Posts: 560
Threads: 36
Joined: January 16, 2014
Reputation:
12
History of Yahweh
March 13, 2014 at 9:47 am
(This post was last modified: March 13, 2014 at 9:47 am by ThePinsir.)
From what I understand, based on a bare minimum of internet "research", Yahweh was just one god out of a fairly large pantheon of the ancient Canaanites - and a war god at that. For some reason or another, after his cult became the state religion of Israel, the people arbitrarily switched him from "war god" to "creator of the universe". I'm interested in why and how that happened.
Also, who/what is the god "El"? It seems that he was Yahweh's boss, the head of the pantheon. Eventually they just kinda became the same person? Or something like that? Can any of you clear this up?
Does that sound about right (if only a vast oversimplification)? Are there any books or documentaries you guys are aware of that detail the history of Yahweh/the ancient Canaanite religion(s)? Basically, I'm trying to figure out more that just what wikipedia has to offer 
Posts: 33179
Threads: 1414
Joined: March 15, 2013
Reputation:
152
RE: History of Yahweh
March 13, 2014 at 10:20 am
(March 13, 2014 at 9:47 am)ThePinsir Wrote: the people arbitrarily switched him from "war god" to "creator of the universe". I'm interested in why and how that happened.
I imagine that we set the gods we create on a path of evolution that matches our own evolution through life. When our ideals begin to change with an advancing age, we change the gods to keep up with us. That is why most ancient gods eventually fall into myth and new gods are created, because the old gods are too unchanging to keep up with us in the long run.
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
~ Erin Hunter
Posts: 9176
Threads: 76
Joined: November 21, 2013
Reputation:
40
RE: History of Yahweh
March 13, 2014 at 10:27 am
Yeah, the Canaanite pantheon seems to be where this Yahweh guy came from, and he was a god of war. Suddenly the old testament, with its focus on killing and taking new lands, starts to make more sense.
Posts: 69247
Threads: 3759
Joined: August 2, 2009
Reputation:
259
RE: History of Yahweh
March 13, 2014 at 12:20 pm
Posts: 9176
Threads: 76
Joined: November 21, 2013
Reputation:
40
RE: History of Yahweh
March 13, 2014 at 12:30 pm
No wonder they felt the need to demonize and destroy the Canaanites. The Canaanites didn't think too much of the Yahwists saying their god was the best one and didn't want word to get out that Yahweh was just the Canaanite version of Ares instead of the big creator god the genesis writers made him out to be.
Posts: 7152
Threads: 12
Joined: March 14, 2013
Reputation:
72
RE: History of Yahweh
March 13, 2014 at 12:36 pm
(This post was last modified: March 13, 2014 at 1:04 pm by Tonus.)
(March 13, 2014 at 12:30 pm)Chad32 Wrote: No wonder they felt the need to demonize and destroy the Canaanites. "My god can beat up your god." The tale of the ten plagues visited upon Egypt is very similar, in that this was a story where the Israelite god mocks the pantheon of Egyptian gods with each plague. When considered that way, the part where god hardens pharaoh's heart makes more sense-- Yahweh isn't just beating up the Egyptian gods, he's forcing the Egyptian king to watch.
And yes, Yahweh appears to originally be a war god; hence the reference to him as Yahweh of Armies or Jehovah the god of Armies in the OT. He ditches the military stripes in the NT when they re-rolled his character and he wound up with a low value for STR.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
Posts: 19644
Threads: 177
Joined: July 31, 2012
Reputation:
92
RE: History of Yahweh
March 13, 2014 at 12:52 pm
You guys want to hear a nice conspiracy-like story?
Before the canaanites, there were the babylonians and assyrians and sumerians.... these had a pantheon, of course, which had a hierarchy of gods and 3 of them stood at the head of all... Yep, 3! It seems ancient peoples likes this number...
One of the 3, called An (or Anu) was the Father.
Quote: It was believed that he had the power to judge those who had committed crimes, and that he had created the stars as soldiers to destroy the wicked.
He was one of the oldest gods in the Sumerian pantheon and part of a triad including Enlil (god of the air) and Enki (god of water).
By virtue of being the first figure in a triad consisting of Anu, Enlil, and Enki (also known as Ea), Anu came to be regarded as the father and at first, king of the gods.
What a better way to cast out a particular belief than to demonize it?... I wonder what the prefix sat- meant for them...
Posts: 9176
Threads: 76
Joined: November 21, 2013
Reputation:
40
RE: History of Yahweh
March 13, 2014 at 12:57 pm
(March 13, 2014 at 12:36 pm)Tonus Wrote: (March 13, 2014 at 12:30 pm)Chad32 Wrote: No wonder they felt the need to demonize and destroy the Canaanites. "My god can beat up your god." The tale of the ten plagues visited upon Egypt is very similar, in that this was a story where the Israelite god mocks the pantheon of Egyptian gods with each plague. When considered that way, the part where god hardens pharaoh's heart makes more sense-- Yahweh isn't just beating up the Egyptian gods, he's forcing the Egyptian king to watch.
And yes, Yahweh appears to originally be a war god; hence the reference to him as Yahweh of Armies or Jehovah the god of Armies in the OT. He ditches the military stripes in the OT when they re-rolled his character and he wound up with a low value for STR.
That's got to be why he's eventually claimed to be all powerful/present/knowing. Originally he wasn't, but if you want people to follow your god over others, he has to be more powerful. You have to make him infallible too, on top of that.
Posts: 69247
Threads: 3759
Joined: August 2, 2009
Reputation:
259
RE: History of Yahweh
March 13, 2014 at 1:12 pm
A preview of Thomas Thompson's "The Mythic Past" includes this discussion of Yahweh. I can't copy and paste an excerpt.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Ua0fAQA...su&f=false
Posts: 2962
Threads: 44
Joined: March 22, 2013
Reputation:
39
RE: History of Yahweh
March 13, 2014 at 1:52 pm
Like all the other evidence destroying the claims of their religion, the Jesus freaks will just ignore it.
|
