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Mike, Adam, yes the are many GOD’S, If you understood the proper meaning of what a God is, that is easy to conclude , and they are not ‘little” god’s but they to those people are big GOD’S. BECAUSE the word GOD is not a person of anykind, the word GOD IS A “DESCRIPTOR” OF A “RELATIONSHIP” with somethin, “anything” it is NOT the person or thing itself, it’s “YOUR” PERSONAL “RELATIONSHIP” WITH The object or thing, that makes it “YOUR” GOD.
SO ANYTHING CAN BE A GOD, A “TRUE GOD”, TO ANYONE. IF IT FITS THE DEFENATION OF THE WORD “God”, (THE POWER YOU LEAN ON AND TRUST THE MOST, FOR YOUR SUPPORT) that is your true God.
We true believers in the Faith , have “ONLY”, ONE TRUE GOD, “WE BELIEVE AND TRUST IN, THAT GOD’S NAME IS “YAHOVAH ” HE IS “OUR” GOD, TO US (TRUE BELIEVERS THERE IS “NO” OTHER GOD’S, BIG GOD OR LITTLE god’s, that exist now or ever have that is TO “US”.
Even Christmas trees were considered God’s, and people bowed down and worshiped them as the resrected Tammazue, the son of Oueen simmeramaz. There are hundreds if not thousands of man made God’s, both human and non human that exist, and existed , and they were not “little” god’s , they were big GOD’S , “TO THEM” that believed in them.
This whole confusion about what a true God is, is simple not understanding what is meant by the word “GOD”, And how it is applied. Once you understand the term God is not a person itself, but a descriptor of a person’s relationship with a , person, or thing. It should be easy for you to understand.
Adam. If I say , “to me, there exists no other “true” God , but one, that is not saying there exist no other God to you or Mike, Or someone else. If the meaning of the word for “God” fits something or someone else, YOU or Mike, or anyone else, then that “IS”, “YOUR” or their God. If your relationship with it, fits, the meaning of the word “GOD” . The term God has to be applied to a personal relationship or belief “IN” SOMETHING, simple as that.
You see there are many “so-called GOD’S , to them, but not unto us true “BELIEVERS” we only have “ONE” “TRUE” GOD, His name is YAHOVAH, all the rest are “TO” US, “TRUE BELIEVERS” “FALSE”GOD’S. That is “TO” “US’. THAT IS THE WAY I SEE IT.
Peace and love to you and yours Adam, and Mike………gene
LU: Define real, actual gods. Do you mean gods by nature or gods not by nature yet supernatural and having some type of authority?
Real, Actual, God: A very powerful supernatural being of a spirit nature (as opposed to flesh and blood nature). These beings are much more powerful than human beings. In scripture they are called “gods”, “sons of God”, “messengers”, “angels”, “demons”, “holy ones”, and “spirits”. Many are named in scripture: “Jesus”, “Satan”, “Baal”, “Molech”, “Dagon”, “Astaroth”, “Chemosh”, “Michael”, “Gabriel”, etc.
Yahweh is the Most High Creator of, and the God of all of the other gods. These other gods are Yahweh’s spirit sons (as opposed to Yahweh’s human sons).
These gods are real, actual living entities, many of whom have been placed over the nations of the earth by Yahweh. Many of them ruled over those nations in a way that displeased their own God, Yahweh, and the judgment that He passed onto them was that although they had been created as immortal and not subject to death, they would die like men die for their insubordination. (Ps 82, Enoch)
When the Jews Believed in Other Gods
The bible is rife with references to deities other than Yahweh: The prophets didn’t deny these gods existed, they just didn’t think Jews should worship them.
There is but one God, according to Jewish religious dogma. No other exists. We tend to assume that our forefathers devoutly believed the same. But the truth is that the Bible also shows, time and again, that wasn’t the prevailing system of belief among the ancient Israelites. The different scribes who wrote most of the biblical canon believed the incorporeal world was populated by a multitude of gods, but that the Hebrews should not worship any of these other deities, only Yahweh (which is what scholars call henotheism or monolatry). This is explicitly stated in the Second Commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).
The verse “Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?” (Exodus 15:11) is even more explicit about other gods existing alongside Yahweh. Among the books of the Bible we find reference to a great many other gods, sometimes with explicit references to miracles performed by them. These gods are generally members of the West Semitic pantheon of gods, those worshipped by people speaking languages closely related to Hebrew.
Arguably the most important of these gods was Ba’al (“master”), who is mentioned about 90 times in the Bible. Ba’al was an honorific title of the god Hadad, in much the same way that “Adonai” (“my master”) is an honorific title for Yahweh. Ba’al/Hadad was the West Semitic storm god, responsible for bringing the rains. His cult was thus particularly important in arid regions, where an especially dry winter could result in mass starvation. The historic books of the Bible recount an ongoing competition between the worship of Yahweh and Ba’al, eventually resulting in the supremacy of Yahweh. It seems however that the Israelite devotion to their intangible deity stemmed in part from Yahweh coming to encompass certain characteristics of the pagan god.
One explicit contest is presented in 1 Kings 18. It sounds like nothing so much as a competition like “Israel’s Next Top God,” in which the prophet Elijah and Yahweh compete for the heart of Israel against 450 priests and their god Ba’al. Baal, right arm raised. Bronze figurine, 14th-12th centuries, found in Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit). The people of Israel assemble in Mount Carmel (roughly where Haifa is today) to view the competition, the story relates. Elijah begins the contest, as prophets do, by chiding the people: “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”
The issue is to be decided by a miracle. Each side sets up a pyre on which a slaughtered bull is to be sacrificed. The priests of Ba’al are to beseech their god to set their pyre ablaze, while Elijah is to do the same with his Yahweh and his pyre. Predictably, Ba’al’s pyre does not ignite, while that of Yahweh does, even though Elijah doused it with water just to make it harder. The people of Israel choose Yahweh as their god and kill the 450 priests of Ba’al to a man. To drive home the point of Yahweh’s supremacy, the Bible tells us that after this, a storm arrived and heavy rain fell. It is Yahweh who controls the rains, not Ba’al.
The victory of Yahweh
It seems that what this story and other biblical stories like it are telling is that the belief in Yahweh supplanted the worship of Ba’al. In fact it seems that in some ways, Yahweh subsumed Ba’al, taking on his attributes and powers. In some of the Bible’s more poetic texts, Yahweh is presented as a storm god in very much the same language that Ba’al is described:
“At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them” (Psalms 18:12-14).
Of course, Ba’al is not the only god of the West Semitic pantheon to be mentioned in the Bible. Ba’al’s father, Dagon, the god of the harvest, also makes an appearance, again in stories aimed at showing Yahweh’s superiority over him. In 1 Samuel chapter 5 we are told that after the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant, they took it to the Temple of Dagon in Ashdod. But this resulted in the miraculous destruction of his cult statue. Yahweh wins again. Dagon’s father was El, the head of the West Semitic pantheon. The name Israel, shows that El was originally the tutelary god of Israel (it’s right there in the name!), but over time, Yahweh took El’s place:
“When the Most High (El Elyon) divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord’s (Yahweh’s) portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance” (Deuteronomy 32:8-9).
In this ancient text, we can see that El and Yahweh were still perceived as being two separate deities, with Yahweh subordinate to El. But as time went by, El and Yahweh became conflated: the two deities began to be seen as one and the same. In Exodus 6:3 God tells Moses: “I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty (El Elyon), but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them.” Thus the ancients only knew God as El, but as time went by they discovered that El was just another name of Yahweh.
El had a consort, the goddess Asherah, and as Yahweh took El’s place, Asherah became Yahweh’s consort. We are told that the Asherah was worshipped in the earliest Temple of Jerusalem – not explicitly, but we are definitely told that her symbols were removed from the Temple, so they had to be there in the first place (1 Kings 15:13 and 2 Kings 23:14).
It was only at the very end of the First Temple period, during the reign of King Josiah (the second half of the 7th century B.C.E.) that the cult objects of Asherah were taken out of the Temple, quite dramatically. There are quite a number of references to Josiah’s monotheistic reforms, such as:.
“Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones” (2 Kings 23:14, New International Version)
Actually El was the father of many gods besides Dagon, several of whom were explicitly mentioned in the Bible. Mot, the personification of death, is described in several passages as a deity. In Job 18:13 he is said to have a son, and in Habakkuk 2:5 we are told he opens his mouth wide and swallows souls. Another of El’s sons was the sea itself, unimaginatively called Yam (the Ugarit and Hebrew word for “sea”), though the Bible calls the god “Rahab”. For example Job 26:12 says that God “divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth Rahab.” Legends of a storm god such as Ba’al defeating the sea are very common in the Ancient Near East.
Things you can’t look at: Yahweh, and the sun
The sun and the moon, dawn and dusk, as well as other natural phenomena were also deified in ancient West Semitic religions and likely in ancient Israel too, though it is less apparent in the Bible. It is likely that Beit Shemesh was a center of sun worship since the place name literally means “House of Sun.” Jericho was probably at some point a center for moon worship. The city’s name in Hebrew is “Yerikho”; and the Hebrew word for the moon is Yarekh, which other West Semitic languages use as the name of the moon god. The Bible does refer to the sun and moon of course, often showing that God has total control over them such is when he stops them in the sky (Joshua 10:13), but it doesn’t refer to them explicitly as personified deities.
Yet the ancient Hebrews clearly adored them just like the other West Semites did. Ezekiel (8:16) recounts seeing people worshiping the sun in the Temple. We can infer this because the bible specifically condemns their worship, and we are told that Josiah took actions to stomp out the cult in the late First Temple period, the second half of the 7th century B.C.E. These actions included removing cult objects from the Temple itself (2 Kings 23:11). The Bible also recounts that the ancient Hebrews worshipped a god named Moloch, who was associated with the Ammonites and with child sacrifice. This worship too was stamped out by Josiah in the same reform (e.g. 2 Kings 23:10).
The historic books of the Bible were written by a “Yahweh only party” and are thus keenly critical of the worship of other gods in Judah. Still, it is clear from their description that polytheism was the norm in the First Temple period. It was only during King Josiah’s reform that the “Yahweh only party” really took control and began pushing other gods out of Judean minds. But note that they didn’t claim other gods did not exist. They only stated that their worship was forbidden by Yahweh, or as Exodus 34:14 has it: “For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”
It was apparently only during the Babylonian Exile (about 586 B.C.E. to 500 B.C.E) and the following Second Temple period (500 B.C.E. to 70 C.E.), that Judaism progressed from the belief that Yahweh is the only god that should be worshipped, to the belief that he is the only god that exists. I.e., monotheism was born. This view is stated clearly in the words of Second Isaiah written at the very end of the Exilic period and the very beginning of the Second Temple period: “This is what the Lord says— Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God” (Isaiah 44:6).
Link….https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium.MAGAZINE-when-the-jews-believed-in-other-gods-1.6315810
This is where I differ from Mike on the subject of Many Gods of the Bible. The Hebrew religion taken its origin from Polytheism or Henotheism and evolved into Monotheism and made its Tribal God Yahweh into Universal God after the Babylonian Exile.
Mike: Berean? Are you starting to understand about the many different gods of the Bible yet?
Berean: Gods who are “short of breath”
the Pope also proclaims himself above allLet’s try it again…
Psalm 8:4-5… What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him?
You made him a little lower than the gods, and crowned him with glory and honor.
Who exactly ARE the gods that Yahweh made mankind a little lower than? Do you believe that David was saying that Yahweh made men a little lower than “gods who are short of breath”? A little lower than the Pope?
You already said that David was talking about “angels”, ie: spirit sons of Yahweh. Now you just have to fight through the false teaching you’ve learned that there is only ONE god in the Bible – and accept that God’s “angels” – His “spirit sons” are also real, actual, living, powerful gods. Yahweh’s spirit sons are called gods by inspired writers of scripture (and by Yahweh Himself) all throughout the Bible.
So tell me again who the gods are that David mentioned in the above psalm.
Gene: If you understood the proper meaning of what a God is, that is easy to conclude…
Psalm 8:4-5… What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him?
You made him a little lower than the gods, and crowned him with glory and honor.
Gene, King David said that Yahweh made man a little lower than the gods. Who are these gods that King David was talking about?
Mike:Let’s try it again…
Psalm 8:4-5… What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him?
You made him a little lower than the gods, and crowned him with glory and honor.
Who exactly ARE the gods that Yahweh made mankind a little lower than? Do you believe that David was saying that Yahweh made men a little lower than “gods who are short of breath”? A little lower than the Pope?
Me
God the Father Alone HAS “THE ETERNAL BREATH” (ETERNAL LIFE) IN HIM, AND HE GAVE IT TO HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON.(blessed be his Name)
Who alone has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach; whom no man has seen or can see, to whom belong honor and eternal power. Amen.(1Tim.6:16)
John 5:25,26….Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and it has already come, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it shall live .
[26] For as the Father has LIFE IN HIMSELF; likewise HE GAVE THE SON TO HAVE LIFE IN HIMSELF;ALL OTHER GODS are dependent on the goodwill of the One true Living God who gives life through HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON.
AMEN!😐The good angels (Elohim) of God are at the service of those who are to INHERIT SALVATION IN JESUS CHRIST.
THE EVIL ANGELS FIGHT AGAINST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS PEOPLE MAINLY.To be continued, because everything is not said yet, we must not go too fast…
🙏
Adam: The bible is rife with references to deities other than Yahweh: The prophets didn’t deny these gods existed, they just didn’t think Jews should worship them.
And this is what it all boils down to. Even Jesus didn’t deny these other gods existed. He even accepted the Jews’ accusation that he was claiming to be one of these other gods – because that’s exactly what he was doing! But at the same time he made it clear that Yahweh was the only God that both he and we were to worship and serve. And THAT’S the distinction that I’m hoping people will get from this thread. Not that the other gods don’t exist at all – but that “as for me and my house, we shall worship and serve Yahweh as our God”.
Think it out… the very first Commandment wasn’t that the Israelites should pretend that other gods don’t exist at all… it was that they shouldn’t worship any of those other gods as their God.
“You shall have no other gods before me” is an open acknowledgement by Yahweh that there ARE other gods! If there weren’t, then the people hearing that commandment would be baffled, saying, “What is Yahweh talking about? How could we possibly worship other gods when other gods don’t even exist?”
Adam: This is where I differ from Mike on the subject of Many Gods of the Bible. The Hebrew religion taken its origin from Polytheism or Henotheism and evolved into Monotheism and made its Tribal God Yahweh into Universal God after the Babylonian Exile.
I disagree with a lot of the claims made by the sources you quote – like Yahweh being a “smaller” pantheon god under the Canaanite “El”, and that He began as a local “war god”, etc. Those claims are nonsense. On the other hand, what you wrote above is mostly true – except for the timing.
It’s true that before Yahweh made a nation unto Himself, people including Abram and Sarai were worshiping the local gods that Yahweh appointed over the nations. But these gods whom Yahweh appointed were doing things against His will, hence the judgements in Psalm 82 and Enoch. The Most High God Yahweh had intended to just oversee the other gods to whom He gave dominion over the nations of men (just like He gave man dominion over the animals). But after so many abuses by the gods Yahweh had put in charge, He eventually chose one man out of the world to make a nation of His own – a nation that wouldn’t be misled and abused by the other gods of the nations because Yahweh Himself would be their personal God and teach them to walk the path of righteousness. But this happened long before the exile to Babylon.
The rest of the information is accurate, but purposely skewed to spin Yahweh into some lowly tribal god.
1. Since Abram was worshiping other gods before Yahweh approached him, it would be accurate to say that “the Hebrew religion was originated in polytheism” – but it’s a very dishonest way of putting it. A more accurate and honest way would be to say that Abram was like everyone else, worshiping the various local gods before Yahweh approached him, identified Himself as the Most High Creator of heaven and earth and everything in them (including those local gods), and promised to build a nation out of him for which He would be their own personal God. Abram agreed to God’s covenant, and put away all those other gods to worship and serve only Yahweh from there on out. So one man who used to worship many local gods being approached by the Most High God and agreeing to worship only Him from there on out is not exactly the same as, “The Hebrew religion took its origin from Polytheism or Henotheism and evolved into Monotheism”. That is a very skewed way to define the actual events.
2. It’s also accurate to say Yahweh was “a tribal God” – since He was the personal God of the 12 tribes of Israel. But the statement neglects to include the fact that Yahweh had already been the Most High Creator of heaven, earth, and everything in them before He CHOSE to build a nation unto Himself out of one man and BECOME their personal “tribal God”.
3. The implication that the Hebrews “made” their lowly, local tribal God into a great universal God is patently false. From the moment Yahweh approached Abram, He made it clear that He was already the Most High God of the universe. It wasn’t a matter of a lowly local God being propagandized into a great God by those who followed Him (as you implied with your wording)… but amazingly, the already Greatest God of them all offered to be the personal God of one single man on earth – and of the nation that He would build unto Himself through that one man. Yahweh was already the Most High Universal God before He ever approached Abram. Hence this passage that you recently quoted, Adam…
Deuteronomy 32:7-9… Remember the days of old; consider the years long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will inform you. When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But Yahweh’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance.
Notice that Yahweh was already the Most High when He divided the nations according to the number of His spirit sons. WHO set the boundaries and divvied up the nations to the lower gods?
And again, this was WAY before the exile in Babylon – which, btw, wasn’t a case of other gods “defeating” the “lowly, tribal god Yahweh”, but something that the Most High Yahweh allowed to happen, and even forewarned His people that He would allow it to happen if they didn’t change their ways.
So yes, you are correct that we differ greatly on the most accurate way to describe the eventual direct involvement of the Creator of everything with one single nation of men.
Berean: ALL OTHER GODS are dependent on the goodwill of the One true Living God who gives life through HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON.
AMEN!Amen! Yahweh created Jesus (“I am the beginning of the creation of God”, “Yahweh created me as the first of His works”). Then Yahweh created all of the other gods – His heavenly spirit sons. All of those gods (including the first one, Jesus) are dependent upon the goodwill of the One who created them.
But the most important thing for this thread is that you are finally acknowledging that these spirit sons of Yahweh ARE INDEED 100% GODS! And that is the beginning of what I’m about to show you.
Berean: The good angels (Elohim) of God are at the service of those who are to INHERIT SALVATION IN JESUS CHRIST.
THE EVIL ANGELS FIGHT AGAINST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS PEOPLE MAINLY.Again, amen! Yahweh’s spirit sons are ALL gods. They were ALL set over the affairs of man from when He first created man. And they were ALL supposed to be at the service of men, teaching them righteousness and about their Creator, Yahweh. But some of these gods decided to teach mankind wickedness, and to worship them instead of their Creator, Yahweh. Those “evil angels”, as you call them, are still 100% gods according to the Bible… just like the “good angels” are.
Btw, you don’t have to call them “angels (Elohim)”. You can just call them gods like Yahweh and the writers of scripture call them. God’s spirit sons are gods… plain and simple.
Berean: To be continued, because everything is not said yet, we must not go too fast…
I’ll be looking forward to it.
Mike……My bible says, God made them, “a “little” lower then the “angels”/”messengers.
And it say God even made Jesus , “a “little” lower the the Angels/ messengers, also.
But the bottom line is this you either believe it or not, remember, this is not me saying this,
Isa 44:6 Thus says the LORD the KING OF Israel , and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first and I am the last`“and beside ME THERE IS “NO” GOD.
Ias 44: 8….Fear you not, neither be afraid; have not I told you from that time and have declared it? , you are even my witnesses, IS THERE A God BESIDE ME? yea, THERE IS “NO” God , “I” KNOW “NOT” ANY.
There you have it, you either believe what God the Father himself said or not, your choice, so there might be “so-called” God’s to many (IF THEY FIT THE MEANING OF WHAT A GOD IS), but unto “US” [true believers] there is “only” “ONE” TRUE God. and it is the same God of Jesus Christ. There exist no such thing as “little” gods or “Big” GOD’S, to us true Believers, “ALL” OTHER GOD’S or god’s TO US ARE “FALSE” God’s.
Peace and love to you and yours Mike……….gene
Adam…….The word God is a ‘descriptor” of a relationship, it is not a person or place or thing, it is ‘not’ a noun, so it must be accompany with a Noun, which give you the object it is referring to . Like “your, mine, their, or like, the God of this or that, the term has to be connected to an object, which it relates to. The word God describes the relationship with the object, it is never the Object “itself “, but your relationship or their relationship with something is being described by the word God.
Peace and love to you and yours Adam. ……….gene
Okay Gene, I’m going to DIRECTLY address and put to rest your two “go-to” verses that you think give you permission to just ignore hundreds of other scriptures. And then afterwards, you DIRECTLY address the question that I end this post with, okay?
Gene: But the bottom line is this you either believe it or not, remember, this is not me saying this,
Isa 44:6… beside ME THERE IS “NO” GOD.
Isa 44: 8… IS THERE A God BESIDE ME? yea, THERE IS “NO” God , “I” KNOW “NOT” ANY.
There you have it, you either believe what God the Father himself said or not, your choice…
I see the verses, Gene. I see the statements that Yahweh made. Now we have to discern if they are meant to be taken as literal, factual statements – or as hyperbolic, emphatical statements. For example…
“Tom Brady is the only true Quarterback the New England Patriots ever had.”
In this case, my statement is true in the respect that, as the greatest QB to ever play the game for any team, Brady is truly the only “true QB” the Pats ever had. But the statement is meant to be hyperbolic and emphatical. It’s not meant to be taken literally – as if Brady is LITERALLY the only QB to have ever played on the Patriots team.
So now we only have to decide if Yahweh’s statements above are meant to be literal, or emphatic statements declaring Him as the Greatest God of all. And we don’t have to look far to see which one it is…
Isaiah 43:11… I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no savior.
You can see that the wording is almost identical to the two verses you presented, right? But is it a literal statement?
Nehemiah 9:27… thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.
How can both scriptures be true, Gene? How can Yahweh say He is the ONLY savior, when we know that He was constantly sending His people countless saviors to redeem them – not the least of which was His only-begotten Son, Jesus – the Savior of Mankind?
It’s true because Yahweh wasn’t making a LITERAL statement – but an emphatical one. He wasn’t saying that He was literally the ONLY savior, but by being the One who sent all the other saviors, He could lay claim to being the only ULTIMATE savior… because without Him, those other saviors wouldn’t have had the power to even blow their noses.
So now how about the two verses you listed? Well…
Exodus 20:3… You shall have no other gods before Me.
Gene, if there literally exist ZERO other gods besides Yahweh – then His commandment is nonsense. How could they possibly have any other gods before Him if there LITERALLY didn’t even exist any other gods?
1 Kings 11:33… I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molek the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in obedience to me…
Gene, why is Yahweh referring to all these other people as gods – going as far as to use the plural “elohim” for each one of them? I thought Yahweh was LITERALLY the ONLY god in existence – so how can He call these other ones gods?
Psalm 82:6-7… I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men…
Gene, why on earth would Yahweh Himself say that He’s the one who said they are gods? How ludicrous is that when Yahweh knows that He is LITERALLY the ONLY god in existence? What would it even mean for Him to call other persons gods if He is the only one?
Are you starting to get enough info to make your decision on whether the two verses you listed are meant to be taken literally, or as emphatical statements? They are emphatical statements, Gene. Yahweh never intended them to be taken literally, as if He – who calls other ones gods all throughout the Bible – meant that He was literally the only God in existence.
Now, if you’re not quite there yet, I have dozens of more scriptures I can add to those I’ve already shared. So at the very least, let’s put those two verses on the back-burner instead of pointing to them every chance you get as if they somehow make hundreds of other scriptures obsolete. Let’s just carry on with the thread, and let the scriptures teach us – instead of the other way around.
Gene: My bible says, God made them, “a “little” lower then the “angels”/”messengers.
Many English translations use “angels” there, because they realize that David was talking about angels. But the Hebrew word David actually used was “elohim”, ie: “gods”. So since King David was clearly talking about God making man a little lower than the angels, but he actually said “a little lower than the gods“, are you able to understand that, from a scriptural standpoint, angels ARE gods?
Gene, that is the question I want you to DIRECTLY answer – without posting the same long post about god being a “descriptor” and whatnot. Please just answer the question. We KNOW that David was talking about angels. And we KNOW that David called them gods. What does that teach you, Gene?
Mike
I would always call angels, angels or divine messengers and not “gods” so as not to create confusion in some minds.
That said, I would like you to comment on this god mentioned in 2 Timothy 2:3,4👇
Let NO MAN deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come(Jesus coming), except there come a falling away first, and that MAN OF SIN be revealed, the son of perdition;
Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he AS GOD sits in the temple of God, shewing HIMSELF THAT HE IS GOD.Mike, for you, who is this “man of sin”,”shewing HIMSELF” THAT HE IS GOD”.
Mike,
So you say that Jesus is a real actual God. You have agreed in the past that Jesus is also the only begotten God. You have also made known that you realize that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth.
Since you realize that Jesus is an only begotten God, then in your list of gods, Jesus is unique from all those you list since Jesus is the only begotten God and has the exact representation of the nature of God.
He is also unique from all the gods you list in that Jesus has all authority over those in that list as well as all creation in heaven and on earth.
Jesus is also different from all the gods you list in that He sits on an eternal throne as the King of kings and the Lord of lords at the right hand of the Father. None of those others in your list do that.
Jesus is different from all the gods you list in that He gives eternal life to those who believe in Him. So there’s that. No one else on your list does that.
Jesus is also different from all the gods you list in that all things were made by Him and apart from Him, nothing was made that was made…big difference, btw from those others on your list.
Jesus is also different from all the gods you list in that there is power in the name of Jesus for healing and eternal salvation. No other gods on you list can say that.
Jesus is also different from all the gods that you list in that He is the only one that you list that the Father says to believe in for eternal life.
Jesus is also different from all the gods that you list in that although He was in the form of God, He emptied Himself to become a bondservant in order to redeem mankind.
Jesus is also different from all the gods that you list in that He is in the bosom of the Father and explains the Father and by whom the Father created the heavens and the earth.
Jesus is also different from all the gods that you list in that He alone is the head of the church.
Jesus is also different from all the gods that you list in that He is the First and the last, the living one, the Alpha and the Omega who holds the keys to death and hades.
Jesus is also different from all the gods that you list in that He is the only one that was worthy to open the scroll and it’s seven seals needed to redeem mankind.
Jesus is also different from all the gods that you list in that He is the only one that is seated on a throne at the Father’s right hand.
Jesus is also different from all the gods that you list in that He is the only mediator before His Father in heaven.
Jesus is also different from all the gods that you list in that He is able to answer our prayers.
Jesus is also different from all the gods that you list in that all nations are under His feet.
Jesus is also different from all the gods that you list in that He is our good shepherd who is the only way, the truth and the life that leads to the Father.
Jesus is also different from all the gods that you list in that He is the fountain of living water.
Jesus is also different from all the gods that you list in that He is the author of life.
Jesus is also different from all the gods that you list in that His spirit guides us in truth.
Jesus is also different from all the gods that you list in that He is an eternal savior.
And on and on…
Therefore, all the other gods that are on your list are incomparable to the God that Jesus is and Jesus is the only real God on your list that I will recognize as a real God. the rest fall short of the exact nature of the Father and by nature are no gods at all. Baal must have been twiddling his thumbs or slept through his chance to prove that he was god while Elijah proved that he was not a real god. I do believe that there are supernatural beings that have had varied positions yielding a degree of power over the nations other than Israel but none can actually save anyone from their sins, and none are more powerful or as powerful as Jesus. The names on your list aside from Jesus may be gods in a sense to someone yet they are no gods at all in an ultimate sense to YHVH.
In short, Jesus is the only real God on your list. The others may be real supernatural entities but not real God.
LU: Jesus is different from all the gods you list…
Yep. Jesus is different than Michael, just as Satan is different than Gabriel… and just as all four of them are different than their own God, Yahweh.
LU: The names on your list aside from Jesus may be gods in a sense to someone yet they are no gods at all in an ultimate sense to YHVH.
You’re welcome to your opinion, but you are deviating from scripture because one of the “someones” that they are gods to is Yahweh Himself. He calls them such and recognizes them as such. A god is simply a very powerful spirit being. They are all gods in the simplest scriptural definition of the word. It’s true that Michael is higher than some of the other gods, Satan is higher than some of the other gods, and Yahweh is higher than all of the other gods.
The point of this thread is to learn that the Bible is loaded with tons of other spirit beings besides Yahweh, whom Yahweh Himself calls gods, and that we don’t do anybody any favors by sugarcoating this scriptural fact for our own personal reasons. For example…
Berean: I would always call angels, angels or divine messengers and not ‘gods’ so as not to create confusion in some minds.
Why on earth would we presume to be some great arbiters of scriptural truth by purposely refusing to discuss what the scriptures actually teach, just because it might “confuse” someone. Proclaimer has been using this same reason for tip-toeing around the god subject for years. But who exactly is it going to confuse? Does it confuse you, LU? Does it confuse you, Berean? If not, then why would you decide for yourself which scriptural truths you will share with other people – as if they are “less” than you and can’t handle the actual scriptural truth?
Look, if Yahweh calls Jesus a god in Is 9:6 and calls Chemosh a god in 1 Kings 11:33, who am I to decide that Jesus is one of the “real” gods, but Chemosh is not? Did Yahweh SAY that Jesus was a real one and Chemosh was a fake one? No. So why exactly would WE get to choose what Yahweh didn’t distinguish?
I’m just calling it like the scriptures and Yahweh call it. If King David says we were created a little lower than the gods, then that’s what King David meant. There are many gods in heaven, and Yahweh created man a little lower than those gods.
I’m not going to change David’s word to “angels” just because someone might be confused. The actual confusion begins when people are afraid to just teach what the Bible actually teaches. If everyone grew up learning that there are many gods, some good and some bad, and that Yahweh is the Most High God of us and of those other gods, then there wouldn’t be any confusion to begin with.
K… sorry for the rant. Carry on. 🙂
Berean: That said, I would like you to comment on this god mentioned in 2 Timothy 2:3,4…
Mike, for you, who is this “man of sin”,”shewing HIMSELF” THAT HE IS GOD”.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4… Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed. He will oppose and exalt himself above all who are called god or an object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
I don’t know who the son of destruction will be, Berean. But he will proclaim himself to be above all other gods and objects of worship, even going so far as to seat himself in God’s temple and proclaim himself as the Most High God.
Will he be a man like the Pope? Will he be an actual god like Satan? We’re not given enough info to figure out who it will be. Paul does use the word “man”, but if it is an actual human, I imagine he would be getting his great power to act like this from the Beast or some other god.
Isaiah 43:10 “You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may consider and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me no god was formed, and after Me none will come.
1 Corinthians 8:4
So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.Jeremiah 2:11
Has a nation ever changed its gods, though they are no gods at all? Yet My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.2 Chronicles 13:9
But did you not drive out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites? And did you not make priests for yourselves as do the peoples of other lands? Now whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams can become a priest of things that are not gods.Hi Mike,
Thanks for your detailed reply to my post. I know you can not agree with my post in full as I have already stated that I differ from you on the origin and evolution of the Biblical religion.
You know you always state that Jesus, the first century Jew was created as god among many gods of the Bible which I negate because this was purely the invention of the NT writers and Christianity because this is no where visible directly in the Hebrew Bible unless we misinterpret the texts and take them out of their original meaning and context.
I also differ from your interpretation of Deut 32:8-9 as the original text clearly states that Yahweh the god of Israelites was a subordinate to Most High (Elyon) and one among the sons of god (El may the Most High) as it is written “When the Most High apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind,
he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the gods”The name Israel itself is the name derived from their original Canaanites god the “El the Most High”. The so called books of Pentateuch were not written by Moses or any single writer and at single time period. In fact they were written by different authors in different time periods as per the Historians. This is the reason why we find the title of god is different in different texts in these books. For example Genesis 1 contains God (Elohim) and Genesis 2-3 contains the LORD (Yahweh) because they were written by different writes at different time periods. So your Abrahamic God is cleverly mentioned as Yahweh instead of El the Most high in those texts by that writer called J (the Yahwist). This can be clearly traced from Exodus 6:2-4 which was written by E (the Elohist)
2 God also spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the Lord (Yahweh). 3 I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty (El Shaddai), but by my name ‘The Lord (Yahweh)’ I did not make myself known to them. 4 I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they resided as aliens.
As the time passed the Tribal god Yahweh replaced the position of the El the Most High god of Canaan and the Ba’al, the another son of the El became a rival god to Yahweh. This also can be traced when we read the story of Golden Calf made by Aron, the brother of Moses in Exodus 32;
‘This is your god (a well known), O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 32:4)
The Hebrew religion which took its birth in the midst of Polytheism had developed and evolved into pure Monotheism by the end of Babylonian Exile as per the Historians. This can be traced in the prophetic books like Isaiah 44-46 where the other Canaanites gods were nullified and Yahweh became the only creator and no one else besides him as per Isaiah 44:6
6 Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel,
and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
I am the first and I am the last;
besides me there is no god.And Isaiah 45:5-7
5 I am the Lord, and there is no other;
besides me there is no god.
I arm you, though you do not know me,
6 so that they may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is no one besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
7 I form light and create darkness,
I make weal and create woe;
I the Lord do all these things.Also as per Isaiah 46:
9 remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, “My purpose shall stand,
and I will fulfill my intention,”Our brothers and sisters in this Heavennet justify their own logics on this God and Jesus based on the texts of the New Testament which had developed its religion, Christianity from Hebrew religion by interpreting the texts of Hebrew Bible to suit their own ideas on Jesus the first century Jew. So you can not simply negate their arguments against yours.
I will post on this subject with more details later. Thank you.
How Yahweh, the Tribal God of Israelites became universal God?
Yahweh is the name of the state god of the ancient Kingdom of Israel and, later, the Kingdom of Judah. His name is composed of four Hebrew consonants (YHWH, known as the Tetragrammaton) which the prophet Moses is said to have revealed to his people. As the name of the supreme being was considered too holy to be spoken, the consonants YHWH were used to remind one to say the word ‘adonai’ (lord) in place of the god’s name, a common practice throughout the Near East in which epithets were used in referencing a deity.
All of these stipulations and details were applied to the god later, however; it is unclear exactly when Yahweh was first worshipped, by whom, or how. Scholars J. Maxwell Miller and John H. Hayes write:
The origins of Yahwism are hidden in mystery. Even the final edited form of Genesis – II Kings [in the Bible] presents diverse views on the matter. Thus Genesis 4:16, attributed by literary critics to the so-called `Yahwistic’ source, traces the worship of Yahweh back to the earliest days of the human race, while other passages trace the revelation and worship of Yahweh back to Moses [in the Book of Exodus].
Scholar Nissim Amzallag, of Ben-Gurion University, disagrees with the claim that Yahweh’s origins are obscure and argues that the deity was originally a god of the forge and patron of metallurgists during the Bronze Age (c. 3500-1200 BCE). Amzallag specifically cites the ancient copper mines of the Timna Valley (in southern Israel), biblical and extra-biblical passages, and similarities of Yahweh to gods of metallurgy in other cultures for support.
Although the Bible, and specifically the Book of Exodus, presents Yahweh as the god of the Israelites, there are many passages which make clear that this deity was also worshipped by other peoples in Canaan.
Amzallag notes that the Edomites, Kenites, Moabites, and Midianites all worshipped Yahweh to one degree or another and that there is evidence the Edomites who operated the mines at Timnah converted an earlier Egyptian temple of Hathor to the worship of Yahweh.
Although the biblical narratives depict Yahweh as the sole creator god, lord of the universe, and god of the Israelites especially, initially he seems to have been Canaanite in origin and subordinate to the supreme god El. Canaanite inscriptions mention a lesser god Yahweh and even the biblical Book of Deuteronomy stipulates that “the Most High, El, gave to the nations their inheritance” and that “Yahweh’s portion is his people, Jacob and his allotted heritage” (32:8-9). A passage like this reflects the early beliefs of the Canaanites and Israelites in polytheism or, more accurately, henotheism (the belief in many gods with a focus on a single supreme deity). The claim that Israel always only acknowledged one god is a later belief cast back on the early days of Israel’s development in Canaan.
The meaning of the name ‘Yahweh’ has been interpreted as “He Who Makes That Which Has Been Made” or “He Brings into Existence Whatever Exists”, though other interpretations have been offered by many scholars. In the late middle ages, ‘Yahweh’ came to be changed to ‘Jehovah’ by Christian monks, a name commonly in use today.
The character and power of Yahweh were codified following the Babylonian Captivity of the 6th century BCE and the Hebrew scriptures were canonized during the Second Temple Period (c.515 BCE-70 CE) to include the concept of a messiah whom Yahweh would send to the Jewish people to lead and redeem them. Yahweh as the all-powerful creator, preserver, and redeemer of the universe was then later developed by the early Christians as their god who had sent his son Jesus as the promised messiah and Islam interpreted this same deity as Allah in their belief system.
Extra-biblical Mention of Yahweh
The oldest mention of Yahweh was long held to be the Moabite Stone (also known as the Mesha Stele) erected by King Mesha of Moab to celebrate his victory over Israel in c. 840 BCE. The inscription mentions how Mesha, after defeating the Israelites, “took the vessels of Yahweh to Kemosh” (the chief god of Moab), meaning the objects sacred to the worship of Yahweh in the temple, most likely the temple in Israel’s capital of Samaria (Kerrigan, 78-79).The Moabite Stone was discovered in 1868 CE in modern-day Jordan and the find published in 1870 CE. As the first extra-biblical inscription found to mention Yahweh, much was made of the discovery as the stele reported the same event from the biblical narrative of II Kings 3 in which Mesha the Moabite rebels against Israel (though with the major difference of the stele claiming a Moabite victory and the Bible claiming Israel the winner). The way the Yahweh line was interpreted further supported the concept of Yahweh as the god of the Israelites alone since Mesha claims to have taken the Israelite god’s vessels as tribute to his own.
In 1844 CE the ruins of the ancient city of Soleb in Nubia was excavated by the archaeologist Karl Richard Lepsius who documented the site in detail but did not excavate. In 1907 CE James Henry Breasted arrived and photographed the site but, again, engaged in no excavation. It was not until 1957 CE that a team under the archaeologist Michela Schiff Giorgini, excavated the site and found reference to a group of people described as “Shasu of Yahweh” at the base of one of the columns of the temple in the hypostyle hall. The temple was built by Amenhotep III (c.1386-1353 BCE) and the reference to Yahweh established that this god was worshipped by another people long before the time when the events of the biblical narratives are thought to have taken place.
THE DISCOVERY OF AMENHOTEP III’S MENTION OF THE SHASU OF YAHWEH PLACED THE GOD MUCH EARLIER IN HISTORY THAN HAD BEEN ACCEPTED PREVIOUSLY.
The Shasu (also given as Shashu) were a Semitic, nomadic people described as outlaws or bandits by the Egyptians and, in fact, they are named on the column of the temple at Soleb among Egypt’s other enemies and appear later, in an inscription from the reign of Ramesses II (1279-1213 BCE), as among the pharaoh’s enemies at the Battle of Kadesh. As it has been established they were a nomadic people, attempts have been made to link them with the Hebrews and with the Habiru, a group of renegades in the Levant, but these claims have been refuted. Whoever the Shasu were, they were not Hebrew and the Habiru seem to be Canaanites who simply refused to conform to the customs of the land, not a separate ethnic group.The discovery of Amenhotep III’s mention of the Shasu of Yahweh placed the god much earlier in history than had been accepted previously but also suggested that Yahweh was perhaps not native to Canaan. This fit with the theory that Yahweh was a desert god whom the Hebrews adopted in their exodus from Egypt to Canaan. The descriptions of Yahweh appearing as a pillar of fire by night and cloud by day as well as the other fire-imagery from the Book of Exodus was interpreted by some scholars as suggesting a storm god or weather-deity and, particularly, a desert god since Yahweh is able to direct Moses to water sources (Exodus 17:6 and Numbers 20). It is generally accepted in the modern day, however, that Yahweh originated in southern Canaan as a lesser god in the Canaanite pantheon and the Shasu, as nomads, most likely acquired their worship of him during their time in the Levant.
The Moabite Stone has also been reinterpreted in light of recent scholarship which demonstrates that the people of Moab also worshipped Yahweh and the reference to Mesha taking the vessels of Yahweh to Kemosh most likely means he repossessed what he felt belonged to the Moabites, not that he conquered Israel and its god in the name of his own.
Yahweh in the Canaanite Pantheon
The biblical narrative, however, is not as straightforward as it may seem as it also includes reference to the Canaanite god El whose name is directly referenced in `Israel’ (He Who Struggles with God or He Who Perseveres with God). El was the chief deity of the Canaanite pantheon and the god who, according to the Bible, gave Yahweh authority over the Israelites:When the Most High [El] gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of men, he fixed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the Sons of God. For Yahweh’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. (Deuteronomy 32:8-9, Masoretic Text).
The Canaanites, like all ancient civilizations, worshipped many gods but chief among them was the sky-god El. In this passage from Deuteronomy, El gives each of the gods authority over a segment of the people of earth and Yahweh is assigned to the Israelites who, in time, will make him their supreme and only deity; but it is clear he existed beforehand as a lesser Canaanite god.
Yahweh as God of Metallurgy
According to scholar Nissim Amzallag, however, Yahweh was a god of metallurgy. Amzallag writes:An essential link between Yahweh and copper is suggested in the Book of Zechariah where the dwelling of the God of Israel is symbolized by two mountains of copper (Zech. 6:1-6). In his prophecies, Ezekiel describes a divine being as `a man was there, whose appearance shone like copper’ (Ezek. 40:3), and in another part of this book, Yahweh is even explicitly mentioned as being a smelter (Ezek. 22:20). In Isaiah 54:16, Yahweh is explicitly mentioned as the creator of both the copperworker and his work…Such an involvement of Yahweh is never mentioned elsewhere for other crafts or human activities. (394)
Amzallag further notes the similarities between Yahweh and other gods of metallurgy:
The god of metallurgy generally appears as an outstanding deity. He is generally involved in the creation of the world and/or the creation of humans. The overwhelming importance of the god of metallurgy reflects the central role played by the copper smelters in the emergence of civilizations throughout the ancient world. (397)
Amzallag compares the attributes of the Egyptian Ptah and the Mesopotamian Ea/Enki along with Napir of Elam, all gods of metallurgy (among their other attributes) with Yahweh and finds striking similarities. He further claims that the name of the god of the Edomites, Qos, is an epithet for Yahweh and notes how the Edomites, a people closely associated with metallurgy, were the primary workers and administrators of the copper mines at Timna and, further, that Edom is never mentioned in the Bible as challenging Israel in the name of a foreign god; thus suggesting that the two peoples worshipped the same deity (390-392).
Although Amzallag’s theory has been challenged, it has not been refuted. Particularly compelling are his arguments from biblical passages and the archaeological evidence cited from the ruins of the mines of Timna.
From God of Metallurgy to Supreme Deity
Yahweh, according to Amzallag, was transformed from one god among many to the supreme deity by the Israelites in the Iron Age (c.1200-930 BCE) when iron replaced bronze and the copper smelters, whose craft was seen as a kind of transformative magic, lost their unique status. In this new age, the Israelites in Canaan sought to distance themselves from their neighbors in order to consolidate political and military strength and so elevated Yahweh above El as the supreme being and claimed him as their own. His association with the forge, and with imagery of fire, smoke, and smiting, worked as well in describing a god of storms and war and so Yahweh’s character changed from a deity of transformation to one of conquest. Miller and Hayes comment:Perhaps the most noticeable characteristic of Yahweh in Israel’s early poetry and narrative literature is his militancy. The so-called “Song of the Sea” in Exodus 15:1-18 and the “Song of Deborah” in Judges 5 are typical in their praise of Yahweh, the divine warrior who could be counted on to intervene on behalf of his followers…Thus it may have been primarily in connection with Israel’s wars that Yahweh gained status as the national god. During times of peace, the tribes will have depended heavily on Baal in his various local forms to ensure fertility. But when they came together to wage war against their common enemies, they would have turned to Yahweh, the divine warrior who could provide victory. (112)
Yahweh-as-warrior is evident throughout the Hebrew scriptures which became the Christian Old Testament and warrior imagery is also apparent in passages in the New Testament which drew on the earlier works (ex: Ephesians 6:11, Philippians 2:25, II Timothy 2:3-4, I Corinthians 9:7, among others). By the time these works were written, the worship of Yahweh had undergone a dramatic transformation from what it had been in the early days of the Israelites in Canaan.
Early & Later Religious Belief & Practice
Initially, the people of Canaan, including the Israelites, practiced a form of ancestor worship in which they venerated the “god of the father” or the “god of the house”, in addition to paying homage to their earthly ancestors, in an effort to establish individual tribal and family connections (van der Toorn, 177). In time, this practice evolved into worship of deities such as El, Asherah, Baal, Utu-Shamash, and Yahweh among others.As the Israelites developed their community in Canaan, they sought to distance themselves from their neighbors and, as noted, elevated Yahweh above the traditional Canaanite supreme deity El. They did not, however, embrace monotheism at this time. The Israelites remained a henotheistic people through the time of the Judges, which predates the rise of the monarchy, and throughout the time of the Kingdom of Israel (c.1080-c. 722).
In 931 BCE, following the death of Solomon, the kingdom split in two and a new political entity, the Kingdom of Judah with its capital at Jerusalem, emerged in the south. The kingdoms of Israel and Judah periodically warred or allied with each other until 722 BCE when the Assyrians destroyed Israel and, in keeping with their usual military policies, deported the inhabitants and replaced them with others from their empire. Judah was able to withstand the Assyrian military campaigns but only by paying tribute to Assyria.
The Assyrian Empire fell to an invading force of Babylonians, Medes, and others in 612 BCE and the Babylonians claimed the region of Canaan. In 598 BCE they invaded Judah and sacked Jerusalem, destroying the temple of Solomon and taking the leading citizens back to Babylon. This is the time in Jewish history known as the Babylonian Captivity (c.598-538 BCE). Babylon was conquered by Cyrus the Great (d.530 BCE) of the Persians who allowed the Jewish leaders to return to their homeland in 538 BCE.
As with all ancient religions (as well as modern), the faith of the people was based on an understanding of quid pro quo (this-for-that) in which they would honor and serve a deity and, in return, would receive protection and guidance. When the temple was destroyed and the kingdom sacked, the Jewish clergy had to find some reason for the tragedy and concluded it was because they had not paid enough attention to Yahweh and had angered him through the acknowledgement and worship of other gods.
During the Second Temple Period (c.515 BCE-70 CE) Judaism was revised, the Torah canonized, and a new understanding of the divine established which today is known as monotheism – the belief in a single deity. At this time, scholars have established, the older works which eventually became the Hebrew Scriptures were revised to reflect a monotheistic belief system among the Israelites far earlier than was actually practiced.
The monotheism of the Hebrew Scriptures would later be appropriated by the adherents of Christianity who would continue veneration of Yahweh, eventually known as Jehovah and then, simply, as “God”, and Islam would also develop the deity under the name of Allah (“the God”) beginning in the 7th century CE. Whoever Yahweh was originally, and however he was worshipped, today he forms the basis of the three great monotheistic religions of the world.
Yahweh in Iron Age I (1200–1000 BCE)
Iron Age I corresponds approximately to the Judges period of the Bible. During this period, Israel was a confederation of tribes, each of which was (by then) a territorial entity with boundaries and rights. The earliest known reference to Israel is a stele of the pharaoh Merneptah dated to 1208 BCE. Although the Biblical account draws a clear distinction between Israelites and Canaanites in this period, and this was followed in early scholarship, the modern consensus is that there was no distinction in language or material culture between these groups and scholars accordingly define Israelite culture as a subset of Canaanite culture.
With the notable exception of Yahweh himself, the deities worshipped by Israel were also Canaanite. These included El, the ruler of the pantheon, Asherah, his consort, and Baal. El and his seventy sons, who included Baal and Yahweh, made up the Assembly of the Gods, each member of which had a human nation under his care; a textual variant of Deuteronomy 32:8–9 describes Yahweh receiving Israel when El divided the nations of the world among his sons:
When the Most High (‘elyôn) gave to the nations their inheritance,
when he separated humanity,
he fixed the boundaries of the peoples
according to the number of divine beings.
For Yahweh’s portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.The etymology of the name Israel is unclear, but a plausible suggestion is “El rules”. This implies the original deity of Israel was El, but from some early date Yahweh was understood as Israel’s god, as reflected in the quotation above, which refers to El having allotted Israel to Yahweh. El and Yahweh were subsequently identified and the name of El became a generic noun meaning “god”. Yahweh is expressly identified with El Shadday in Exodus 6:2–3. During Iron I, Yahweh acquired characteristics of El, such as compassion, being bearded, and commanding the divine council.
In the earliest Biblical literature Yahweh is a storm-god typical of ancient Near Eastern myths, marching out from a region to the south or south-east of Israel with the heavenly host of stars and planets that make up his army to do battle with the enemies of his people Israel:
Yahweh, when you went out of Seir,
when you marched out of the field of Edom,
the earth trembled, the sky also dropped.
Yes, the clouds dropped water.
The mountains quaked at Yahweh’s presence,
even Sinai at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
…
From the sky the stars fought.
From their courses, they fought against Sisera…….(taken from Wikipedia)So we can have clear knowledge about this tribal God Yahweh from the above verses.
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