been studying the scholarship and comparative religions for over 15 years) *"Top Ten Reasons Noah’s Flood is Mythology - The Sensuous Curmudgeon"* *"Forget about Noah's Ark; There Was No Worldwide Flood | Bible Interp"* *"The Search for Noah’s Flood - Biblical Archaeology Society"* *"Eridu Genesis - World History Encyclopedia"* *"The Atrahasis Epic: The Great Flood & the Meaning of Suffering - World History Encyclopedia"* Watch *"How Aron Ra Debunks Noah's Flood"* (8 part series debunking Noah's flood using multiple branches of science) *"The Adam and Eve myth - News24"* *"Before Adam and Eve - Psychology Today"* *"Gilgamesh vs. Noah - Wordpress"* *"Old Testament Tales Were Stolen From Other Cultures - Griffin"* *"Parallelism between “The Hymn to Aten” and Psalm 104 - Project Augustine"* *"Studying the Bible"* - by Dr Steven DiMattei (This particular article from a critical Biblical scholar highlights how the authors of the Hebrew Bible used their *fictional* god as a mouthpiece for their own views and ideologies) *"How do we know that the biblical writers were* ***not*** *writing history?"* -- by Dr Steven DiMattei *"Contradictions in the Bible | Identified verse by verse and explained using the most up-to-date scholarly information about the Bible, its texts, and the men who wrote them"* -- by Dr. Steven DiMattei
I always found it an interesting inconsistency that when David was on the run Michal put the household idol in the bed so it looked like he was there (oldest trick in the book). They clearly used idols in that time maybe for small protections for a house. Or perhaps it was just useful to the story to suddenly materialise one for that purpose and never mention it again. However it sticks out like a sore thumb.
This makes the argument that Jesus revealed a different father a lot stronger. I feel like it’s already pretty strong using only bible. But when you look at other texts such as Enoch 1 it starts to come together. So if it is all true that to me makes the most sense also brings clarity on why so much confusion between religions etc If a fallen one proclaimed himself as the top dog then it would mean he is imperfect which would lead to massive confusion which we have today.
I'm fairly interested to know whether these characters advised /preached Monotheism or not by looking at the factors or characterstics or attributes that constitute Monotheism.
True. They are more accurately described as henotheistic: "adherence to one particular god out of several, especially by a family, tribe, or other group." Not unlike the Aten-worshipers of Ancient Egypt, or other sects that existed on the historic path toward a more widespread monotheism.
@@SethRGray I don’t know of any place that a person uses the royal we in the Hebrew Scripture, but I have not made an exhaustive audit. Certainly that language is not used by anyone in Genesis.
It mystifies me why the commandments are formulated in the singular rather than plural. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” seems like it’s telling only one person they can’t worship other gods. If this was dictated to Moses, it seems God is only saying Moses can’t worship other gods. 😅
I have been known as Richard, Rich, Richie, Rick, Ricky, Dick, Dicky, Dad, Boss, Mr, Sir, Senor, Monsieur, Son, brother, Uncle, Coach, Reader, Minister, Director. But strangely no-one has suggested that I form a council.
@@gandaruvu No I am saying a religion which worships one God is monotheistic - Judaism, Christianity, Islam for example. There were people who were not of those faiths or who strayed from those faiths who beleived in multiple gods. Hope that helps.
@@gandaruvu No I am saying that some people thought they were. It is pretty clear that Baal and Yahweh are not the same. Baal was a statue whilst Yahweh was a living God.
Exactly. "Eye roll" is the right reaction. Makes me wonder if given 2000 years, an unlimited budget, and no scruples as to rewriting another author's work, I could make Lord of the Rings appear coherent as the framework for a new religion.
Your question is interesting, who jesus is referring to when he say "Abba" ? To my knowledge, there is no occurrence of the tetragramaton in the new testament. So I guess no data indicates he speaks about Yahweh. Jesus is also referring to his "patron deity" (not sure what term is should use 😅) as Most High, so in aramean "Elyon". Maybe he wanted to bring out some stuff of the old religion, with El as chief of the pantheon. That's a guess but I'd really like to hear Dan on this topic !
@@project.anubis It is interesting as Jesus also refers to the commandments and Noah's flood, which are both associated with Yahweh. But Jesus also didn't seem to know that Noah's flood is a modified version of an *older* Sumerian flood story/myth.
@@epicofatrahasis3775 Maybe they have associated Yahweh to this stories later on. These stories have more ancient roots than the time they have been put on paper... My personal thoughts about the education of Jesus is that he was a literate person, aware of the stories and myths of the closest areas. For exemple, when we speaks with the Phoenician woman at the well, they seem to make reference to the Cycle of Baal (the version we know was found at Ougarit). I bet he knew about greatest myths as the epic of Gilgamesh and so on... But that's a guess, I'm not a specialist. 🤗
@@project.anubis But according to the Bible, he seems to think this was a real event. Matthew 24:37-39 37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
I think the people who first wrote down these stories were doing so after the Babylonian exile, so they were living in a time when that concept of actual monotheism had begun to catch on and be popular. BUT the things they were writing down were stories they had probably been hearing from the grownups since they were little children - my understanding is that the Hebrew Bible is a collection of writings derived from an older oral tradition. So the scribes and the prophets grew up hearing about God who called the other gods to help God make the earth - and they couldn't change that part of the story for a lot of reasons - there's a real taboo in altering the text (it happens accidentally, but to deliberately change the words would be shocking). Maybe they had some childhood nostalgia for the words of the tales exactly the way their mothers had told it to them when they were little. So you had to keep the words of the polytheistic versions of the stories, but you find a way to understand those words as being monotheistic. Sounds like a very believable, very human foible, you know?
I believe it is important to look at things in scripture from many perspectives, to include sociological and psychological points of view. Coming out of Egypt why wouldn’t they believe other gods existed? For centuries that is what they knew to be true. Before that, there was very limited interaction between God and the Hebrews. As the nation grew and became more in tuned with their God through their relationship with God, they gained a different perspective, there is but one God. Then there is the referencing to other gods. Other cultures do in fact worship other gods. It doesn’t mean on a personal level one believes those other gods exist. Lastly, God is portrayed throughout scripture in different contexts with different names. What role does He serve in each context? Or did the Hebrews reference them because they saw them differently.
@@ldr540 it seems from other videos he takes the approach that "there is no God besides Yahweh" is figurative. However, that is the exact same excuse that religious scholars say. They interpreted phrases like "God of gods" to be figurative.
I understand now. The Jews as a nation worshipped Yahweh. Jesus was a practicing Jew who also worshipped Yahweh, and the reason he quoted from the OT was because he was a Jew and knew the Torah, and was the reason his mission was to the Jewish people, right?. I can picture him on the cross yelling, “My God my God, why have you forsaken me?” He, like us all, worshipped his God Yahweh, and felt God was forsaking him upon his death.
"the reason he quoted from the OT was because he was a Jew and knew the Torah" More accurately, the reason he quotes the Septuagint is because the author would have considered themselves as a member of a sect of judaism and had Jesus quoting from the same scripture their sect was using. Christianity doesn't even begin to distinguish itself from judaism until the late 2nd - early 3rd century CE. Peter, Paul, the gospel authors, the early church fathers, all jews. The gospels were written anonymously but it's pretty clear from their content that they were written post 70 CE. So the authors never knew Jesus and the likelihood that anything in there was ever expressed in any form by a hypothetical Jesus is very low. I'd argue it's functionally zero. "and was the reason his mission was to the Jewish people" Since we can't say anything definitive about Jesus at all, we can't actually say what his mission was, assuming he had one at all. The Jesus character's mission in the gospels isn't really "to the jewish people" as the gospels and the characters in them are being written for members of the Jesus follower movement. While the Jesus followers would have considered themselves jews at the time, the gospels aren't for all jews, they are meant to teach new followers of the Jesus movement proper cultic practice, give them a useful way of memorizing various rhetorical strategies and further indoctrinate them into the cult. "I can picture him on the cross yelling, “My God my God, why have you forsaken me?” I mean, that's great and all but this likely never happened. Assuming there was a historical Jesus who really was executed in this fashion, he'd have been too out of it to say much of anything between the blood loss, skeletal trauma and the immense pressure hanging like that would have put on his torso and limbs. Best you would've gotten was a pained gurgling and wheezing sounds... assuming he didn't just black out from shock.
He’s saying Adonai. Adonai is one of God’s many different names in Judaism. He’s using as a substitution because pronouncing YHWH in Judaism is considered a taboo and he’s trying to be respectful to his Jewish audience
Hi Dan. I've got a question for you. You wouldn't say that someone who believes in angels in addition to believing in YHWH is not really a monotheist, so why would you say that a New Testament author (such as Paul) who envisages the pagan gods as angels (or demons) is not really a monotheist? And come to think of it, how do you define the term "god," anyway? What makes a spirit a god?
Didnt King Josiah’s scribes radically change the scriptures to support monotheism, yet left the forms of “yahweh” as plural Elohim, indicating their changes?
It does specific to Elohim. But when you see us, our, etc. those are conventially understood as actual plural distinctions, not majestic plurality. The references to the inheritances of the sons of God further reinforce this interpretation.
I can't get enough of these iterative processes. It's always in response to something and the tendency seems to be towards greater and greater levels of abstraction. The god lives on the land. Something happens. So now the domain gets abstracted a level and the god has to be worshipped at the temple. Then something happens and another level of abstraction is imposed and the god becomes portable. So the concept of "domain" becomes this esoteric package of, frankly, nonsense. But it's referencing a thing which did previously make sense even though it has been removed from its context. See the same thing with heaven. It was just outer space. The gods were up in the stars until we developed a sense of just how far away things were in space. Eventually things became so abstract that nobody today thinks of heaven as being outer space even though that's what the idea originally referenced. I guess you'd call it etiology. But I'm less interested in the origin than in the way the abstraction occurs and what its consequences are.
Doubtful. Jove was of Rome, and this is written when they were not part of the Roman Empire. It was the gods of the area of the Levant they interacted with most.
The exile was far after the troyan war. Does your adonai still have to deal with gods of the heavens or oceans, like Ra or tiamat? Or primordials uranus/anu? Or you still have expeditive ancient methods?
EL also known as the planet Saturn . That goes a long way towards explaining why the Hebrew god has qualities like anger, jealousy , demands worship like a narcissist and commands his people to "bash babies against rocks"
El/Elyon was considered to be kind and loving, but aloof. YHWH as a storm god, would have been warlike and temperamental. You see both of these profiles throughout the Hebrew texts.
@@LEgregius I'm just speaking of the planetary connection (as per Google) of El with Saturn and saying the traits displayed in the OT happen to line up with those (esotericly) of Saturn
I'm not sure there's monotheism in the Christian Bible either. Unless they were still taking angels to mean simply messenger, wouldn't angels in the Bible be precisely what other religions considered lesser gods?
Yes, you could also argue that Christians believe in a god of the (under)world called Satan. They just turned him into a fallen angel but they believe he has enormous power.
This is shocking to any one who hears it for the first time. The Bible was written by humans and we don't see the clear separation between the good guys and the bad guys. Islam finally fixed the narrative about the One God and creator.
Islam is no special than any other Abrahamic religion. The Qurʾan and the ʾAḥādīṯ are ultimately composed by mere human men. Nonetheless, these religious scriptures are and should be considered as celebrations of Deity. They should not be held up in such high regard, especially when their specific religions condemn idolatry.
Islam has the same myths as Judaism and Christianity, which are based on *older* myths, including six day creation, Adam and Eve and Noah's flood. It all stems from the Sumerians through to the Canaanites. --------------------------------------------------------- *The Enuma Elish would later be the inspiration for the Hebrew scribes who created the text now known as the biblical Book of Genesis.* Prior to the 19th century CE, the Bible was considered the oldest book in the world and its narratives were thought to be completely original. In the mid-19th century CE, however, European museums, as well as academic and religious institutions, sponsored excavations in Mesopotamia to find physical evidence for historical corroboration of the stories in the Bible. ***These excavations found quite the opposite, however, in that, once cuneiform was translated, it was understood that a number of biblical narratives were Mesopotamian in origin.*** *Famous stories such as the Fall of Man and the Great Flood were originally conceived and written down in Sumer,* translated and modified later in Babylon, and reworked by the Assyrians ***before they were used by the Hebrew scribes for the versions which appear in the Bible.*** ***In revising the Mesopotamian creation story for their own ends, the Hebrew scribes tightened the narrative and the focus but retained the concept of the all-powerful deity who brings order from chaos.*** Marduk, in the Enuma Elish, establishes the recognizable order of the world - *just as God does in the Genesis tale* - and human beings are expected to recognize this great gift and honor the deity through service. *"Enuma Elish - The Babylonian Epic of Creation - Full Text - World History Encyclopedia"* *"Sumerian Is the World's Oldest Written Language | ProLingo"* *"Sumerian Civilization: Inventing the Future - World History Encyclopedia"* *"The Myth of Adapa - World History Encyclopedia"* Also discussed by Professor Christine Hayes at Yale University in her 1st lecture of the series on the Hebrew Bible from 8:45 to 14:30 minutes, lecture 3 from 28:30 to 41:35 minutes, lecture 4 from 0:00 up to 21:30 minutes and 24:00 up to 35:30 minutes and lecture 7 from 24:20 to 25:10 minutes. From a Biblical scholar: "Many stories in the ancient world have their origins in other stories and were borrowed and modified from other or earlier peoples. *For instance, many of the stories now preserved in the Bible are* ***modified*** *versions of stories that existed in the cultures and traditions of Israel’s* ***older*** *contemporaries.* Stories about the creation of the universe, a cataclysmic universal flood, digging wells as land markers, the naming of important cultic sites, gods giving laws to their people, and even stories about gods decreeing the possession of land to their people were all part of the cultural and literary matrix of the ancient Near East. *Biblical scribes freely* ***adopted and modified*** *these stories as a means to express their own identity, origins, and customs."* *"Stories from the Bible"* by Dr Steven DiMattei, from his website *"Biblical Contradictions"* ------------------------------------------------------------------ In addition, look up the below articles. *"Jews and* ***Arabs*** *Descended from Canaanites - Biblical Archaeology Society."* ("The study in Cell not only establishes that the ancient Israelites were ***descended from the Canaanites,*** but also establishes that the Canaanite people across the separate city-states of the southern Levant, and over a period of 1,500 years, were a genetically cohesive people.") *"The Canaanites weren't annihilated, they just 'moved' to Lebanon - The Times of Israel."* (A UK-based study of ancient genomes finds ***Canaanites form over 90% of modern Lebanese ancestry, a trait they share with ancient Israelites)*** *"Ugarit - The Birthplace Of The Western Alphabet"* - Arab America *"Ugarit - New World Encyclopedia"* (Ugaritic religion centered on the chief god, Ilu or El, whose titles included "Father of mankind" and "Creator of the creation." The Court of El was referred to as the (plural) 'lhm or ***Elohim,*** a word ***later used by the biblical writers to describe the Hebrew deity*** and translated into English as "God," in the singular. El, which was ***also the name of the God of Abraham,*** was described as an aged deity with white hair, seated on a throne.) *"Canaanite Religion - New World Encyclopaedia."* (Read about Canaanite religion and El the chief or most high god of the Canaanite pantheon and the relationship of Canaanite religion to Israelite religion) *"In spite of their differences, Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God - The Conversation"* *"6 Ways The Quran Has A Lot In Common With The Bible - All That's Interesting"* *"The Bible and Qur’an Are Very Similar Books | Griffin"* *"Walking by Moonlight: My Journey Out of Islam - The Ex-Muslim"* *"Why Islam is False - Atheist Republic"* *"Rebuttal to Shabir Ally : Its True! The Quran Borrowed Stories From Preexisting Sources"* *"Scientific Errors in the Quran - WikiIslam"*
@@Dice_roller Wrong. Just read the Quran. You think it is just the same story but it is different in details. The Bible was redacted many times and human thinking introduced many times. Hadiths have some corruptions but not the Quran.
@@LM-jz9vh Not true. The flood did happen not exactly as described in the Bible. Many true stories get mythicised later on especially those before writing like the flood. To say that because there myths floating around , it did not happen is non sense.
@@munbruk The Qurʾan often says that Yahwe/Allāh created the universe in six days, as in common lore among the Abrahamic religions, such as in chapter seven verse fifty-four, chapter ten verse three, and chapter twenty-five verse twenty-nine. But in chapter forty-one verse nine and verse twelve, it is stated that he created the earth in two days and the seven heavens in similar time; in the tenth verse of the chapter it states that he spent four days for nourishment. If you do the math there, it adds up to eight days instead of six. That's a contradiction, hence a "corruption." Holding the Qurʾan so highly in regard is idolatry, of which is a sin in Islam. I stand by what I've said.
According to the general consensus of scholarship *(even critical Christian scholars),* YHWH was originally incorporated into the Canaanite pantheon as a son of the Canaanite high god El before inheriting the top spot in the pantheon and El's wife Athirat (Asherah) before religious reforms "divorced" them. El's pantheon in Ugarit (modern day Ras Shamra in Syria) is called the *Elohim,* literally the plural of El. Interestingly, the Biblical god is also referred to numerous times as Elohim. If you want to see if El is fictional, just read his mythology in the Ugaritic/Canaanite texts. "The mysterious Ugaritic text Shachar and Shalim tells how (perhaps near the beginning of all things) *El* came to shores of the sea and saw two women who bobbed up and down. *El* was sexually aroused and took the two with him, killed a bird by throwing a staff at it, and roasted it over a fire. He asked the women to tell him when the bird was fully cooked, and to then address him either as husband or as father, for he would thenceforward behave to them as they called him. They saluted him as husband. He then lay with them, and they gave birth to Shachar ("Dawn") and Shalim ("Dusk"). Again *El* lay with his wives and the wives gave birth to "the gracious gods", "cleavers of the sea", "children of the sea". The names of these wives are not explicitly provided, but some confusing rubrics at the beginning of the account mention the goddess *Athirat (Asherah),* who is otherwise *El's* chief wife, and the goddess Raḥmayyu ("the one of the womb"), otherwise unknown." *"First, a god named El predates the arrival of the Israelites into Syria-Palestine.* Biblical usage shows El was not just a generic noun, but often a proper name for Israel’s God (e.g., Gen 33:20: “El, the God of Israel”)." "I should add here that it is very clear from the grammar that the noun nachalah in v. 9 should be translated “inheritance.” *Yahweh receives Israel as his “inheritance” (nachalah), just as the other sons of El received their nations as their inheritance (nachal, v. 8).* With this verb, especially in the Hiphil, the object is always what is being given as an inheritance. Thus, Israel is given to Yahweh as his inheritance. ((Here I’m indebted to Dan McClellan.)) It would make no sense for Elyon to give himself an inheritance. Moreover, as I’ve argued elsewhere, it is not just the Gentile nations that are divided up according to the number of the *sons of El.* It is all of humankind, i.e., “the sons of Adam.” This clearly includes Israel. And the sons of Adam are not divided up according to the number of the *sons of El,* plus one (i.e., plus Elyon). They are divided up, according to the text, *solely* according to the number of the *sons of El.* *Thus, that Yahweh receives Israel as his inheritance makes Yahweh one of the sons of El mentioned in v. 8. Any other construal of the text would constitute its rewriting.* A Sumerian hymn speaks to the goddess: “Nanshe, your divine powers are not matched by any other divine powers.” *Does this mean that Nanshe was the high goddess, that there were no gods above her? No, it does not.* Nanshe was the daughter of Enki, the high god. *In Sumerian mythology, as with Ugaritic, Israelite, Babylonian, and others, in the ancient past, the high god (Enki, in this case) divided up the world and assigned his children certain domains.* Nanshe was given a limited domain (the modern Persian Gulf) and was tasked with maintaining social justice there. *This is exactly what we see in Deuteronomy 32 with Yahweh. Yahweh is given a limited domain (Israel) and is given authority over his people, to punish them, as well as to protect and defend them against foreign enemies.* That Yahweh, like Nanshe, is said to have incomparable divine power *does not* mean that he is not subordinate to the high god who gave him his domain. *It is also of note that Nanshe, like Baal, Yahweh, and so many other deities, evolved over time. Her domain increased, and she was promoted in the pantheon (although she never became the high goddess)."* *"The Most Heiser: Yahweh and Elyon in Psalm 82 and Deuteronomy 32 - Religion at the Margins"* based on the *majority scholarly consensus.* (Written by Thom Stark who is a Christian) *"Michael Heiser: A Unique Species? - Religion at the Margins"* (A second response to Michael Heiser) *"Excerpt from “Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan” by John Day - Lehi's Library."* *"The Table of Nations: The Geography of the World in Genesis 10"* - TheTorah.com (Excluding the short narrative on Nimrod (vv. 8-12), *which appears to be a later addition,* Genesis 10 contains *70* names of nations or cities, a number that was symbolic of totality. Similarly, the descendants of Jacob were *70* in number (Gen 46:37; Exod 1:5), *as were the sons of the supreme Canaanite god El, with whom YHWH became equated.)* *"Polytheism and Ancient Israel’s Canaanite Heritage. Part V | theyellowdart"* (Of course, much of this [i.e., that Israel worshiped El and Asherah alongside YHWH] is really to be expected given that recent syntheses of the *archaeological, cultural, and literary data* pertaining to the emergence of the nation of Israel in the Levant *show that most of the people who would eventually compose this group were originally Canaanite. As the Hebrew Bible notes, the Hebrew language itself is a Canaanite language, literally the “lip of Canaan” (שְׂפַת כְּנַעַן; Is. **19:18**), and so it cannot often be distinguished by modern scholars from other Canaanite inscriptions on purely linguistic grounds.)* *"Ugarit - New World Encyclopedia"* (Ugaritic religion centered on the chief god, Ilu or El, whose titles included "Father of mankind" and "Creator of the creation." The Court of El was referred to as the (plural) 'lhm or ***Elohim,*** a word ***later used by the biblical writers to describe the Hebrew deity*** and translated into English as "God," in the singular. El, which was ***also the name of the God of Abraham,*** was described as an aged deity with white hair, seated on a throne.) *"Mark Smith: Yahweh as El’s Son & Yahweh’s Ascendency - Lehi's Library"* (Mark Smith is a Catholic) *"God, Gods, and Sons (and Daughters) of God in the Hebrew Bible. Part III | theyellowdart"* *"02 | December | 2009 | Daniel O. McClellan - Psalm 82"* (Daniel McClellan is a Mormon) *"Elohim | Daniel O. McClellan"* (Refer to the article "Angels and Demons (and Michael Heiser)") *"God's Wife Edited Out of the Bible - Almost."* (Pay attention to whose wife Asherah (Athirat) is in the Ugaritic/Canaanite texts and how she became the wife of YHWH/Yahweh) *"Yahweh's Divorce from the Goddess Asherah in the Garden of Eden - Mythology Matters."* *"Asherah, God's Wife in Ancient Israel. Part IV - theyellowdart"* *"The Gates of Ishtar - El, was the original god of the bible."* *"The Gates of Ishtar - Anath in the Elephantine Papyri"* (In addition to Asherah (Athirat) being the consort of Yahweh, it appears some Israelites also viewed the Canaanite goddess Anat(h) as Yahweh's consort) *"Canaanite Religion - New World Encyclopedia"* (Refer to the section "Relationship to Biblical Religion") *"The Syncretization of Yahweh and El : reddit/AcademicBiblical"* (For a good summary of all of the above articles) Watch Professor Christine Hayes who lectures on the Hebrew Bible at Yale University. Watch lecture 2 from 40:40 to 41:50 minutes, lecture 7 from 30:00 minutes onwards, lecture 8 from 12:00 to 17:30 minutes and lecture 12 from 34:30 minutes onwards. Watch *"Pagan Origins of Judaism"* by Sigalius Myricantur and read the description in the video to see the scholarship the video is based on. Watch *"How Monotheism Evolved"* by Sigalius Myricantur and watch up to at least 21:40. Watch *"Atheism - A History of God (The Polytheistic Origins of Christianity and Judaism)"* (By a former theist) Watch *"The Origins of Yahweh"* by Derreck Bennett at Atheologica.
Nevertheless, the historical reconstruction that El was the chief god of the Israelites is not indebted only to the testimony of the (rather late) biblical witness of P. *Numerous biblical texts attest to the fact that the titles, functions, and the imagery associated with the Canaanite god El, as revealed by the Ugaritic texts and the Canaanite myth of Elkunirša, were assimilated into the profile of the deity YHWH.* According to the Ugaritic texts, El was known for his *wisdom* (e.g., KTU2 1.4.V.65[6]) and *great age* (’ab šnm, *“Father of Years,”* and drd, *“Ageless One,”* in KTU2 1.4.IV.24 and 1.10.III.6, respectively),[7] his *compassionate nature* (lţpn il dp’id, *“Kind El, the Compassionate One,”* e.g., KTU2 1.16.IV.9), his role as *father of the gods and humanity* (’ab ’adm, *“father of humanity,”* KTU2 1.14..III.47, and bny bnwt, *“creator of creatures,”* KTU2 1.17.I.24) and *creator of the cosmos.* [8] El was the *divine King* (e.g., KTU2 1.2.III.5-6) and the *head of the pantheon or divine council* (referred to variously as the dr ’il, *“circle of El/Family of El,”* KTU2 1.15.III.19; mpħrt bn ’il, *“the assembly of the sons of El,”* KTU2 1.65.3; bn ’il, *“the sons of El,”* KTU2 1.40.33, 41; pħr kbbm, *“assembly of the stars,”* KTU2 1.10.I.3-4; ‘dt ’ilm, *“assembly of the gods,”* KTU2 1.15.II.7; cf. KTU2 1.2.I; 1.3V; 1.4 IV-V) which met at the sacred mountain. *His consort was the goddess Athirat who bore him seventy sons* (šb‘m bn ’atrt, *“the seventy sons of Athirat,”* KTU2 1.4.VI.46). El was also known for his *divine patronage and blessing of progeny to humans* (as in the Epic of Kirta; see, for example, KTU2 1.14.III.46-51), for his *appearances to humans in dreams* (e.g., KTU2 1.14.I.35-37), as *being a healer* (KTU2 1.16.V-VI), and for his *dwelling at the sacred mountain* (e.g., KTU2 1.2.III.5-6) at the *sources of the mythical rivers* (KTU2 1.2.III.4; 1.3.V.6; 1.4.IV.20-22; 1.17.V.47-48) in a *tent* (KTU2 1.2.III.5; 1.3.V.8; 1.4.IV.24; 1.17.V.49; c.f. the Canaanite myth Elkunirša which *describes El’s abode as a tent[9]).[10]* *To underscore the fact that terminology and imagery originally used for the god El was adopted by the Israelites in their descriptions of YHWH,* the following brief summary might be placed in comparison to the discussion of El above: YHWH is an *aged, patriarchal deity* (Ps. 102:28; Job 36:26; Is. 40:28; Dan. 7.9-14, 22), *a father* (Deut. 32:6; Is. 63:16; 64:7; Jer. 3:4, 19; 31:9, etc.), *merciful and gracious* (Ex. 34:6; Jon. 4:2; Joel 2:13; Ps. 8615; 103:8; 145:8, etc.), *a divine patron who bestows the blessing of progeny upon Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,* often manifesting himself in *dreams or visions, a healer* (Gen. 20:17; Num. 12:13; 2 Kgs. 20:5, 8; Ps. 107:20, etc.), who *dwells in a tent* (Ps. 15:1; 27:6; 91:10; 132:3) *amidst the heavenly waters* (Ps. 47:5; 87; Is. 33: 20-22; Ez. 47:1-12, etc.), the *creator of the cosmos,* who is enthroned as *heavenly King* in the *divine council* (1 Kgs. 22:19; Is. 6:1-8; cf. Ps. 29:1-2; 82; 89: 5-8, etc.) on the *sacred mount of assembly* (e.g., Is. 14:13). Additionally, in much Israelite religious practice throughout the monarchic period, *YHWH had a divine consort, the goddess Asherah, the Hebrew equivalent of Ugaritic Athirat.[11]* (Originally the wife of El) *"When Jehovah Was Not the God of the Old Testament. Part II - theyellowdart"* Watch Professor Christine Hayes who lectures on the Hebrew Bible at Yale University. Watch lecture 2 from 40:40 to 41:50 minutes, lecture 7 from 30:00 minutes onwards, lecture 8 from 12:00 to 17:30 minutes and lecture 12 from 34:30 minutes onwards. Watch *"Pagan Origins of Judaism"* by Sigalius Myricantur and read the description in the video to see the scholarship the video is based on. Watch *"How Monotheism Evolved"* by Sigalius Myricantur and watch up to at least 21:40. ------------------------------------------------------------------ In addition, look up the below articles. *"Jews and Arabs Descended from Canaanites - Biblical Archaeology Society."* ("The study in Cell not only establishes that the ancient Israelites were ***descended from the Canaanites,*** but also establishes that the Canaanite people across the separate city-states of the southern Levant, and over a period of 1,500 years, were a genetically cohesive people.") *"The Canaanites weren't annihilated, they just 'moved' to Lebanon - The Times of Israel."* *"Ancient Canaanite religion explained* - everything.explained.today" *"Archeology of the Hebrew Bible - NOVA - PBS"* ("Many scholars now think that *most of the early Israelites were originally Canaanites, displaced Canaanites,* displaced from the lowlands, from the river valleys, displaced geographically and then displaced ideologically.") *"Origins of Judaism explained* - everything.explained.today" ("According to the current academic historical view, the origins of Judaism lie in the Bronze Age amidst polytheistic ancient Semitic religions, ***specifically evolving out of Ancient Canaanite polytheism,*** then co-existing with Babylonian religion, and syncretizing elements of Babylonian belief into the worship of Yahweh as reflected in the early prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible. (The Torah)". *Refer to the bibliography at the bottom of the page)* *"Canaanite languages - Britannica"* ("Group of Northern Central or Northwestern Semitic languages including ***Hebrew,*** Moabite, Phoenician, and Punic.") *"El - New World Encyclopedia"* (Refer to the section "El Outside the Bible" and the fact that *most of the early Israelites were originally indigenous or displaced Canaanites)* *"El (deity) explained* - everything.explained.today" (Refer to section "Ugarit and the Levant" and the fact that *most of the ancient Israelites were originally indigenous or displaced Canaanites* and see how Yahweh, later conflated with El (Yahweh-El(ohim)) is fictional) *"The Gods and Goddesses of Canaan - Essay - The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History"* *"Canaanite Phoenician Origin of the God of the Israelites."* *"The Phoenician (Canaanite) God Resheph in the Bible - Is That in the Bible?"* *"How the Jews Invented God and Made Him Great- Archaeology - Haaretz."* *"When the Jews believed in other gods - Archaeology - Haaretz"* *"The Invention of God - Maclean's"* *"How Did the Bible’s Editors Conceal Evidence of Israelite Polytheism - Evolution of God by Robert Wright."* *"A Theologically Revised Text: Deuteronomy 32:8-9 - Ancient Hebrew Poetry."* *"Biblical Contradiction #3: Which God is the Creator of the Heavens and Earth: Yahweh or El?"* - Dr Steven DiMattei *"Biblical Contradiction #27. Are Yahweh and El the Same God or Not?"* - Dr Steven DiMattei *"Biblical Contradiction **#294**, **#295**, **#296**. Which god liberated Israel from Egypt: Yahweh or El?"* - Dr Steven DiMattei *"Quartz Hill School of Theology - B425 Ugarit and the Bible."* *"The Origins of Yahweh and the Revived Kenite Hypothesis - Is That in the Bible?"* *"Yahweh, god of metallurgy - Fewer Lacunae."* *"Polytheistic Roots of Israelite Religion - Fewer Lacunae."* *"Yahweh was just an ancient Canaanite god. We have been deceived! - Escaping Christian Fundamentalism"* *"Religious Studies: El, Yahweh and the Development of Monotheism in Ancient Israel."* *"Yhwh, God of Edom - Daniel O. McClellan."*
Dr. McClellan, my wife and I have been watching your videos for awhile now, and she -- being Jewish -- sees a lot of your content as similar to what Dr. Sledge presents on _Esoterica_ . I can see that, too, to an extent: you cover more distinctly Biblical subjects, while Esoterica covers a wider variety of subjects dealing with . . . for lack of a better term, _esoteric_ stuff. Have the two of you ever done a collaboration or anything similar? I ask because in 40 years of marriage, I've come to see Judaism from as close as I might get to an authentically insider's view. And from what I've seen, your take is more authentically Jewish than any Biblical scholar who isn't Jewish!
"This is a very strained argument. *First, there is no question that Yahweh is standing at the beginning of the psalm, and there is no question that this is the posture of the prosecutor, not of the presider.* But because Yahweh is later called upon to “arise, judge the earth,” Heiser thinks this means that Yahweh has been seated as the presider-despite the fact that he was standing earlier. Two things to say in response: first, “arise, judge the earth,” does not at all necessarily imply that Yahweh was seated at that time. It could just mean, “Rise up to battle,” “Rise up to the challenge.” Second, Yahweh had finished speaking at this point. Could he not have sat down? Heiser’s argument is the one that entails the contradiction: *Yahweh was standing at the beginning; and this is not the posture of the high god who presides over the council.* Moreover, it is clear that Yahweh is standing *“in the midst of the gods.”* He is not presiding over the gods. He is one of them." *"The Most Heiser: Yahweh and Elyon in Psalm 82 and Deuteronomy 32 - Religion at the Margins"* based on the *majority scholarly consensus.* (Written by Thom Stark who is a Christian) *"Michael Heiser: A Unique Species? - Religion at the Margins"* (A second response to Michael Heiser)
@@LM-jz9vh Technically, YHWH doesn’t appear in the psalm at all. At least not by name. It’s El who is standing at the beginning of the Psalm. Also, the word used for “stands” Has the same meaning of presiding or stationing ones self. Not necessarily standing on 2 feet. The one presiding over the council, and judging the gods, is typically meant for the judge who is seated among the council…
The word is "monolatry": lotsa gods, but back just the one. Monolatry arises naturally when priests of one god's cult get military backing to suppress the others. It was unstable, so uncommon, until Judaism turned, and then spawned a sect that got the backing of the whole Roman Empire. Now people imagine it's normal, not as it is deeply peculiar.
Yes. *"This historical reconstruction [that El was originally Israel’s chief deity, and YHWH was originally his son and the patron deity of Israel], in turn, helps to make sense of certain biblical texts which seem to indicate most naturally that El was originally the chief god of Israel and that YHWH was the patron deity of Israel.* For example, Deuteronomy 32:8-9 reads: When the Most High apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the sons of Israel. For YHWH’s portion, his people; Jacob, his allotted share. בְּהַנְחֵל עֶלְיוֹן גּוֹיִם בְּהַפְרִידוֹ בְּנֵי אָדָם יַצֵּב גְּבֻלֹת עַמִּים לְמִסְפַּר בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ כִּי חֵלֶק יְהֹוָה עַמּוֹ יַעֲקֹב חֶבֶל נַחֲלָתֽוֹ *The Masoretic Text has “sons of Israel.” However, the Septuagint and the manuscript 4QDeut from the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as several other ancient versions and witnesses, support the alternate reading of “sons of god/gods.”[1] The Masoretic Text thus appears to be a later revision adopted in order to change what was probably seen by an ancient scribe as a reference to the existence of other (real) gods.* The text most naturally seems to indicate, therefore, that the god referred to as עֶלְיוֹן, “the Most High” (c.f. the title El-Elyon, “El, the Most High [god],” in Gen. 14:18-19, 22), divided the nations of the earth and appointed a national deity for each one, and in the case of Israel this national deity was YHWH. *This is additionally compelling because from KTU2 1.4.VI.46 we learn that El and Athirat (i.e., Asherah), the consort of El, had seventy divine sons, and in the table of nations in Genesis 10 we learn that the ancient Israelites perceived the earth as divided among exactly seventy nations. Why is this important? Because, as we saw in Deuteronomy 32:8-9, the nations of the earth are divided among the sons of god/gods, each of whom is given their own dominion or stewardship (c.f. Ps. 82).* *Later* Jewish tradition also asserted that there were *seventy* nations in the world, and other later texts confirm that there were *seventy* guardian angels that watched over them (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Deut. 32:8-9; 1 En. 89:59-77; 90:22-27). *This later Jewish tradition is clearly dependent on these earlier notions found in Genesis 10 and Deuteronomy 32:8-9 concerning the number of the nations and the sons of god/gods appointed over them.* Thus, by combining the information gleaned from these two biblical texts, it is further made clear that the writings of these Israelite texts were familiar with *older* traditions associated with the texts discovered at ancient Ugarit. There are two other texts in this vein of tradition that deserve mention here as well, namely Psalm 82 and Deuteronomy 33:26-27. *Psalm 82 recounts how Israel’s god (YHWH?) rose to prominence in the divine council. Verses 1-4, 6-8 read:* God stands in the divine council [lit. assembly of El/god]; in the midst of the gods he judges. How long will you judge unjustly, and favor the wicked? Judge the poor and fatherless, and do justice to the disadvantaged and destitute! Deliver the poor and needy, rescue (them) from the power of the wicked! …I thought, “You are gods, all of you sons of Elyon/the Highest.” However, like a man you will die, and like one of the princes you will fall. Arise, o god, judge the earth! For you will inherit all the nations. אֱֽלֹהִ֗ים נִצָּ֥ב בַּעֲדַת־אֵ֑ל בְּקֶ֖רֶב אֱלֹהִ֣ים יִשְׁפֹּֽט׃ עַד־מָתַ֥י תִּשְׁפְּטוּ־עָ֑וֶל וּפְנֵ֥י רְ֜שָׁעִ֗ים תִּשְׂאוּ־סֶֽלָה׃ שִׁפְטוּ־דַ֥ל וְיָת֑וֹם עָנִ֖י וָרָ֣שׁ הַצְדִּֽיקוּ׃ פַּלְּטוּ־דַ֥ל וְאֶבְי֑וֹן מִיַּ֖ד רְשָׁעִ֣ים הַצִּֽילו. . . אֲֽנִי־אָ֭מַרְתִּי אֱלֹהִ֣ים אַתֶּ֑ם וּבְנֵ֖י עֶלְי֣וֹן כֻּלְּכֶֽם אָ֭כֵן כְּאָדָ֣ם תְּמוּת֑וּן וּכְאַחַ֖ד הַשָּׂרִ֣ים תִּפֹּֽלוּ׃ קוּמָ֣ה אֱ֭לֹהִים שָׁפְטָ֣ה הָאָ֑רֶץ כִּֽי־אַתָּ֥ה תִ֜נְחַ֗ל בְּכָל־הַגּוֹיִֽם *Here we see the god of Israel in the divine council setting. The gods of the other nations (c.f. Deut. 32:8-9 discussed above) are condemned to the underworld for having improperly fulfilled their stewardship over the nations by judging unjustly. The final verse then requests Israel’s god to take possession of each of these nations.* ***What is further significant about this passage is that it describes these gods as “sons of Elyon/the Highest,” which appears as a title of El in Genesis 14:18-20.*** *It seems quite possible, therefore, that at the earliest stage of this poem’s composition YHWH was seen not as the chief god of the pantheon, but rather as a son of (El) Elyon (as in Deut. 32:8-9), who originally possessed only Israel but was then granted responsibility over all nations.[2]* *"God, Gods, and Sons (and Daughters) of God in the Hebrew Bible. Part III | theyellowdart"*
I dont deny that in the Bible there are traces of an ancient polytheism. But to say that in the Jewish Bible there is no concept of monotheism seems to me quite absurd: Isaiah 45:5: "I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me." Jeremiah 10:10: "But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation." Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 43:27: "In him is the power of the Almighty, and the Lord is one." Baruch 6:4: "I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me."
I recommend reading the below articles. *"The Most Heiser: Yahweh and Elyon in Psalm 82 and Deuteronomy 32 - Religion at the Margins"* based on the *majority scholarly consensus.* (Written by Thom Stark who is a Christian) *"Michael Heiser: A Unique Species? - Religion at the Margins"* (A second response to Michael Heiser)
@mattia9713 As Thom Stark explains, most of those comments are imperial rhetoric. Yahweh didn't start out as "God of the universe". He evolved over time to become that. --------------------------------------------------------- Nevertheless, the historical reconstruction that El was the chief god of the Israelites is not indebted only to the testimony of the (rather late) biblical witness of P. *Numerous biblical texts attest to the fact that the titles, functions, and the imagery associated with the Canaanite god El, as revealed by the Ugaritic texts and the Canaanite myth of Elkunirša, were assimilated into the profile of the deity YHWH.* According to the Ugaritic texts, El was known for his *wisdom* (e.g., KTU2 1.4.V.65[6]) and *great age* (’ab šnm, *“Father of Years,”* and drd, *“Ageless One,”* in KTU2 1.4.IV.24 and 1.10.III.6, respectively),[7] his *compassionate nature* (lţpn il dp’id, *“Kind El, the Compassionate One,”* e.g., KTU2 1.16.IV.9), his role as *father of the gods and humanity* (’ab ’adm, *“father of humanity,”* KTU2 1.14..III.47, and bny bnwt, *“creator of creatures,”* KTU2 1.17.I.24) and *creator of the cosmos.* [8] El was the *divine King* (e.g., KTU2 1.2.III.5-6) and the *head of the pantheon or divine council* (referred to variously as the dr ’il, *“circle of El/Family of El,”* KTU2 1.15.III.19; mpħrt bn ’il, *“the assembly of the sons of El,”* KTU2 1.65.3; bn ’il, *“the sons of El,”* KTU2 1.40.33, 41; pħr kbbm, *“assembly of the stars,”* KTU2 1.10.I.3-4; ‘dt ’ilm, *“assembly of the gods,”* KTU2 1.15.II.7; cf. KTU2 1.2.I; 1.3V; 1.4 IV-V) which met at the sacred mountain. *His consort was the goddess Athirat who bore him seventy sons* (šb‘m bn ’atrt, *“the seventy sons of Athirat,”* KTU2 1.4.VI.46). El was also known for his *divine patronage and blessing of progeny to humans* (as in the Epic of Kirta; see, for example, KTU2 1.14.III.46-51), for his *appearances to humans in dreams* (e.g., KTU2 1.14.I.35-37), as *being a healer* (KTU2 1.16.V-VI), and for his *dwelling at the sacred mountain* (e.g., KTU2 1.2.III.5-6) at the *sources of the mythical rivers* (KTU2 1.2.III.4; 1.3.V.6; 1.4.IV.20-22; 1.17.V.47-48) in a *tent* (KTU2 1.2.III.5; 1.3.V.8; 1.4.IV.24; 1.17.V.49; c.f. the Canaanite myth Elkunirša which *describes El’s abode as a tent[9]).[10]* *To underscore the fact that terminology and imagery originally used for the god El was adopted by the Israelites in their descriptions of YHWH,* the following brief summary might be placed in comparison to the discussion of El above: YHWH is an *aged, patriarchal deity* (Ps. 102:28; Job 36:26; Is. 40:28; Dan. 7.9-14, 22), *a father* (Deut. 32:6; Is. 63:16; 64:7; Jer. 3:4, 19; 31:9, etc.), *merciful and gracious* (Ex. 34:6; Jon. 4:2; Joel 2:13; Ps. 8615; 103:8; 145:8, etc.), *a divine patron who bestows the blessing of progeny upon Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,* often manifesting himself in *dreams or visions, a healer* (Gen. 20:17; Num. 12:13; 2 Kgs. 20:5, 8; Ps. 107:20, etc.), who *dwells in a tent* (Ps. 15:1; 27:6; 91:10; 132:3) *amidst the heavenly waters* (Ps. 47:5; 87; Is. 33: 20-22; Ez. 47:1-12, etc.), the *creator of the cosmos,* who is enthroned as *heavenly King* in the *divine council* (1 Kgs. 22:19; Is. 6:1-8; cf. Ps. 29:1-2; 82; 89: 5-8, etc.) on the *sacred mount of assembly* (e.g., Is. 14:13). Additionally, in much Israelite religious practice throughout the monarchic period, *YHWH had a divine consort, the goddess Asherah, the Hebrew equivalent of Ugaritic Athirat.[11]* (Originally the wife of El) *"When Jehovah Was Not the God of the Old Testament. Part II - theyellowdart"* Watch Professor Christine Hayes who lectures on the Hebrew Bible at Yale University. Watch lecture 2 from 40:40 to 41:50 minutes, lecture 7 from 30:00 minutes onwards, lecture 8 from 12:00 to 17:30 minutes and lecture 12 from 34:30 minutes onwards. Watch *"Pagan Origins of Judaism"* by Sigalius Myricantur and read the description in the video to see the scholarship the video is based on. Watch *"How Monotheism Evolved"* by Sigalius Myricantur and watch up to at least 21:40. ------------------------------------------------------------------ In addition, look up the below articles. *"Jews and Arabs Descended from Canaanites - Biblical Archaeology Society."* ("The study in Cell not only establishes that the ancient Israelites were ***descended from the Canaanites,*** but also establishes that the Canaanite people across the separate city-states of the southern Levant, and over a period of 1,500 years, were a genetically cohesive people.") *"The Canaanites weren't annihilated, they just 'moved' to Lebanon - The Times of Israel."* *"Ancient Canaanite religion explained* - everything.explained.today" *"Archeology of the Hebrew Bible - NOVA - PBS"* ("Many scholars now think that *most of the early Israelites were originally Canaanites, displaced Canaanites,* displaced from the lowlands, from the river valleys, displaced geographically and then displaced ideologically.") *"Origins of Judaism explained* - everything.explained.today" ("According to the current academic historical view, the origins of Judaism lie in the Bronze Age amidst polytheistic ancient Semitic religions, ***specifically evolving out of Ancient Canaanite polytheism,*** then co-existing with Babylonian religion, and syncretizing elements of Babylonian belief into the worship of Yahweh as reflected in the early prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible. (The Torah)". *Refer to the bibliography at the bottom of the page)* *"Canaanite languages - Britannica"* ("Group of Northern Central or Northwestern Semitic languages including ***Hebrew,*** Moabite, Phoenician, and Punic.") *"El - New World Encyclopedia"* (Refer to the section "El Outside the Bible" and the fact that *most of the early Israelites were originally indigenous or displaced Canaanites)* *"El (deity) explained* - everything.explained.today" (Refer to section "Ugarit and the Levant" and the fact that *most of the ancient Israelites were originally indigenous or displaced Canaanites* and see how Yahweh, later conflated with El (Yahweh-El(ohim)) is fictional) *"The Gods and Goddesses of Canaan - Essay - The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History"* *"Canaanite Phoenician Origin of the God of the Israelites."* *"The Phoenician (Canaanite) God Resheph in the Bible - Is That in the Bible?"* *"How the Jews Invented God and Made Him Great- Archaeology - Haaretz."* *"When the Jews believed in other gods - Archaeology - Haaretz"* *"The Invention of God - Maclean's"* *"How Did the Bible’s Editors Conceal Evidence of Israelite Polytheism - Evolution of God by Robert Wright."* *"A Theologically Revised Text: Deuteronomy 32:8-9 - Ancient Hebrew Poetry."* *"Biblical Contradiction #3: Which God is the Creator of the Heavens and Earth: Yahweh or El?"* - Dr Steven DiMattei *"Biblical Contradiction #27. Are Yahweh and El the Same God or Not?"* - Dr Steven DiMattei *"Biblical Contradiction **#294**, **#295**, **#296**. Which god liberated Israel from Egypt: Yahweh or El?"* - Dr Steven DiMattei *"Quartz Hill School of Theology - B425 Ugarit and the Bible."* *"The Origins of Yahweh and the Revived Kenite Hypothesis - Is That in the Bible?"* *"Yahweh, god of metallurgy - Fewer Lacunae."* *"Polytheistic Roots of Israelite Religion - Fewer Lacunae."* *"Yahweh was just an ancient Canaanite god. We have been deceived! - Escaping Christian Fundamentalism"* *"Religious Studies: El, Yahweh and the Development of Monotheism in Ancient Israel."* *"Yhwh, God of Edom - Daniel O. McClellan."*
You seem to miss the point. Look at each verse you noted, and see what’s the underlying “tone”. The writers were clearly trying to assert their god as the supreme god, therefore showing clearly that in the minds of others there were these other gods. These verses would be unnecessary if there were monotheism.
@@Jake-zc3fk That doesn’t suggest that there were other gods in the traditional sense. The Bible tries to make that clear because we have a tendency to worship other things that are not even gods, which is idolatry.
4:34 If the author deines the divinity of a god, but lowers them to an angle or a loyal servant in the army of God, then that is monotheism. Monotheism doesn't mean you cannot acknowledge that the sun and moon exist, it just means you believe that only one God exists, and Deutro-Isaiah does that.
@@bernardosanchez3702 makes perfect sense in mythology! Makes absolutely zero sense in the real world. That’s why religion takes faith. You need to make believe your gods are real. All myth and nonsense!
@@itninvestigate it IS Mythology! It doesn’t make sense to have gods! Otherwise which crappy god do you believe in? You worship the biblical Malevolent war god of Abraham who committed Genocide, allows Murder, Rape, Incest, etc., all in his name?
Yeshiva is one of these Ben Elohim and will save all those whom have a pure heart or request one with full intent. The names, actions and understanding of men's dealings with all these ben Elohim is what we have with all the religions, including the Jewish one. Yeshiva is either "one with" as close as a human can be with or "is" ben Elohim and is our future and our salvation as a human race. Why? because the sheep will know the shepherd. Regardless of if one believes this or not one forms a pinnacle in their beliefs, Christians are simply stating that Yeshiva is that pinnacle regardless of our limited understanding of such. Babies can't always say....their parents name and don't know their occupation or even where they came from but...still know their father as their father and their mother as their mother. This is Yeshiva's father teaching...pretty refreshing if you ask me. Babies can't read and would never hold a book above their relationship with their parents as well....cuz that would be an idol.
I disagree. 2nd Isaiah does assume the existence of other divinities, but it only refers to YHWH as "god". While this is more of a rhetorical move than a theological one, the assertion that only one being can properly be called a "god" should be considered monotheism.
That's a fallacy of equivocation. Referring to a deity as "god" is not the same thing as saying that only one can be called "a god". The former usage is a title, the latter usage is a category. The fact that a person only calls one deity "god" does not deny the validity of other gods as being real gods. It simply means that they're not that person's god.
There is no "god" in Hebrew. There are only Gods, Hebrew makes no distinction between God and god. And monotheism denies the existence of other divine beings, which is not part of the Hebrew Bible. Even the Nt admits the existence of other Gods
So you are saying that within the Jewish ranks, they were monotheistic? That’s true, but if the surrounding nations believed in only their one god, that would make them monotheistic also. This is fun! I like discussing this.
I've read some of this same research and I still can't get past the fact that so much of the Pentateuch focuses on the uniqueness of Israel's God and a rejection of the polytheism and practices of other surrounding nations.
@@imusmoedegrasse Everyone is biased. What's your point? My point is that the Pentateuch evinces a clear rejection of the gods and mythologies of the ANE to the worship of YHWH as the one God. In my view, this historical reconstruction is largely based on questionable assumptions derived from source criticism. Also, there seems to be an underlying assumption that the history of ideas, including religious ideas, is a process of linear evolution, which is doubtful.
The Hebrew bible was written by the people who worshipped Yhwh. The people who worshipped another god also wrote similar books; they just did not get passed down. The happenstance that the Hebrew bible survived and the Moabite bible didn't is just that - happenstance.
Maybe, but it's not calling upon those other people to abandon their practices in favour of YHWH, only forbidding it to Israelites or Judahites. Therefore definitely not monotheism.
@@phillipstrickland2251everyone was denigrating each others’ gods back then, we have texts proving it, it’s just that we don’t have as complete of religious literature for anyone else as we do the Hebrews
What you are missing Phillips is the various literary strata of the Hebrew Bible. So yes there are parts of the Hebrew Bible that do argue what you claim, but they are from later periods. The earlier, pre-deuteronomistic literature supposes polytheism in that different Canaanite gods were merged into YHWH later on. Deut. 32.6-9 is an example of this.
Syria. Naaman was a general of the king of Aram, whose kingdom was centred in Damascus, which would have been been understood as part of "Syria" by ancient Greek reckoning of the time (and our own). Parts of Syria were held by the Assyrian Empire at various points during this period, which is probably how it came by its Greek and thus modern Western name, but the Assyrian homelands and centre of their polity were farther east, centred on Nineveh.
@@MrTonyJ No, Naaman was from Aram, which was in the region we now know as Syria. I assume Dan referred to it as "Syria" so the majority of his audience could picture the location Naaman was bringing Israel's soil to in relation to Israel's location. Greek cultural presence in the eastern Mediterranean was consistent since the middle of the Bronze Age (e.g. the Minoans ~2000 BCE), and Archaic Age Greeks (ca. 800-480 BCE) traded and settled widely across the Mediterranean, giving Greek names to these places well before Macedonia placed them under Hellenic domination in the late 4th century BCE. Because our civilization sees itself as the cultural inheritor of the Greeks, theirs are the place names that tend to fall into our common usage.
Yeah, That YahWeh guy... starts off washing dishes, then some fry cook shifts, moves to chef then head chef then ends up owning the whole place. then later they claim he built the building by himself and started the business single handed with no other employees. ahh how legends grow and gods are created!!
I mean it's all so natural that literally every other cult system around them did the exact same thing with their gods and the all managed to preserve themselves as a distinct people group for thousands of years...oh no wait...
Actually, he interited the business. He is a nepo baby. But he will never admit that.
@@GeoffBoscothey basically did do the same thing though. Cities started popping up, they would choose a patron deity, whenever they went to war, it was described as a war between the gods. Whenever they conquered lands, their gods’ sovereignty grew. Cities became states, states nations, nations empires, and the gods grew alongside them. Only difference is instead of the Hebrews growing more powerful, they got kicked out of their land and had to explain how they could worship their god in another god’s territory, so they theologically subordinated the other gods to their own. Hebrews just got lucky enough to have continuity that lasts to this day and for one of their offshoots to get picked up by the world’s largest empire and give them permanent celebrity status
@@BobbyHill26 you hit the nail on the head. Good job Bobby
@@williamcody3415 and ditched his wife who he had been with for hundreds of years.
Yeah, I always thought it was obvious.
"I am the god of your father, Abraham!"
So, not the god of Moab or the other communities down the road.
If there were only one god, he could just say, "I am God, the one and only!"
Scholars of ancient history know that all gods were personal, sometimes to a place and sometimes to a people, but Christianity today loathes scholarship generally.
He does in fact say that elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, in Deut. and Isaiah. But we would still agree.
“You shall not worship other gods besides me.”
@@pansepot1490Thats a good observation.
I forgot about that verse.
@pansepot1490
Also:
Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever the LORD our God has given us, we will possess. *Judges **11:24*
At the time it broke my heart realising Yahweh had a wife, as then my theological dominoes began falling.
4 years on I’m now bummed that she & the kids got written out, the Bible would have been way more fun and interesting as divine family soap opera, instead of one distant grump on a throne.
Mark Twain suggested the US should have a royal family of cats to fawn over. Better than royalty, way better than absent gods. Dan could do critical feline scholarship on cat videos.
YHWH - Yahweh is from the Samaritans!
John 8:48 In answer the Jews said to him: “Are we not right in saying, ‘You are a Sa·marʹi·tan and have a demon’?” 49 Jesus answered: “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me.
Genesis 12:8 Genesis came in the Name of the Father the God of Abraham YHVH Yehovah Jehovah God! Jesus said the Kingdom had drawn near for the lost sheep of Israel only!
Matthew 10:5 These 12 Jesus sent out, giving them these instructions: “Do not go off into the road of the nations, and do not enter any Sa·marʹi·tan city;6 but instead, go continually to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 As you go, preach, saying: ‘The Kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.’
Matthew 4:17 From that time on, Jesus began preaching and saying: “Repent, for the Kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.”
The Kingdom of the heavens has drawn near: This message of a new world government was the theme of Jesus’ preaching. (Mt 10:7; Mr 1:15) John the Baptist started to proclaim a similar message about six months prior to Jesus’ baptism (Mt 3:1, 2); yet Jesus could say with added meaning that the Kingdom had “drawn near,” since he was now present as the anointed King-Designate. There is no record that after Jesus’ death his disciples continued to proclaim that the Kingdom had “drawn near” or was at hand.
The Divine Feminine is being rediscovered once more. She of 10,000 names.
Lends credence to god being black
Lmao
@@Akio-fy7ep Yes, All Hail the Great Goddess Bast, and her holy Avatars, two of whom rule our household.
Even when God says "Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me" he's not saying that there _AREN'T_ other gods, just that we're not supposed to put them before him. Even when I was a believer I always thought this was oddly put.
I always thought that one was so obvious
I was told it was allegorical to ungodly things along the way. I found that kind of ridiculous.
I don’t know when I first realized that the Bible does not present monotheism, but I came to the conclusion on my own, from reading the Pentateuch in Hebrew and select portions of the Prophets and Writings. (I consider it a personal failure that I have not read the latter in their entirety.) The conclusion is obvious from the plain meaning of the text, and I abhor apologetic readings.
I am a practicing Jew who is very comfortable with the fact that Rabbinic Judaism is only loosely based on the Bible and that it does not present a faithful reproduction of Biblical Israelite life.
@avishevin1976 Weirdly enough, and I don't know why, it might be just either cultural or just a bias on my part but I tend to see more people who are critical or at least study less dogmatically the Bible in the Jewish faith than in Catholicism or Christianity at large.
I might totally be wrong on that, I'm an atheist but ex Catholic and I might just have run into less critical Catholics than Jews. ^^
Exactly! That’s what I’ve been saying as well.
Even though I knew the old testament recognizes the existence of other deities Dan blew my mind with his explanations.
Yes and compare this with Dr. Michael S. Heiser ( who was also a friend of Dan McClellan ). The explanations are different, but Heiser's view was not well defended.
Mind blown was the phrase that came to my mind too.
Standby, the villagers are running for their pitchforks and torches right now.
When I tell people the First Commandment doesn't say I'm the only God, just that I'm number one; I get some very angry looks.
I always get, "No other Gods before me" wasn't talking about actual deities or gods, but things we can make into Idols, like money and shit, so still only one God. I don't buy that argument, but I just need to do more research
Dan, with your depth of knowledge of the Tanakh / Hebrew Scriptures, ancient Judaic culture, and fluency in Biblical Hebrew, it would be very interesting if you responded to popular Orthodox rabbis, e.g., R’ Tovia Singer, or Jews for Judaism Canada, on UA-cam who claim that only strict monotheism is taught within the Torah and Prophets.
+1 for that!
He wouldn't do that. He only criticizes christians.
Oh, that would be great !
Oh that would be just great! Specially with rabi Tobia insisting that Christians are idolatrous 😄
Wait there better be a follow up coming about that battle Adonai lost! You baited us with that at the end there.
In fact I dare say that was masterful bait!
I don’t know how long I’ve been saying the ancient Hebrews were polytheistic. Thank you for making a concise scholarly case for this truth.
Absolutely fascinating. What a privilege to be able to listen to you, Dan.
"“Turn to me and be saved,
all you ends of the earth;
for I am God, and there is no other." (Isaiah 45:22)
I agree Jesus isn't God
Another disadvantage of exile or immigration is Santa Claus not knowing where to deliver your toys.
Santa stopped coming after we moved from New England to the US Virgin Islands. Christmas down there at 86F with high humidity (and a strong constant 15mph east-west wind) was just not the same as being snuggled up in front of our 1740s colonial house's 4 sided fireplace.
@@johnphantomSanta stopped coming to my house when my dad lost his job. He must be some kind of classist.
@@frogmanvcAnd you are crazy.
I've heard Christians morph the concept of monotheism not to there being only one god but the worship of only one god. So they can ignore the "lesser" or "false" gods and only worship the one.. well, the three in one.. and feel smug that they're still monotheists.
Which is Henotheism
@@williamcody3415 Or monolatry.
Jesus is also a lesser God because he is not the supreme God. The trinity means, 3 persons are co equal and Co eternal and one God, which is simply not in the whole bible. I mean Jesus even sits next to God with others in heaven. How can you sit next to Ronaldo and be Ronaldo at the same time😂...
@@Zahaqiel correct. some books in the bible are more strict. definitely the yhwh cult members only had their one... and in the ones shared around cannan more it is more henotheistic... IN THE later writing that became the bible with all the redactions. there clearly was a PANTHEON so polytheism was the norm, but over time it was edited down to appear as if they had always only had the one god in the fiction foundation myths. In the book itself though tells how Josiah went around smashing ashera poles and nehushtins (bronze serpents of moses story and all the other temples around.
That’s interesting. I’ve never met a Christian whose brain wouldn’t explode at the concept of multiple gods, greater, lesser, or otherwise.
Growing up Christian I/we fail to realize the mythology in the bible. It is so interesting when you view it as any other mythological story.
Holy cow u stuffed a lot into this video. May be the best wrap up I’ve ever heard. An American with Germanic/european mutt heritage, which god would be closest to being our god based on geographic location? Thank you for the laser focused deep dive, excellent!
The deal there, speaking as a Pagan who's studied European traditions to an extent, is that our Germanic and other such ancestors did not feel that their gods were limited to their land. They were not universalized, but they could be worshipped in other places. Notice the religio romana was extremely generous on this point. The gods could have different epithets based on where they were and who they were syncretized with, but at the core the gods were the same in Rome as they were in Bath. Bath's principal goddess Sulis was given the second name of Minerva due to Roman perception of shared qualities. So which gods would be yours? If you want to start with the best knowledge we have of the older faith of the Germanic peoples, you look there. If you're lucky enough to have a deep genealogy, you might find a clue in an ancestor's name or place of birth. The latter could prove really useful especially. You might also learn from the names of nearby rivers or geographical names.
Great one, Dan! We need a chart.
This concept played a major part in my deconstruction. Dr Francesca brings a lot of light to this topic
Thanks so much for the work you do, Dan ❤
Thank you, buddy, for another killer installment ❤🤘🏻❤
Very very interesting, and convincingly detailed in 5 minutes
Super fascinating!
I'm surprised Dan didn't get into YHWH being conflated with Elyon. It's odd, though, that if Elyon and YHWH were merged pretty early on that the idea of the high God not being accessible in other nations would still be considered. I remember reading that worship of Elyon decreased in other Canaanite nations because he was seen as aloof and not really getting involved in the affairs of his children's inheritances. But the image of God (the father in Trinitarian Christianity) being a bearded, kind, and loving old man can be traced straight back to worship of Elyon.
I think you mean El, from the Canaanite patheon. These videos are short. Dan gets into that other videos. Technically it is El Elyon.
Yeah, his videos are short and are often full of holes, precisely because it's not meant to be exhaustively comprehensive, even though he is most often correct. In his written theses, his doctorate, and his monograph ( based on his doctorate ), he usually becomes exhaustive and comprehensive. He will publish a few new monographs next year and the following years. Hopefully then, a lot of holes from his videos will be filled and clarified.
Fascinating.
I'd like to hear more on Adonai using the help of other Gods as you mention.
I’d love a few book recommendations to dig into this as it’s so wildly divergent from my current understanding
❤❤❤❤❤❤ thanks Dan!!!!
Great info!
This answers my questions I commented on another video of Dan's I watched earlier today.
Thank you for your expertise on the topic!
When you came on, I thought that illustration of Superman didn't look quite right ... I loved Bizarro in the 60s and 70s comics, glad the character still survives.
Hey Dan. Absolutely love your channel. Just wondering how does yaweh's involment in freeing the jews from egypt work into this idea?
I low key believe that the reason the Abrahamic religions treat women so badly is because they’ve never gotten over that YHVH started out as a minor tribal war god under a female goddess.
I low key believe it’s because the guys who spent their time writing religious texts were incels.
Consider the Adam and Eve story. That’s exactly what an insecure man who wants to feel superior to women yet doesn’t want to take responsibility and blames others would write.
Another great video! Thanks so much for your hard work, Dan!
Thanks Dan!❤
This is one topic Rabbi Singer doesn't touch
Nor will he touch the *older* myths the Israelites borrowed from and modified to craft their own myths.
---------------------------------------------------------
*The Enuma Elish would later be the inspiration for the Hebrew scribes who created the text now known as the biblical Book of Genesis.* Prior to the 19th century CE, the Bible was considered the oldest book in the world and its narratives were thought to be completely original. In the mid-19th century CE, however, European museums, as well as academic and religious institutions, sponsored excavations in Mesopotamia to find physical evidence for historical corroboration of the stories in the Bible. ***These excavations found quite the opposite, however, in that, once cuneiform was translated, it was understood that a number of biblical narratives were Mesopotamian in origin.***
*Famous stories such as the Fall of Man and the Great Flood were originally conceived and written down in Sumer,* translated and modified later in Babylon, and reworked by the Assyrians ***before they were used by the Hebrew scribes for the versions which appear in the Bible.***
***In revising the Mesopotamian creation story for their own ends, the Hebrew scribes tightened the narrative and the focus but retained the concept of the all-powerful deity who brings order from chaos.*** Marduk, in the Enuma Elish, establishes the recognizable order of the world - *just as God does in the Genesis tale* - and human beings are expected to recognize this great gift and honor the deity through service.
*"Enuma Elish - The Babylonian Epic of Creation - Full Text - World History Encyclopedia"*
*"Sumerian Is the World's Oldest Written Language | ProLingo"*
*"Sumerian Civilization: Inventing the Future - World History Encyclopedia"*
("The Sumerians were the people of southern Mesopotamia whose civilization flourished between c. 4100-1750 BCE."
"Ancient Israelites and their origins date back to 1800-1200 BCE.")
*"The Myth of Adapa - World History Encyclopedia"*
Also discussed by Professor Christine Hayes at Yale University in her 1st lecture of the series on the Hebrew Bible from 8:50 to 14:30 minutes, lecture 3 from 28:30 to 41:35 minutes, lecture 4 from 0:00 up to 21:30 minutes and 24:00 up to 35:30 minutes and lecture 7 from 24:20 to 25:10 minutes.
From a Biblical scholar:
"Many stories in the ancient world have their origins in other stories and were borrowed and modified from other or earlier peoples. *For instance, many of the stories now preserved in the Bible are* ***modified*** *versions of stories that existed in the cultures and traditions of Israel’s* ***older*** *contemporaries.* Stories about the creation of the universe, a cataclysmic universal flood, digging wells as land markers, the naming of important cultic sites, gods giving laws to their people, and even stories about gods decreeing the possession of land to their people were all part of the cultural and literary matrix of the ancient Near East. *Biblical scribes freely* ***adopted and modified*** *these stories as a means to express their own identity, origins, and customs."*
*"Stories from the Bible"* by Dr Steven DiMattei, from his website *"Biblical Contradictions"*
------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition, look up the below articles.
*"Genesis 1:1-2 --- not a creation ex nihilo"* - Dr Steven DiMattei
*"Yahweh was just an ancient Canaanite god. We have been deceived! - Escaping Christian Fundamentalism"*
*"Hammurabi - World History Encyclopedia"*
(Hammurabi (r. 1792-1750 BCE) was the sixth king of the Amorite First Dynasty of Babylon best known for his famous law code which served as the model for others, *including the Mosaic Law of the Bible.)*
*"Debunking the Devil - Michael A. Sherlock (Author)"*
*"The Greatest Trick Religion Ever Pulled: Convincing Us That Satan Exists | Atheomedy"*
*"Zoroastrianism And Persian Mythology: The Foundation Of Belief"*
(Scroll to the last section: Zoroastrianism is the Foundation of Western Belief)
*"10 Ways The Bible Was Influenced By Other Religions - Listverse"*
*"January | 2014 | Atheomedy"* - Where the Hell Did the Idea of Hell Come From?
*"Retired bishop explains the reason why the Church invented "Hell" - Ideapod"*
Watch *"The Origins of Salvation, Judgement and Hell"* by Derreck Bennett at Atheologica
(Sensitive theists should only watch from 7:00 to 17:30 minutes as evangelical Christians are lambasted. He's a former theist and has been studying the scholarship and comparative religions for over 15 years)
*"Top Ten Reasons Noah’s Flood is Mythology - The Sensuous Curmudgeon"*
*"Forget about Noah's Ark; There Was No Worldwide Flood | Bible Interp"*
*"The Search for Noah’s Flood - Biblical Archaeology Society"*
*"Eridu Genesis - World History Encyclopedia"*
*"The Atrahasis Epic: The Great Flood & the Meaning of Suffering - World History Encyclopedia"*
Watch *"How Aron Ra Debunks Noah's Flood"*
(8 part series debunking Noah's flood using multiple branches of science)
*"The Adam and Eve myth - News24"*
*"Before Adam and Eve - Psychology Today"*
*"Gilgamesh vs. Noah - Wordpress"*
*"Old Testament Tales Were Stolen From Other Cultures - Griffin"*
*"Parallelism between “The Hymn to Aten” and Psalm 104 - Project Augustine"*
*"Studying the Bible"* - by Dr Steven DiMattei
(This particular article from a critical Biblical scholar highlights how the authors of the Hebrew Bible used their *fictional* god as a mouthpiece for their own views and ideologies)
*"How do we know that the biblical writers were* ***not*** *writing history?"* -- by Dr Steven DiMattei
*"Contradictions in the Bible | Identified verse by verse and explained using the most up-to-date scholarly information about the Bible, its texts, and the men who wrote them"* -- by Dr. Steven DiMattei
As surely as 3 is not equal to 1, there is no monotheism either in the new testament
I always found it an interesting inconsistency that when David was on the run Michal put the household idol in the bed so it looked like he was there (oldest trick in the book). They clearly used idols in that time maybe for small protections for a house. Or perhaps it was just useful to the story to suddenly materialise one for that purpose and never mention it again. However it sticks out like a sore thumb.
That makes sense that the Targum translates gods in Psalm 82:6 as angels
This makes the argument that Jesus revealed a different father a lot stronger.
I feel like it’s already pretty strong using only bible.
But when you look at other texts such as Enoch 1 it starts to come together. So if it is all true that to me makes the most sense also brings clarity on why so much confusion between religions etc
If a fallen one proclaimed himself as the top dog then it would mean he is imperfect which would lead to massive confusion which we have today.
I'm fairly interested to know whether these characters advised /preached Monotheism or not by looking at the factors or characterstics or attributes that constitute Monotheism.
True. They are more accurately described as henotheistic: "adherence to one particular god out of several, especially by a family, tribe, or other group." Not unlike the Aten-worshipers of Ancient Egypt, or other sects that existed on the historic path toward a more widespread monotheism.
Wait, if the fit for this video is Bizarro, then does that mean there was only one god in the Hebrew Bible?
I get it. Dan gets it. Bizarro didn't get it 😊
I imagine that apologists countering that YWYH referred to himself in the plural in the same way that king's and popes do.
Which is fair because sometimes the construction being used IS exactly that. But sometimes a plural is just a plural.
@@SethRGray
I don’t know of any place that a person uses the royal we in the Hebrew Scripture, but I have not made an exhaustive audit. Certainly that language is not used by anyone in Genesis.
It mystifies me why the commandments are formulated in the singular rather than plural. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” seems like it’s telling only one person they can’t worship other gods. If this was dictated to Moses, it seems God is only saying Moses can’t worship other gods. 😅
I have been known as Richard, Rich, Richie, Rick, Ricky, Dick, Dicky, Dad, Boss, Mr, Sir, Senor, Monsieur, Son, brother, Uncle, Coach, Reader, Minister, Director. But strangely no-one has suggested that I form a council.
so are you saying yahweh is the same as baal?
@@gandaruvu No I am saying a religion which worships one God is monotheistic - Judaism, Christianity, Islam for example. There were people who were not of those faiths or who strayed from those faiths who beleived in multiple gods. Hope that helps.
@@gandaruvu No I am saying that some people thought they were. It is pretty clear that Baal and Yahweh are not the same. Baal was a statue whilst Yahweh was a living God.
IFB and other fundies claim that the Hebrews were always referring to the trinity. Eye roll.
Exactly. "Eye roll" is the right reaction. Makes me wonder if given 2000 years, an unlimited budget, and no scruples as to rewriting another author's work, I could make Lord of the Rings appear coherent as the framework for a new religion.
The Trinitarian view is correct. Your stupid interpretation of the text doesn’t change that.
I find it odd that an academic is referring to one deity by title, and all others by name. It implies a partiality.
Nope. He does it too respect the wishes of people who find speaking their lords name to be blasphemy.
@@alexmcd378 Do you suppose that nobody else finds anything else that he says, blasphemous?
@@mrgoober6320 don't really care what people find blasphemous. But Dan is nicer than I am
@@alexmcd378 Selectively nice, perhaps.
@@mrgoober6320_shrug_
Where does Yeshua's "Abba" fit in all this? a development of a particular deity such as Yahweh or essentially a new vision altogether?
Your question is interesting, who jesus is referring to when he say "Abba" ? To my knowledge, there is no occurrence of the tetragramaton in the new testament.
So I guess no data indicates he speaks about Yahweh.
Jesus is also referring to his "patron deity" (not sure what term is should use 😅) as Most High, so in aramean "Elyon". Maybe he wanted to bring out some stuff of the old religion, with El as chief of the pantheon.
That's a guess but I'd really like to hear Dan on this topic !
@@project.anubis It is interesting as Jesus also refers to the commandments and Noah's flood, which are both associated with Yahweh.
But Jesus also didn't seem to know that Noah's flood is a modified version of an *older* Sumerian flood story/myth.
@@epicofatrahasis3775 Maybe they have associated Yahweh to this stories later on. These stories have more ancient roots than the time they have been put on paper...
My personal thoughts about the education of Jesus is that he was a literate person, aware of the stories and myths of the closest areas. For exemple, when we speaks with the Phoenician woman at the well, they seem to make reference to the Cycle of Baal (the version we know was found at Ougarit). I bet he knew about greatest myths as the epic of Gilgamesh and so on...
But that's a guess, I'm not a specialist. 🤗
@@project.anubis
But according to the Bible, he seems to think this was a real event.
Matthew 24:37-39
37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Makes sense.
This misunderstands monotheism smh. The Hebrew Bible very much encourages Jews to worship one God.
That's not what monotheism is. You managed quite the self-own there.
@@avishevin3353 That is what monotheism is.
@@itninvestigate
No it's not. The hint is in the word itself: theism refers to belief, not worship.
@@avishevin3353 Belief and worship are in the same boat.
@@itninvestigate
But are not the same thing. Different things are different. Weird that this is news to you.
In the book of Boney M: How can we sing The Lord's song in strange land...
According to this scholarship, Yahweh was an attentive and diligent deity. still intriguing.
I think the people who first wrote down these stories were doing so after the Babylonian exile, so they were living in a time when that concept of actual monotheism had begun to catch on and be popular. BUT the things they were writing down were stories they had probably been hearing from the grownups since they were little children - my understanding is that the Hebrew Bible is a collection of writings derived from an older oral tradition.
So the scribes and the prophets grew up hearing about God who called the other gods to help God make the earth - and they couldn't change that part of the story for a lot of reasons - there's a real taboo in altering the text (it happens accidentally, but to deliberately change the words would be shocking). Maybe they had some childhood nostalgia for the words of the tales exactly the way their mothers had told it to them when they were little. So you had to keep the words of the polytheistic versions of the stories, but you find a way to understand those words as being monotheistic.
Sounds like a very believable, very human foible, you know?
Forget all other gods, only worry about Ezk 8-18 God
Huh?
I agree, I'm under the impression that Yahweh negotiated with Nisroch in regards to the Babylonian siege. But I don't have references to prove that.
Is this something the Mormon faith has understood for a long time?
I believe it is important to look at things in scripture from many perspectives, to include sociological and psychological points of view. Coming out of Egypt why wouldn’t they believe other gods existed? For centuries that is what they knew to be true. Before that, there was very limited interaction between God and the Hebrews. As the nation grew and became more in tuned with their God through their relationship with God, they gained a different perspective, there is but one God. Then there is the referencing to other gods. Other cultures do in fact worship other gods. It doesn’t mean on a personal level one believes those other gods exist. Lastly, God is portrayed throughout scripture in different contexts with different names. What role does He serve in each context? Or did the Hebrews reference them because they saw them differently.
How about Deuteronomy 4:35 and v. 39? How about Isaiah 43:10-13; 44:6-8?
When Dan negotiates with the text, he tends to have a memory lapse for passages that contradict his claims.
@@ldr540 it seems from other videos he takes the approach that "there is no God besides Yahweh" is figurative.
However, that is the exact same excuse that religious scholars say. They interpreted phrases like "God of gods" to be figurative.
It seems that Islam would be the utter and complete triumph of YahWeh.
I understand now. The Jews as a nation worshipped Yahweh. Jesus was a practicing Jew who also worshipped Yahweh, and the reason he quoted from the OT was because he was a Jew and knew the Torah, and was the reason his mission was to the Jewish people, right?. I can picture him on the cross yelling, “My God my God, why have you forsaken me?” He, like us all, worshipped his God Yahweh, and felt God was forsaking him upon his death.
Shoulda put his faith in Chemosh.
"the reason he quoted from the OT was because he was a Jew and knew the Torah"
More accurately, the reason he quotes the Septuagint is because the author would have considered themselves as a member of a sect of judaism and had Jesus quoting from the same scripture their sect was using.
Christianity doesn't even begin to distinguish itself from judaism until the late 2nd - early 3rd century CE. Peter, Paul, the gospel authors, the early church fathers, all jews.
The gospels were written anonymously but it's pretty clear from their content that they were written post 70 CE. So the authors never knew Jesus and the likelihood that anything in there was ever expressed in any form by a hypothetical Jesus is very low. I'd argue it's functionally zero.
"and was the reason his mission was to the Jewish people"
Since we can't say anything definitive about Jesus at all, we can't actually say what his mission was, assuming he had one at all. The Jesus character's mission in the gospels isn't really "to the jewish people" as the gospels and the characters in them are being written for members of the Jesus follower movement. While the Jesus followers would have considered themselves jews at the time, the gospels aren't for all jews, they are meant to teach new followers of the Jesus movement proper cultic practice, give them a useful way of memorizing various rhetorical strategies and further indoctrinate them into the cult.
"I can picture him on the cross yelling, “My God my God, why have you forsaken me?”
I mean, that's great and all but this likely never happened. Assuming there was a historical Jesus who really was executed in this fashion, he'd have been too out of it to say much of anything between the blood loss, skeletal trauma and the immense pressure hanging like that would have put on his torso and limbs. Best you would've gotten was a pained gurgling and wheezing sounds... assuming he didn't just black out from shock.
@@rainbowkrampus Good points, but now my head is spinning. Lol
How do you spell the pronunciation for YHWH? Is El-o-Ni or something else?
He’s saying Adonai. Adonai is one of God’s many different names in Judaism. He’s using as a substitution because pronouncing YHWH in Judaism is considered a taboo and he’s trying to be respectful to his Jewish audience
I have to unsubscribe if I ever want to get through my reading list, without you adding to it
Nothing like monotheism in the Bible indeed
Are there books for other. Embers of the Devine council b4 they morthed into angels?
and demons and saints.
Read about the Ugaritic religion, that's where a lot of it directly comes from.
To be fair, Isaiah 46.1 starts to hint that other gods are just man-made idols.
Just like Enlil was the God of Nippur in ancient Sumer.
Hi Dan. I've got a question for you. You wouldn't say that someone who believes in angels in addition to believing in YHWH is not really a monotheist, so why would you say that a New Testament author (such as Paul) who envisages the pagan gods as angels (or demons) is not really a monotheist? And come to think of it, how do you define the term "god," anyway? What makes a spirit a god?
Didnt King Josiah’s scribes radically change the scriptures to support monotheism, yet left the forms of “yahweh” as plural Elohim, indicating their changes?
Does the majestic plural exist in Hebrew? Is it separate from normal plural?
It does specific to Elohim. But when you see us, our, etc. those are conventially understood as actual plural distinctions, not majestic plurality. The references to the inheritances of the sons of God further reinforce this interpretation.
@@FilthyXylophone Ah, thank you 👍🖖
I can't get enough of these iterative processes. It's always in response to something and the tendency seems to be towards greater and greater levels of abstraction.
The god lives on the land. Something happens. So now the domain gets abstracted a level and the god has to be worshipped at the temple. Then something happens and another level of abstraction is imposed and the god becomes portable. So the concept of "domain" becomes this esoteric package of, frankly, nonsense. But it's referencing a thing which did previously make sense even though it has been removed from its context.
See the same thing with heaven. It was just outer space. The gods were up in the stars until we developed a sense of just how far away things were in space. Eventually things became so abstract that nobody today thinks of heaven as being outer space even though that's what the idea originally referenced.
I guess you'd call it etiology. But I'm less interested in the origin than in the way the abstraction occurs and what its consequences are.
My atheist ⚛️ Jewish friend told me this.
It am not Bizzaro.
That's okay, I can cover for you.
Where do the other gods help Yahweh?
In John 5:19 Who owns the honda? The different translations darken the water.
So did the other cultures just get conquered and thats why we don't hear about Asherah or Baal? 🤔 cuz they seem like cool gods to me lol
Could one accept Capitoline Jove (greatest and best) as one of these gods of which you speak?
Doubtful. Jove was of Rome, and this is written when they were not part of the Roman Empire. It was the gods of the area of the Levant they interacted with most.
The exile was far after the troyan war. Does your adonai still have to deal with gods of the heavens or oceans, like Ra or tiamat? Or primordials uranus/anu? Or you still have expeditive ancient methods?
Ive been saying this forever now.
so where does the idea of jewish monotheism come from? and why are US christians taught only one god from the beginning?
It started in Isaiah.
EL also known as the planet Saturn . That goes a long way towards explaining why the Hebrew god has qualities like anger, jealousy , demands worship like a narcissist and commands his people to "bash babies against rocks"
El/Elyon was considered to be kind and loving, but aloof. YHWH as a storm god, would have been warlike and temperamental. You see both of these profiles throughout the Hebrew texts.
@@LEgregius I'm just speaking of the planetary connection (as per Google) of El with Saturn and saying the traits displayed in the OT happen to line up with those (esotericly) of Saturn
@@4everseekingwisdom690 Which is 100% post-Biblical insertion on your part.
@@lysanamcmillan7972 lol thanks Dan I didn't realize you were so knowledgeable about esoterica..
@@lysanamcmillan7972 lol thanks Dan I didn't realize you were so knowledgeable about esoterica..
I'm not sure there's monotheism in the Christian Bible either. Unless they were still taking angels to mean simply messenger, wouldn't angels in the Bible be precisely what other religions considered lesser gods?
Yes, you could also argue that Christians believe in a god of the (under)world called Satan.
They just turned him into a fallen angel but they believe he has enormous power.
Messengers are not always gods, nor are immortal beings always such.
If there is no god, then this view could be right.
This is shocking to any one who hears it for the first time. The Bible was written by humans and we don't see the clear separation between the good guys and the bad guys. Islam finally fixed the narrative about the One God and creator.
Islam is no special than any other Abrahamic religion. The Qurʾan and the ʾAḥādīṯ are ultimately composed by mere human men.
Nonetheless, these religious scriptures are and should be considered as celebrations of Deity. They should not be held up in such high regard, especially when their specific religions condemn idolatry.
Islam has the same myths as Judaism and Christianity, which are based on *older* myths, including six day creation, Adam and Eve and Noah's flood. It all stems from the Sumerians through to the Canaanites.
---------------------------------------------------------
*The Enuma Elish would later be the inspiration for the Hebrew scribes who created the text now known as the biblical Book of Genesis.* Prior to the 19th century CE, the Bible was considered the oldest book in the world and its narratives were thought to be completely original. In the mid-19th century CE, however, European museums, as well as academic and religious institutions, sponsored excavations in Mesopotamia to find physical evidence for historical corroboration of the stories in the Bible. ***These excavations found quite the opposite, however, in that, once cuneiform was translated, it was understood that a number of biblical narratives were Mesopotamian in origin.***
*Famous stories such as the Fall of Man and the Great Flood were originally conceived and written down in Sumer,* translated and modified later in Babylon, and reworked by the Assyrians ***before they were used by the Hebrew scribes for the versions which appear in the Bible.***
***In revising the Mesopotamian creation story for their own ends, the Hebrew scribes tightened the narrative and the focus but retained the concept of the all-powerful deity who brings order from chaos.*** Marduk, in the Enuma Elish, establishes the recognizable order of the world - *just as God does in the Genesis tale* - and human beings are expected to recognize this great gift and honor the deity through service.
*"Enuma Elish - The Babylonian Epic of Creation - Full Text - World History Encyclopedia"*
*"Sumerian Is the World's Oldest Written Language | ProLingo"*
*"Sumerian Civilization: Inventing the Future - World History Encyclopedia"*
*"The Myth of Adapa - World History Encyclopedia"*
Also discussed by Professor Christine Hayes at Yale University in her 1st lecture of the series on the Hebrew Bible from 8:45 to 14:30 minutes, lecture 3 from 28:30 to 41:35 minutes, lecture 4 from 0:00 up to 21:30 minutes and 24:00 up to 35:30 minutes and lecture 7 from 24:20 to 25:10 minutes.
From a Biblical scholar:
"Many stories in the ancient world have their origins in other stories and were borrowed and modified from other or earlier peoples. *For instance, many of the stories now preserved in the Bible are* ***modified*** *versions of stories that existed in the cultures and traditions of Israel’s* ***older*** *contemporaries.* Stories about the creation of the universe, a cataclysmic universal flood, digging wells as land markers, the naming of important cultic sites, gods giving laws to their people, and even stories about gods decreeing the possession of land to their people were all part of the cultural and literary matrix of the ancient Near East. *Biblical scribes freely* ***adopted and modified*** *these stories as a means to express their own identity, origins, and customs."*
*"Stories from the Bible"* by Dr Steven DiMattei, from his website *"Biblical Contradictions"*
------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition, look up the below articles.
*"Jews and* ***Arabs*** *Descended from Canaanites - Biblical Archaeology Society."*
("The study in Cell not only establishes that the ancient Israelites were ***descended from the Canaanites,*** but also establishes that the Canaanite people across the separate city-states of the southern Levant, and over a period of 1,500 years, were a genetically cohesive people.")
*"The Canaanites weren't annihilated, they just 'moved' to Lebanon - The Times of Israel."*
(A UK-based study of ancient genomes finds ***Canaanites form over 90% of modern Lebanese ancestry, a trait they share with ancient Israelites)***
*"Ugarit - The Birthplace Of The Western Alphabet"* - Arab America
*"Ugarit - New World Encyclopedia"*
(Ugaritic religion centered on the chief god, Ilu or El, whose titles included "Father of mankind" and "Creator of the creation." The Court of El was referred to as the (plural) 'lhm or ***Elohim,*** a word ***later used by the biblical writers to describe the Hebrew deity*** and translated into English as "God," in the singular.
El, which was ***also the name of the God of Abraham,*** was described as an aged deity with white hair, seated on a throne.)
*"Canaanite Religion - New World Encyclopaedia."*
(Read about Canaanite religion and El the chief or most high god of the Canaanite pantheon and the relationship of Canaanite religion to Israelite religion)
*"In spite of their differences, Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God - The Conversation"*
*"6 Ways The Quran Has A Lot In Common With The Bible - All That's Interesting"*
*"The Bible and Qur’an Are Very Similar Books | Griffin"*
*"Walking by Moonlight: My Journey Out of Islam - The Ex-Muslim"*
*"Why Islam is False - Atheist Republic"*
*"Rebuttal to Shabir Ally : Its True! The Quran Borrowed Stories From Preexisting Sources"*
*"Scientific Errors in the Quran - WikiIslam"*
@@Dice_roller Wrong. Just read the Quran. You think it is just the same story but it is different in details. The Bible was redacted many times and human thinking introduced many times. Hadiths have some corruptions but not the Quran.
@@LM-jz9vh Not true. The flood did happen not exactly as described in the Bible. Many true stories get mythicised later on especially those before writing like the flood. To say that because there myths floating around , it did not happen is non sense.
@@munbruk The Qurʾan often says that Yahwe/Allāh created the universe in six days, as in common lore among the Abrahamic religions, such as in chapter seven verse fifty-four, chapter ten verse three, and chapter twenty-five verse twenty-nine. But in chapter forty-one verse nine and verse twelve, it is stated that he created the earth in two days and the seven heavens in similar time; in the tenth verse of the chapter it states that he spent four days for nourishment. If you do the math there, it adds up to eight days instead of six. That's a contradiction, hence a "corruption."
Holding the Qurʾan so highly in regard is idolatry, of which is a sin in Islam. I stand by what I've said.
According to the general consensus of scholarship *(even critical Christian scholars),* YHWH was originally incorporated into the Canaanite pantheon as a son of the Canaanite high god El before inheriting the top spot in the pantheon and El's wife Athirat (Asherah) before religious reforms "divorced" them. El's pantheon in Ugarit (modern day Ras Shamra in Syria) is called the *Elohim,* literally the plural of El. Interestingly, the Biblical god is also referred to numerous times as Elohim. If you want to see if El is fictional, just read his mythology in the Ugaritic/Canaanite texts.
"The mysterious Ugaritic text Shachar and Shalim tells how (perhaps near the beginning of all things) *El* came to shores of the sea and saw two women who bobbed up and down. *El* was sexually aroused and took the two with him, killed a bird by throwing a staff at it, and roasted it over a fire. He asked the women to tell him when the bird was fully cooked, and to then address him either as husband or as father, for he would thenceforward behave to them as they called him. They saluted him as husband. He then lay with them, and they gave birth to Shachar ("Dawn") and Shalim ("Dusk"). Again *El* lay with his wives and the wives gave birth to "the gracious gods", "cleavers of the sea", "children of the sea". The names of these wives are not explicitly provided, but some confusing rubrics at the beginning of the account mention the goddess *Athirat (Asherah),* who is otherwise *El's* chief wife, and the goddess Raḥmayyu ("the one of the womb"), otherwise unknown."
*"First, a god named El predates the arrival of the Israelites into Syria-Palestine.* Biblical usage shows El was not just a generic noun, but often a proper name for Israel’s God (e.g., Gen 33:20: “El, the God of Israel”)."
"I should add here that it is very clear from the grammar that the noun nachalah in v. 9 should be translated “inheritance.” *Yahweh receives Israel as his “inheritance” (nachalah), just as the other sons of El received their nations as their inheritance (nachal, v. 8).* With this verb, especially in the Hiphil, the object is always what is being given as an inheritance. Thus, Israel is given to Yahweh as his inheritance. ((Here I’m indebted to Dan McClellan.)) It would make no sense for Elyon to give himself an inheritance. Moreover, as I’ve argued elsewhere, it is not just the Gentile nations that are divided up according to the number of the *sons of El.* It is all of humankind, i.e., “the sons of Adam.” This clearly includes Israel. And the sons of Adam are not divided up according to the number of the *sons of El,* plus one (i.e., plus Elyon). They are divided up, according to the text, *solely* according to the number of the *sons of El.* *Thus, that Yahweh receives Israel as his inheritance makes Yahweh one of the sons of El mentioned in v. 8. Any other construal of the text would constitute its rewriting.*
A Sumerian hymn speaks to the goddess: “Nanshe, your divine powers are not matched by any other divine powers.” *Does this mean that Nanshe was the high goddess, that there were no gods above her? No, it does not.* Nanshe was the daughter of Enki, the high god. *In Sumerian mythology, as with Ugaritic, Israelite, Babylonian, and others, in the ancient past, the high god (Enki, in this case) divided up the world and assigned his children certain domains.* Nanshe was given a limited domain (the modern Persian Gulf) and was tasked with maintaining social justice there. *This is exactly what we see in Deuteronomy 32 with Yahweh. Yahweh is given a limited domain (Israel) and is given authority over his people, to punish them, as well as to protect and defend them against foreign enemies.* That Yahweh, like Nanshe, is said to have incomparable divine power *does not* mean that he is not subordinate to the high god who gave him his domain. *It is also of note that Nanshe, like Baal, Yahweh, and so many other deities, evolved over time. Her domain increased, and she was promoted in the pantheon (although she never became the high goddess)."*
*"The Most Heiser: Yahweh and Elyon in Psalm 82 and Deuteronomy 32 - Religion at the Margins"* based on the *majority scholarly consensus.*
(Written by Thom Stark who is a Christian)
*"Michael Heiser: A Unique Species? - Religion at the Margins"*
(A second response to Michael Heiser)
*"Excerpt from “Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan” by John Day - Lehi's Library."*
*"The Table of Nations: The Geography of the World in Genesis 10"* - TheTorah.com
(Excluding the short narrative on Nimrod (vv. 8-12), *which appears to be a later addition,* Genesis 10 contains *70* names of nations or cities, a number that was symbolic of totality. Similarly, the descendants of Jacob were *70* in number (Gen 46:37; Exod 1:5), *as were the sons of the supreme Canaanite god El, with whom YHWH became equated.)*
*"Polytheism and Ancient Israel’s Canaanite Heritage. Part V | theyellowdart"*
(Of course, much of this [i.e., that Israel worshiped El and Asherah alongside YHWH] is really to be expected given that recent syntheses of the *archaeological, cultural, and literary data* pertaining to the emergence of the nation of Israel in the Levant *show that most of the people who would eventually compose this group were originally Canaanite. As the Hebrew Bible notes, the Hebrew language itself is a Canaanite language, literally the “lip of Canaan” (שְׂפַת כְּנַעַן; Is. **19:18**), and so it cannot often be distinguished by modern scholars from other Canaanite inscriptions on purely linguistic grounds.)*
*"Ugarit - New World Encyclopedia"*
(Ugaritic religion centered on the chief god, Ilu or El, whose titles included "Father of mankind" and "Creator of the creation." The Court of El was referred to as the (plural) 'lhm or ***Elohim,*** a word ***later used by the biblical writers to describe the Hebrew deity*** and translated into English as "God," in the singular.
El, which was ***also the name of the God of Abraham,*** was described as an aged deity with white hair, seated on a throne.)
*"Mark Smith: Yahweh as El’s Son & Yahweh’s Ascendency - Lehi's Library"*
(Mark Smith is a Catholic)
*"God, Gods, and Sons (and Daughters) of God in the Hebrew Bible. Part III | theyellowdart"*
*"02 | December | 2009 | Daniel O. McClellan - Psalm 82"*
(Daniel McClellan is a Mormon)
*"Elohim | Daniel O. McClellan"*
(Refer to the article "Angels and Demons (and Michael Heiser)")
*"God's Wife Edited Out of the Bible - Almost."*
(Pay attention to whose wife Asherah (Athirat) is in the Ugaritic/Canaanite texts and how she became the wife of YHWH/Yahweh)
*"Yahweh's Divorce from the Goddess Asherah in the Garden of Eden - Mythology Matters."*
*"Asherah, God's Wife in Ancient Israel. Part IV - theyellowdart"*
*"The Gates of Ishtar - El, was the original god of the bible."*
*"The Gates of Ishtar - Anath in the Elephantine Papyri"*
(In addition to Asherah (Athirat) being the consort of Yahweh, it appears some Israelites also viewed the Canaanite goddess Anat(h) as Yahweh's consort)
*"Canaanite Religion - New World Encyclopedia"*
(Refer to the section "Relationship to Biblical Religion")
*"The Syncretization of Yahweh and El : reddit/AcademicBiblical"*
(For a good summary of all of the above articles)
Watch Professor Christine Hayes who lectures on the Hebrew Bible at Yale University. Watch lecture 2 from 40:40 to 41:50 minutes, lecture 7 from 30:00 minutes onwards, lecture 8 from 12:00 to 17:30 minutes and lecture 12 from 34:30 minutes onwards.
Watch *"Pagan Origins of Judaism"* by Sigalius Myricantur and read the description in the video to see the scholarship the video is based on.
Watch *"How Monotheism Evolved"* by Sigalius Myricantur and watch up to at least 21:40.
Watch *"Atheism - A History of God (The Polytheistic Origins of Christianity and Judaism)"*
(By a former theist)
Watch *"The Origins of Yahweh"* by Derreck Bennett at Atheologica.
Nevertheless, the historical reconstruction that El was the chief god of the Israelites is not indebted only to the testimony of the (rather late) biblical witness of P. *Numerous biblical texts attest to the fact that the titles, functions, and the imagery associated with the Canaanite god El, as revealed by the Ugaritic texts and the Canaanite myth of Elkunirša, were assimilated into the profile of the deity YHWH.* According to the Ugaritic texts, El was known for his *wisdom* (e.g., KTU2 1.4.V.65[6]) and *great age* (’ab šnm, *“Father of Years,”* and drd, *“Ageless One,”* in KTU2 1.4.IV.24 and 1.10.III.6, respectively),[7] his *compassionate nature* (lţpn il dp’id, *“Kind El, the Compassionate One,”* e.g., KTU2 1.16.IV.9), his role as *father of the gods and humanity* (’ab ’adm, *“father of humanity,”* KTU2 1.14..III.47, and bny bnwt, *“creator of creatures,”* KTU2 1.17.I.24) and *creator of the cosmos.* [8] El was the *divine King* (e.g., KTU2 1.2.III.5-6) and the *head of the pantheon or divine council* (referred to variously as the dr ’il, *“circle of El/Family of El,”* KTU2 1.15.III.19; mpħrt bn ’il, *“the assembly of the sons of El,”* KTU2 1.65.3; bn ’il, *“the sons of El,”* KTU2 1.40.33, 41; pħr kbbm, *“assembly of the stars,”* KTU2 1.10.I.3-4; ‘dt ’ilm, *“assembly of the gods,”* KTU2 1.15.II.7; cf. KTU2 1.2.I; 1.3V; 1.4 IV-V) which met at the sacred mountain. *His consort was the goddess Athirat who bore him seventy sons* (šb‘m bn ’atrt, *“the seventy sons of Athirat,”* KTU2 1.4.VI.46). El was also known for his *divine patronage and blessing of progeny to humans* (as in the Epic of Kirta; see, for example, KTU2 1.14.III.46-51), for his *appearances to humans in dreams* (e.g., KTU2 1.14.I.35-37), as *being a healer* (KTU2 1.16.V-VI), and for his *dwelling at the sacred mountain* (e.g., KTU2 1.2.III.5-6) at the *sources of the mythical rivers* (KTU2 1.2.III.4; 1.3.V.6; 1.4.IV.20-22; 1.17.V.47-48) in a *tent* (KTU2 1.2.III.5; 1.3.V.8; 1.4.IV.24; 1.17.V.49; c.f. the Canaanite myth Elkunirša which *describes El’s abode as a tent[9]).[10]*
*To underscore the fact that terminology and imagery originally used for the god El was adopted by the Israelites in their descriptions of YHWH,* the following brief summary might be placed in comparison to the discussion of El above: YHWH is an *aged, patriarchal deity* (Ps. 102:28; Job 36:26; Is. 40:28; Dan. 7.9-14, 22), *a father* (Deut. 32:6; Is. 63:16; 64:7; Jer. 3:4, 19; 31:9, etc.), *merciful and gracious* (Ex. 34:6; Jon. 4:2; Joel 2:13; Ps. 8615; 103:8; 145:8, etc.), *a divine patron who bestows the blessing of progeny upon Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,* often manifesting himself in *dreams or visions, a healer* (Gen. 20:17; Num. 12:13; 2 Kgs. 20:5, 8; Ps. 107:20, etc.), who *dwells in a tent* (Ps. 15:1; 27:6; 91:10; 132:3) *amidst the heavenly waters* (Ps. 47:5; 87; Is. 33: 20-22; Ez. 47:1-12, etc.), the *creator of the cosmos,* who is enthroned as *heavenly King* in the *divine council* (1 Kgs. 22:19; Is. 6:1-8; cf. Ps. 29:1-2; 82; 89: 5-8, etc.) on the *sacred mount of assembly* (e.g., Is. 14:13). Additionally, in much Israelite religious practice throughout the monarchic period, *YHWH had a divine consort, the goddess Asherah, the Hebrew equivalent of Ugaritic Athirat.[11]* (Originally the wife of El)
*"When Jehovah Was Not the God of the Old Testament. Part II - theyellowdart"*
Watch Professor Christine Hayes who lectures on the Hebrew Bible at Yale University. Watch lecture 2 from 40:40 to 41:50 minutes, lecture 7 from 30:00 minutes onwards, lecture 8 from 12:00 to 17:30 minutes and lecture 12 from 34:30 minutes onwards.
Watch *"Pagan Origins of Judaism"* by Sigalius Myricantur and read the description in the video to see the scholarship the video is based on.
Watch *"How Monotheism Evolved"* by Sigalius Myricantur and watch up to at least 21:40.
------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition, look up the below articles.
*"Jews and Arabs Descended from Canaanites - Biblical Archaeology Society."*
("The study in Cell not only establishes that the ancient Israelites were ***descended from the Canaanites,*** but also establishes that the Canaanite people across the separate city-states of the southern Levant, and over a period of 1,500 years, were a genetically cohesive people.")
*"The Canaanites weren't annihilated, they just 'moved' to Lebanon - The Times of Israel."*
*"Ancient Canaanite religion explained* - everything.explained.today"
*"Archeology of the Hebrew Bible - NOVA - PBS"*
("Many scholars now think that *most of the early Israelites were originally Canaanites, displaced Canaanites,* displaced from the lowlands, from the river valleys, displaced geographically and then displaced ideologically.")
*"Origins of Judaism explained* - everything.explained.today"
("According to the current academic historical view, the origins of Judaism lie in the Bronze Age amidst polytheistic ancient Semitic religions, ***specifically evolving out of Ancient Canaanite polytheism,*** then co-existing with Babylonian religion, and syncretizing elements of Babylonian belief into the worship of Yahweh as reflected in the early prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible. (The Torah)".
*Refer to the bibliography at the bottom of the page)*
*"Canaanite languages - Britannica"*
("Group of Northern Central or Northwestern Semitic languages including ***Hebrew,*** Moabite, Phoenician, and Punic.")
*"El - New World Encyclopedia"*
(Refer to the section "El Outside the Bible" and the fact that *most of the early Israelites were originally indigenous or displaced Canaanites)*
*"El (deity) explained* - everything.explained.today"
(Refer to section "Ugarit and the Levant" and the fact that *most of the ancient Israelites were originally indigenous or displaced Canaanites* and see how Yahweh, later conflated with El (Yahweh-El(ohim)) is fictional)
*"The Gods and Goddesses of Canaan - Essay - The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History"*
*"Canaanite Phoenician Origin of the God of the Israelites."*
*"The Phoenician (Canaanite) God Resheph in the Bible - Is That in the Bible?"*
*"How the Jews Invented God and Made Him Great- Archaeology - Haaretz."*
*"When the Jews believed in other gods - Archaeology - Haaretz"*
*"The Invention of God - Maclean's"*
*"How Did the Bible’s Editors Conceal Evidence of Israelite Polytheism - Evolution of God by Robert Wright."*
*"A Theologically Revised Text: Deuteronomy 32:8-9 - Ancient Hebrew Poetry."*
*"Biblical Contradiction #3: Which God is the Creator of the Heavens and Earth: Yahweh or El?"* - Dr Steven DiMattei
*"Biblical Contradiction #27. Are Yahweh and El the Same God or Not?"* - Dr Steven DiMattei
*"Biblical Contradiction **#294**, **#295**, **#296**. Which god liberated Israel from Egypt: Yahweh or El?"* - Dr Steven DiMattei
*"Quartz Hill School of Theology - B425 Ugarit and the Bible."*
*"The Origins of Yahweh and the Revived Kenite Hypothesis - Is That in the Bible?"*
*"Yahweh, god of metallurgy - Fewer Lacunae."*
*"Polytheistic Roots of Israelite Religion - Fewer Lacunae."*
*"Yahweh was just an ancient Canaanite god. We have been deceived! - Escaping Christian Fundamentalism"*
*"Religious Studies: El, Yahweh and the Development of Monotheism in Ancient Israel."*
*"Yhwh, God of Edom - Daniel O. McClellan."*
Dr. McClellan, my wife and I have been watching your videos for awhile now, and she -- being Jewish -- sees a lot of your content as similar to what Dr. Sledge presents on _Esoterica_ . I can see that, too, to an extent: you cover more distinctly Biblical subjects, while Esoterica covers a wider variety of subjects dealing with . . . for lack of a better term, _esoteric_ stuff.
Have the two of you ever done a collaboration or anything similar? I ask because in 40 years of marriage, I've come to see Judaism from as close as I might get to an authentically insider's view. And from what I've seen, your take is more authentically Jewish than any Biblical scholar who isn't Jewish!
A collab would be great, I agree ! 👍🏼✨
They did a stream together not too long ago where they discussed the concepts of monotheism and polytheism. ua-cam.com/video/1R0bxMbWMCI/v-deo.html
I would like to see Sam Shamoun debate this guy
He has no scholar background, he's just yet another apologist that will lie and misrepresent
@@xiuhcoatl4830😂 Dan stands no chance
@@Emilio-np4dk With a yelling guy with no academic background? that's the meme of playing chess with a pigeon...
@@xiuhcoatl4830 cry harder heretic
But if YHWH had to “rise up”… wouldn’t this mean he was previously seated?
"This is a very strained argument. *First, there is no question that Yahweh is standing at the beginning of the psalm, and there is no question that this is the posture of the prosecutor, not of the presider.* But because Yahweh is later called upon to “arise, judge the earth,” Heiser thinks this means that Yahweh has been seated as the presider-despite the fact that he was standing earlier. Two things to say in response: first, “arise, judge the earth,” does not at all necessarily imply that Yahweh was seated at that time. It could just mean, “Rise up to battle,” “Rise up to the challenge.” Second, Yahweh had finished speaking at this point. Could he not have sat down? Heiser’s argument is the one that entails the contradiction: *Yahweh was standing at the beginning; and this is not the posture of the high god who presides over the council.* Moreover, it is clear that Yahweh is standing *“in the midst of the gods.”* He is not presiding over the gods. He is one of them."
*"The Most Heiser: Yahweh and Elyon in Psalm 82 and Deuteronomy 32 - Religion at the Margins"* based on the *majority scholarly consensus.*
(Written by Thom Stark who is a Christian)
*"Michael Heiser: A Unique Species? - Religion at the Margins"*
(A second response to Michael Heiser)
@@LM-jz9vh Technically, YHWH doesn’t appear in the psalm at all. At least not by name. It’s El who is standing at the beginning of the Psalm. Also, the word used for “stands” Has the same meaning of presiding or stationing ones self. Not necessarily standing on 2 feet. The one presiding over the council, and judging the gods, is typically meant for the judge who is seated among the council…
Yahweh took els place AND his wife 😂
Stole his own dad’s wife. He’s a wild man.
@@thescoobymike Technically Asherah was his mother as well!
There is no monotheism in the entire christianity
Angels, divine beings are indeed gods(higher beings). Humans even are called such, but are not the supreme the being.
The word is "monolatry": lotsa gods, but back just the one. Monolatry arises naturally when priests of one god's cult get military backing to suppress the others. It was unstable, so uncommon, until Judaism turned, and then spawned a sect that got the backing of the whole Roman Empire. Now people imagine it's normal, not as it is deeply peculiar.
There were at or over 70 gods.
A god over every nation. There were 70 nations originally. You are so right.
Yes.
*"This historical reconstruction [that El was originally Israel’s chief deity, and YHWH was originally his son and the patron deity of Israel], in turn, helps to make sense of certain biblical texts which seem to indicate most naturally that El was originally the chief god of Israel and that YHWH was the patron deity of Israel.* For example, Deuteronomy 32:8-9 reads:
When the Most High apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the sons of Israel. For YHWH’s portion, his people; Jacob, his allotted share.
בְּהַנְחֵל עֶלְיוֹן גּוֹיִם בְּהַפְרִידוֹ בְּנֵי אָדָם יַצֵּב גְּבֻלֹת עַמִּים לְמִסְפַּר בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ כִּי חֵלֶק יְהֹוָה עַמּוֹ יַעֲקֹב חֶבֶל נַחֲלָתֽוֹ
*The Masoretic Text has “sons of Israel.” However, the Septuagint and the manuscript 4QDeut from the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as several other ancient versions and witnesses, support the alternate reading of “sons of god/gods.”[1] The Masoretic Text thus appears to be a later revision adopted in order to change what was probably seen by an ancient scribe as a reference to the existence of other (real) gods.* The text most naturally seems to indicate, therefore, that the god referred to as עֶלְיוֹן, “the Most High” (c.f. the title El-Elyon, “El, the Most High [god],” in Gen. 14:18-19, 22), divided the nations of the earth and appointed a national deity for each one, and in the case of Israel this national deity was YHWH. *This is additionally compelling because from KTU2 1.4.VI.46 we learn that El and Athirat (i.e., Asherah), the consort of El, had seventy divine sons, and in the table of nations in Genesis 10 we learn that the ancient Israelites perceived the earth as divided among exactly seventy nations. Why is this important? Because, as we saw in Deuteronomy 32:8-9, the nations of the earth are divided among the sons of god/gods, each of whom is given their own dominion or stewardship (c.f. Ps. 82).* *Later* Jewish tradition also asserted that there were *seventy* nations in the world, and other later texts confirm that there were *seventy* guardian angels that watched over them (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Deut. 32:8-9; 1 En. 89:59-77; 90:22-27). *This later Jewish tradition is clearly dependent on these earlier notions found in Genesis 10 and Deuteronomy 32:8-9 concerning the number of the nations and the sons of god/gods appointed over them.* Thus, by combining the information gleaned from these two biblical texts, it is further made clear that the writings of these Israelite texts were familiar with *older* traditions associated with the texts discovered at ancient Ugarit.
There are two other texts in this vein of tradition that deserve mention here as well, namely Psalm 82 and Deuteronomy 33:26-27. *Psalm 82 recounts how Israel’s god (YHWH?) rose to prominence in the divine council. Verses 1-4, 6-8 read:*
God stands in the divine council [lit. assembly of El/god]; in the midst of the gods he judges. How long will you judge unjustly, and favor the wicked? Judge the poor and fatherless, and do justice to the disadvantaged and destitute! Deliver the poor and needy, rescue (them) from the power of the wicked! …I thought, “You are gods, all of you sons of Elyon/the Highest.” However, like a man you will die, and like one of the princes you will fall. Arise, o god, judge the earth! For you will inherit all the nations.
אֱֽלֹהִ֗ים נִצָּ֥ב בַּעֲדַת־אֵ֑ל בְּקֶ֖רֶב אֱלֹהִ֣ים יִשְׁפֹּֽט׃ עַד־מָתַ֥י תִּשְׁפְּטוּ־עָ֑וֶל וּפְנֵ֥י רְ֜שָׁעִ֗ים תִּשְׂאוּ־סֶֽלָה׃ שִׁפְטוּ־דַ֥ל וְיָת֑וֹם עָנִ֖י וָרָ֣שׁ הַצְדִּֽיקוּ׃ פַּלְּטוּ־דַ֥ל וְאֶבְי֑וֹן מִיַּ֖ד רְשָׁעִ֣ים הַצִּֽילו. . . אֲֽנִי־אָ֭מַרְתִּי אֱלֹהִ֣ים אַתֶּ֑ם וּבְנֵ֖י עֶלְי֣וֹן כֻּלְּכֶֽם אָ֭כֵן כְּאָדָ֣ם תְּמוּת֑וּן וּכְאַחַ֖ד הַשָּׂרִ֣ים תִּפֹּֽלוּ׃ קוּמָ֣ה אֱ֭לֹהִים שָׁפְטָ֣ה הָאָ֑רֶץ כִּֽי־אַתָּ֥ה תִ֜נְחַ֗ל בְּכָל־הַגּוֹיִֽם
*Here we see the god of Israel in the divine council setting. The gods of the other nations (c.f. Deut. 32:8-9 discussed above) are condemned to the underworld for having improperly fulfilled their stewardship over the nations by judging unjustly. The final verse then requests Israel’s god to take possession of each of these nations.* ***What is further significant about this passage is that it describes these gods as “sons of Elyon/the Highest,” which appears as a title of El in Genesis 14:18-20.*** *It seems quite possible, therefore, that at the earliest stage of this poem’s composition YHWH was seen not as the chief god of the pantheon, but rather as a son of (El) Elyon (as in Deut. 32:8-9), who originally possessed only Israel but was then granted responsibility over all nations.[2]*
*"God, Gods, and Sons (and Daughters) of God in the Hebrew Bible. Part III | theyellowdart"*
I dont deny that in the Bible there are traces of an ancient polytheism. But to say that in the Jewish Bible there is no concept of monotheism seems to me quite absurd:
Isaiah 45:5: "I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me."
Jeremiah 10:10: "But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation."
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 43:27: "In him is the power of the Almighty, and the Lord is one."
Baruch 6:4: "I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me."
I recommend reading the below articles.
*"The Most Heiser: Yahweh and Elyon in Psalm 82 and Deuteronomy 32 - Religion at the Margins"* based on the *majority scholarly consensus.*
(Written by Thom Stark who is a Christian)
*"Michael Heiser: A Unique Species? - Religion at the Margins"*
(A second response to Michael Heiser)
@@epicofatrahasis3775 I found the article. I will read it carefully when I have time and I will answer you
@mattia9713 As Thom Stark explains, most of those comments are imperial rhetoric.
Yahweh didn't start out as "God of the universe". He evolved over time to become that.
---------------------------------------------------------
Nevertheless, the historical reconstruction that El was the chief god of the Israelites is not indebted only to the testimony of the (rather late) biblical witness of P. *Numerous biblical texts attest to the fact that the titles, functions, and the imagery associated with the Canaanite god El, as revealed by the Ugaritic texts and the Canaanite myth of Elkunirša, were assimilated into the profile of the deity YHWH.* According to the Ugaritic texts, El was known for his *wisdom* (e.g., KTU2 1.4.V.65[6]) and *great age* (’ab šnm, *“Father of Years,”* and drd, *“Ageless One,”* in KTU2 1.4.IV.24 and 1.10.III.6, respectively),[7] his *compassionate nature* (lţpn il dp’id, *“Kind El, the Compassionate One,”* e.g., KTU2 1.16.IV.9), his role as *father of the gods and humanity* (’ab ’adm, *“father of humanity,”* KTU2 1.14..III.47, and bny bnwt, *“creator of creatures,”* KTU2 1.17.I.24) and *creator of the cosmos.* [8] El was the *divine King* (e.g., KTU2 1.2.III.5-6) and the *head of the pantheon or divine council* (referred to variously as the dr ’il, *“circle of El/Family of El,”* KTU2 1.15.III.19; mpħrt bn ’il, *“the assembly of the sons of El,”* KTU2 1.65.3; bn ’il, *“the sons of El,”* KTU2 1.40.33, 41; pħr kbbm, *“assembly of the stars,”* KTU2 1.10.I.3-4; ‘dt ’ilm, *“assembly of the gods,”* KTU2 1.15.II.7; cf. KTU2 1.2.I; 1.3V; 1.4 IV-V) which met at the sacred mountain. *His consort was the goddess Athirat who bore him seventy sons* (šb‘m bn ’atrt, *“the seventy sons of Athirat,”* KTU2 1.4.VI.46). El was also known for his *divine patronage and blessing of progeny to humans* (as in the Epic of Kirta; see, for example, KTU2 1.14.III.46-51), for his *appearances to humans in dreams* (e.g., KTU2 1.14.I.35-37), as *being a healer* (KTU2 1.16.V-VI), and for his *dwelling at the sacred mountain* (e.g., KTU2 1.2.III.5-6) at the *sources of the mythical rivers* (KTU2 1.2.III.4; 1.3.V.6; 1.4.IV.20-22; 1.17.V.47-48) in a *tent* (KTU2 1.2.III.5; 1.3.V.8; 1.4.IV.24; 1.17.V.49; c.f. the Canaanite myth Elkunirša which *describes El’s abode as a tent[9]).[10]*
*To underscore the fact that terminology and imagery originally used for the god El was adopted by the Israelites in their descriptions of YHWH,* the following brief summary might be placed in comparison to the discussion of El above: YHWH is an *aged, patriarchal deity* (Ps. 102:28; Job 36:26; Is. 40:28; Dan. 7.9-14, 22), *a father* (Deut. 32:6; Is. 63:16; 64:7; Jer. 3:4, 19; 31:9, etc.), *merciful and gracious* (Ex. 34:6; Jon. 4:2; Joel 2:13; Ps. 8615; 103:8; 145:8, etc.), *a divine patron who bestows the blessing of progeny upon Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,* often manifesting himself in *dreams or visions, a healer* (Gen. 20:17; Num. 12:13; 2 Kgs. 20:5, 8; Ps. 107:20, etc.), who *dwells in a tent* (Ps. 15:1; 27:6; 91:10; 132:3) *amidst the heavenly waters* (Ps. 47:5; 87; Is. 33: 20-22; Ez. 47:1-12, etc.), the *creator of the cosmos,* who is enthroned as *heavenly King* in the *divine council* (1 Kgs. 22:19; Is. 6:1-8; cf. Ps. 29:1-2; 82; 89: 5-8, etc.) on the *sacred mount of assembly* (e.g., Is. 14:13). Additionally, in much Israelite religious practice throughout the monarchic period, *YHWH had a divine consort, the goddess Asherah, the Hebrew equivalent of Ugaritic Athirat.[11]* (Originally the wife of El)
*"When Jehovah Was Not the God of the Old Testament. Part II - theyellowdart"*
Watch Professor Christine Hayes who lectures on the Hebrew Bible at Yale University. Watch lecture 2 from 40:40 to 41:50 minutes, lecture 7 from 30:00 minutes onwards, lecture 8 from 12:00 to 17:30 minutes and lecture 12 from 34:30 minutes onwards.
Watch *"Pagan Origins of Judaism"* by Sigalius Myricantur and read the description in the video to see the scholarship the video is based on.
Watch *"How Monotheism Evolved"* by Sigalius Myricantur and watch up to at least 21:40.
------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition, look up the below articles.
*"Jews and Arabs Descended from Canaanites - Biblical Archaeology Society."*
("The study in Cell not only establishes that the ancient Israelites were ***descended from the Canaanites,*** but also establishes that the Canaanite people across the separate city-states of the southern Levant, and over a period of 1,500 years, were a genetically cohesive people.")
*"The Canaanites weren't annihilated, they just 'moved' to Lebanon - The Times of Israel."*
*"Ancient Canaanite religion explained* - everything.explained.today"
*"Archeology of the Hebrew Bible - NOVA - PBS"*
("Many scholars now think that *most of the early Israelites were originally Canaanites, displaced Canaanites,* displaced from the lowlands, from the river valleys, displaced geographically and then displaced ideologically.")
*"Origins of Judaism explained* - everything.explained.today"
("According to the current academic historical view, the origins of Judaism lie in the Bronze Age amidst polytheistic ancient Semitic religions, ***specifically evolving out of Ancient Canaanite polytheism,*** then co-existing with Babylonian religion, and syncretizing elements of Babylonian belief into the worship of Yahweh as reflected in the early prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible. (The Torah)".
*Refer to the bibliography at the bottom of the page)*
*"Canaanite languages - Britannica"*
("Group of Northern Central or Northwestern Semitic languages including ***Hebrew,*** Moabite, Phoenician, and Punic.")
*"El - New World Encyclopedia"*
(Refer to the section "El Outside the Bible" and the fact that *most of the early Israelites were originally indigenous or displaced Canaanites)*
*"El (deity) explained* - everything.explained.today"
(Refer to section "Ugarit and the Levant" and the fact that *most of the ancient Israelites were originally indigenous or displaced Canaanites* and see how Yahweh, later conflated with El (Yahweh-El(ohim)) is fictional)
*"The Gods and Goddesses of Canaan - Essay - The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History"*
*"Canaanite Phoenician Origin of the God of the Israelites."*
*"The Phoenician (Canaanite) God Resheph in the Bible - Is That in the Bible?"*
*"How the Jews Invented God and Made Him Great- Archaeology - Haaretz."*
*"When the Jews believed in other gods - Archaeology - Haaretz"*
*"The Invention of God - Maclean's"*
*"How Did the Bible’s Editors Conceal Evidence of Israelite Polytheism - Evolution of God by Robert Wright."*
*"A Theologically Revised Text: Deuteronomy 32:8-9 - Ancient Hebrew Poetry."*
*"Biblical Contradiction #3: Which God is the Creator of the Heavens and Earth: Yahweh or El?"* - Dr Steven DiMattei
*"Biblical Contradiction #27. Are Yahweh and El the Same God or Not?"* - Dr Steven DiMattei
*"Biblical Contradiction **#294**, **#295**, **#296**. Which god liberated Israel from Egypt: Yahweh or El?"* - Dr Steven DiMattei
*"Quartz Hill School of Theology - B425 Ugarit and the Bible."*
*"The Origins of Yahweh and the Revived Kenite Hypothesis - Is That in the Bible?"*
*"Yahweh, god of metallurgy - Fewer Lacunae."*
*"Polytheistic Roots of Israelite Religion - Fewer Lacunae."*
*"Yahweh was just an ancient Canaanite god. We have been deceived! - Escaping Christian Fundamentalism"*
*"Religious Studies: El, Yahweh and the Development of Monotheism in Ancient Israel."*
*"Yhwh, God of Edom - Daniel O. McClellan."*
You seem to miss the point. Look at each verse you noted, and see what’s the underlying “tone”. The writers were clearly trying to assert their god as the supreme god, therefore showing clearly that in the minds of others there were these other gods. These verses would be unnecessary if there were monotheism.
@@Jake-zc3fk That doesn’t suggest that there were other gods in the traditional sense. The Bible tries to make that clear because we have a tendency to worship other things that are not even gods, which is idolatry.
One word: Shema.
4:34 If the author deines the divinity of a god, but lowers them to an angle or a loyal servant in the army of God, then that is monotheism. Monotheism doesn't mean you cannot acknowledge that the sun and moon exist, it just means you believe that only one God exists, and Deutro-Isaiah does that.
Henotheism or Monoltry would probablay best describe the ancient Israelites view on diety......
What or who created the council? Seems like you are shifting but not solving for the one true creator
The Bible says let “us” which means there has to be more than one. But as men wrote the Bible, they made up so much magical stuff……
@@Ex_christian father, son and holy ghost. Us... Makes perfect sense
@@bernardosanchez3702 makes perfect sense in mythology! Makes absolutely zero sense in the real world. That’s why religion takes faith. You need to make believe your gods are real. All myth and nonsense!
@@Ex_christian It’s not mythology when it makes more sense for God to exist than not.
@@itninvestigate it IS Mythology! It doesn’t make sense to have gods! Otherwise which crappy god do you believe in? You worship the biblical Malevolent war god of Abraham who committed Genocide, allows Murder, Rape, Incest, etc., all in his name?
Yeah there is a reason why the catholics took the idolatry commandment out.
They did no such thing. This is anti-Catholic bigotry, not valid data.
they added coveting your neighbors wife.
Oh, AND, I think all religious people are idolaters.
Yeshiva is one of these Ben Elohim and will save all those whom have a pure heart or request one with full intent. The names, actions and understanding of men's dealings with all these ben Elohim is what we have with all the religions, including the Jewish one. Yeshiva is either "one with" as close as a human can be with or "is" ben Elohim and is our future and our salvation as a human race. Why? because the sheep will know the shepherd. Regardless of if one believes this or not one forms a pinnacle in their beliefs, Christians are simply stating that Yeshiva is that pinnacle regardless of our limited understanding of such. Babies can't always say....their parents name and don't know their occupation or even where they came from but...still know their father as their father and their mother as their mother. This is Yeshiva's father teaching...pretty refreshing if you ask me. Babies can't read and would never hold a book above their relationship with their parents as well....cuz that would be an idol.
I disagree. 2nd Isaiah does assume the existence of other divinities, but it only refers to YHWH as "god". While this is more of a rhetorical move than a theological one, the assertion that only one being can properly be called a "god" should be considered monotheism.
BAHAHAHAHAHAAA!! Such mental gymnastics!
That's a fallacy of equivocation.
Referring to a deity as "god" is not the same thing as saying that only one can be called "a god". The former usage is a title, the latter usage is a category. The fact that a person only calls one deity "god" does not deny the validity of other gods as being real gods. It simply means that they're not that person's god.
There is no "god" in Hebrew. There are only Gods, Hebrew makes no distinction between God and god. And monotheism denies the existence of other divine beings, which is not part of the Hebrew Bible. Even the Nt admits the existence of other Gods
So you are saying that within the Jewish ranks, they were monotheistic? That’s true, but if the surrounding nations believed in only their one god, that would make them monotheistic also.
This is fun! I like discussing this.
@@nerfzombie6242you need to be more respectful. This person came to discuss something in good faith. Your attack on him is juvenile and unkind.
I've read some of this same research and I still can't get past the fact that so much of the Pentateuch focuses on the uniqueness of Israel's God and a rejection of the polytheism and practices of other surrounding nations.
@@imusmoedegrasse Everyone is biased. What's your point? My point is that the Pentateuch evinces a clear rejection of the gods and mythologies of the ANE to the worship of YHWH as the one God. In my view, this historical reconstruction is largely based on questionable assumptions derived from source criticism. Also, there seems to be an underlying assumption that the history of ideas, including religious ideas, is a process of linear evolution, which is doubtful.
The Hebrew bible was written by the people who worshipped Yhwh. The people who worshipped another god also wrote similar books; they just did not get passed down. The happenstance that the Hebrew bible survived and the Moabite bible didn't is just that - happenstance.
Maybe, but it's not calling upon those other people to abandon their practices in favour of YHWH, only forbidding it to Israelites or Judahites. Therefore definitely not monotheism.
@@phillipstrickland2251everyone was denigrating each others’ gods back then, we have texts proving it, it’s just that we don’t have as complete of religious literature for anyone else as we do the Hebrews
What you are missing Phillips is the various literary strata of the Hebrew Bible. So yes there are parts of the Hebrew Bible that do argue what you claim, but they are from later periods. The earlier, pre-deuteronomistic literature supposes polytheism in that different Canaanite gods were merged into YHWH later on. Deut. 32.6-9 is an example of this.
Syria or Assyria? Not the same thing.
Syria. Naaman was a general of the king of Aram, whose kingdom was centred in Damascus, which would have been been understood as part of "Syria" by ancient Greek reckoning of the time (and our own). Parts of Syria were held by the Assyrian Empire at various points during this period, which is probably how it came by its Greek and thus modern Western name, but the Assyrian homelands and centre of their polity were farther east, centred on Nineveh.
@@digitaljanus wasn’t this before the Greek empire though? It was probably not called Syria then was it?
@@MrTonyJ No, Naaman was from Aram, which was in the region we now know as Syria. I assume Dan referred to it as "Syria" so the majority of his audience could picture the location Naaman was bringing Israel's soil to in relation to Israel's location. Greek cultural presence in the eastern Mediterranean was consistent since the middle of the Bronze Age (e.g. the Minoans ~2000 BCE), and Archaic Age Greeks (ca. 800-480 BCE) traded and settled widely across the Mediterranean, giving Greek names to these places well before Macedonia placed them under Hellenic domination in the late 4th century BCE. Because our civilization sees itself as the cultural inheritor of the Greeks, theirs are the place names that tend to fall into our common usage.
@@digitaljanusSmashing explanation!
@@digitaljanus that makes sense. Thanks.