There has been a lot of debates concerning the use of the plural form of Eloah (god) “Elohim” and many Christian theologians assume, that the plural form indicates the “oneness” or Yahweh. The same occurs with the plural form in Genesis that runs….
Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likenes”
However, in Encyclopedias and Dictionaries, we read that the Hebrew authors DID use the singular form for their original deity. From the “Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible”, Edited by Karel van der Toom, Bob Becking and Pieter W. van der Horst, , in the article “WISDOM” (p 900), we read…. “el eloheka yisra’el’, aser he’elka me’eres misrayim, which means, “EI is your god, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” and in the page 273, we read the expressions “el elohe yisra’el”, ‘EI, the god of Israel’ (Gen 33:20) and ha’el elohe abika, ‘EI, the god of your father’, (Gen 46:3) where the word “god” is in singular form. What the Christian version of the Torah translates as “Elohim” is a question mark that hasn’t been satisfactorily answered yet, despite the hard efforts of the theologians to persuade their disciples, that Elohim equals Elohe when referred to Yahweh.
In my previous post “The censored Hebrew-Christian mythology, Lilith the first wife given to Adam”
The censored Hebrew-Christian mythology, Lilith the first wife given to Adam
Louis Ginzberg, undeniably proves that the plural form of “US” and “Elohim” refers to all DIVINE BEINGS of heaven (angels, demons, dominions, gods, goddesses, as well as the stars and the constellations that were also considered as deities by the Hebrews), who collaborated to fabricate the Adam’s body. Also the Gnostic Christian texts of Nag Hammadi, say the same exactly story, that Yaldabaoth, the son of Sophia, the consort of Demiurge, made from himself six “Dark Angels” or Archons -one of them Yahweh- and with demons and angels, they created each of them a specific part of the human body and the “visible universe”. In the “History of Israel” we also read that everything natural or spiritual was deified and had a patron angel-deity, resulting hundreds of thousands of angels-gods to have been been invented, just like the today Hindu deities.
The today Christian theologians try to convince us that the Israelites up to the 2nd century CE (at least) were monotheists, forgetting that the Septuagint in Deuteronomy 33:2-3 refers to Yahweh’s consort Asherah. Of course, today, the verses have been falsified. The original text runs…
“YHWH came from Sinai and shone forth from his own Seir, He showed himself from Mount Paran. Yes he came among the myriads of Qudhsu, at his right hand his own Asherah, Indeed, he loves the clans and all his holy ones on his left.”
Further on in the today OT, we read in 2 Kings 23:7 And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove (Asherah). See also commentaries of this passage in https://biblehub.com/commentaries/2_kings/23-7.htm where we read of male prostitution in the temple, literally, of the consecrated ones. “The cabins of the Kedēshim in the house. The Kedēshim were males, perhaps eunuchs, who prostituted themselves like women in honour of the Asherah. (See 1Kings 14:24; 1Kings 15:12; Hosea 4:14.) The passage shows that the last infamy of Canaanite nature-worship had been established in the very sanctuary of Jehovah. The revolt of Judah could go no farther”.
No matter how hard the theologians try to make us change up our minds the archaeological findings of Kuntillet Ajrud in the Sinai, an inscription on a pillar of a burial cave close to Khirbet ’el-Qom and elsewhere where Yahweh is mentioned with his wife Asherah, are undisputable. Besides, thousands are the clay figurines of Asherah unearthed in Palestine, Syria and Cyprus. Also, on the isle of Elephantine in the Nile, an ancient Hebrew temple was unearthed which was dedicated to Anat-Yahu and Jahu himself, proving the polytheism of the Israelites, despite the desperate efforts and assertions of the OT’s theologians for the contrary.
Further, we read in “Daniel 7:9, of a plurality of thrones that exists in heaven. “I kept looking until the thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat”.
In the same “Dictionary of the deities and demons of the Bible”, in the Article “The Ancient of Days” p 44, we read that actually, Daniel referred to El’s pantheon of the Canaanite origin myth and not of Yahweh. The text runs…..
“The background of the imagery in Dan 7 has been looked for in Canaanite mythology (EMERTON 1958; COLLINS 1977; 1993); in a Mesopotamian text (KVANVIG 1988); and in contemporary Hellenistic-Egyptian mythological patterns (VAN HENTEN 1993). The imagery of the Ancient of Days has influenced the throne visions in 1 Enoch. II. The struggle between Antiochus IV Epiphanes the “Sea” and the “one like a Son of Man” in Dan 7 has been interpreted as a late rewriting of the mythic themes in the Ugaritic Baal-cycle in which the younger god – Baal empowered by the older -EI defends the inimical Yammu (Ses e.g. EVERTON 1958; COLLINS 1993). Although this view does not go unchallenged (FERCH 1980) and although it provokes problems on the level of interpretation, it must be conceded that in the Ugaritic texts EI had some traits in common with the imagery of the ‘Ancient of Days’. EI is depicted as venerably aged; the grey hair of his beard (fbt dqn) is referred to (KTU 1.3 v:2. 25; 1.4 v:4; 1.18 i: 12 [restored]). Moreover, he receives the epithet ab fnm. ‘father of the years’. by which he is portrayed as the oldest among the gods”.
In Deuteronomy 32:8, we again read of the divine assembly of the “Most High” who distributed all nations among the other gods, among them Yahweh, also proving that he was a minor deity.
“8 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; 9 the Lord’s own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share. Psalm 89 asks, “Who is like the Lord among the heavenly beings? In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared” and Psalm 82 says that “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment”, also in 1 Kings, where Micaiah says, “I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, with all the host of heaven standing beside him.”
There, God poses a problem to those around him and the other deities make various suggestions until a solution is reached! Surprisingly, we find however exactly the same phrase in ancient manuscripts, namely, in “The Balaam Text from Tell Deir ‘Allā, a very rare apocryphal text, in which the Hebrew polytheism appears in its glory with GODS AND GODDESSES just like in the Elephantine temple of the Nile, the Kuntillet Ajrud depictions, the clay figurines, the Stelle at Khirbet ’el-Qom etc.
“The Balaam Text from Tell Deir ‘Allā
i.1 The misfortunes of the Book of Balaam, son of Beor. A divine seer was he.
i.1 The gods came to him at night.
And he beheld a vision in accordance with El’s utterance.
They said to Balaam, son of Beor: “So will it be done, with naught surviving. No one has seen the likes of what you have heard!”
i.5 Balaam arose on the morrow; He summoned the heads of the assembly to him,
i.6 And for two days he fasted, and wept bitterly. Then his intimates entered into his presence,
and they said to Balaam, son of Beor, “Why do you fast, and why do you weep?”
i.7 Then he said to them: “Be seated, and I will relate to you what the Shaddai gods have planned, And go, see the acts of the god!”
i.7 “The gods have banded together; i.8 The Shaddai gods have established a council,
And they have said to the goddess Shagar: ‘Sew up, close up the heavens with dense cloud,
[…..] Freely feed, oh beasts of the field! And freely drink, asses and hyenas!” Balaam Acts to Save the Goddess and the Landi.12 Heed the admonition, adversaries of Shagar-and-Ištar! … skilled diviner. To skilled diviners shall one take you, and to an oracle; […..]
i.15 They heard incantations from afar …Then disease was unleashed
i.16 And all beheld acts of distress. Shagar-and-Ištar did not …
Who Is Balaam Son of Beor? Part Three
Examining the figure of Balaam in archaeology
In which among other disturbing accounts for the Hebrew-Christians, we read ….
“Of additional note are the divine names and terms used within the text, which situates El as the head of a divine council of the Shaddayin and ilahin. This is noteworthy, specifically because it seems to reflect an older form of the Levantine cult, more in line with that of the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 BCE),[3] which corresponds with the period in which Balaam is placed within the Hebrew Bible. Although other explanations are possible for the presence of the older form of the pantheon as well”.
Let’s go now to the phrase “The Host of Heaven” that we encounter in many biblical texts which many theologians try to interpret as “saints, or kings, or judges” who were sanctified. In the same mentioned dictionary, we read in the article “Host of Heaven” p 428,
“In a vision Micah ben Jimlah sees “the lord seated on his throne, with all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right and on his left” (I Kgs 22: 19). This picture is borrowed from terrestrial realities: A king sitting on his -throne and his ministers and attendants surrounding him. Though not using the term ‘host of heaven’ this picture of the divine -·council also underlies Isa 6, where Yahweh as king carries the title ‘lord of hosts’ (Isa 6:3.5). In the course of time, the host of heaven was subject to an astralization in accordance with previous developments in Mesopotamian and Syro-Canaanite religions. This is shown by the texts which understand the host of heaven as sun, -moon and -stars (Deut 4: 19; cf. Ps 148:2-3) or set host of heaven in parallelism to sun and moon, thus meaning the stars alone (Deut 17:3; 2 Kgs 23:5; Jer 8:2; ef. Dan 8: 10).
Do you still have doubts on the polytheistic and pagan origin of the Hebrew-Christianity?
R&I ~ MJM
Δεσμώτης
Article URL : https://www.logos.com/grow/who-are-elohim/