This question seems rather strange or sacrilegious to the Christians, but let’s examine the facts based on historical, extrabiblical and biblical textual sources.
The Israelites in the beginning of their existence were polytheists. Nobody can deny it, not even the Israelites themselves who affirm their polytheism, even after Exodus and even up to the 2nd century CE, where Dionysus was worshipped in Palestine among Zeus. Besides, their paleo-Hebrew manuscripts undeniably prove it, namely ShR 21.7; Zohar II, 33a, 34a, and 181b, as well as III, 101b and 218a: PRK 33a. (Legends of the Jews, see 4.1, pp 418).
The “history” of the Israelites begins in Egypt, since before that supposed time, we have no information, except the biblical and some scant extrabiblical ones, like the The Balaam Text from Tell Deir ‘Allā and the Ugaritic texts, that also prove the polytheism. It seems that in Egypt, they adopted Egyptian deities as some OT’s verses reveal.
Genesis 49:24, “By the hands of the Bull-El of Jacob, By the name of the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel; By the God of thy father—he will help thee, By El-Shaddai—he shall bless thee.”
The Bull was the symbol of the Egyptian god Apis and the golden veal (or bull?) the Israelites made shortly after Exodus, apparently represented him, while the magic Brazen Serpent the Moses made to protect and to heal the sick Israelites in the desert, was the symbol of Wadjet, the goddess of protection and of the rebirth and regeneration.
In the book “Egyptian mythology and the Bible”, by Alice Grenfell – and not only- we read that “The Israelites worshipped also Khephera the Heliopolitan Egyptian god of the sun before Exodus, as mentioned in the LXX-Torah-OT.
Isaiah 19:18 Study Bible: In that day, there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear loyalty to the LORD of hosts. One will be called the City of the Sun (Heliopolis). [The “hosts” were the planets, the stars and constellations the Israelites worshipped as deities.]
1 Kings 12:28-29 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” 29 One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan.
The name of their primordial deity when the family was matriarchal, was the Canaanite goddess Asherah, “the Mother of all Gods” who was replaced by the Pantheon of El when the family became patriarchal and she became El’s consort. On El’s origin, seek in internet. Besides, the OT itself mentions his name as the chief-deity of the Israelites.
Genesis 33:20 New Catholic Bible 20 There he built an altar and called it, El-Elohe-Israel, which means El, the God of Israel. (see also Congregation of YHWH, Jerusalem’s translation).
El was a Canaanite deity, known also as al, or il venerated also by the Mesopotamians and the Hittites and his name is to be found as el, or il in compound proper noun phrases such as Elizabeth, Ishmael, Israel, Samuel, Daniel, Michael, Gabriel (Arabic: Jibra’il), Bethel etc. He is described as the father of the gods and the creator of humanity. It is characteristic one of his epithets, that of “Bull El” that we encounter in the biblical texts, see Genesis 49:24 stated above.
When part of the Israelites adopted Yahwism through Moses when he married to the Midianite priest’s daughter, (see in internet “The Midianite or Kenite hypothesis), they maintained their polytheistic character assimilating many Canaanites’ concepts and El’s consort became Yahweh’s as attested in Septuagint Deuteronomy 33:2-3
“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.”
In the international bibliography, https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/qadesh/ we read that ” “Qadesh (Qedesh, Kadesh, Qetesh, Qudshu) was originally a Semitic deity whose worship was imported into Egypt during the New Kingdom. She was a goddess of nature, beauty and sexual pleasure. Originally, her husband was the god Reshep, a Syrian deity whose worship was introduced to Egypt during the Middle Kingdom. She was often shown holding snakes (thought to represent male genitalia) or a papyrus plant (representing Reshep) in her right hand and lotus flowers (representing either female genitalia or Min) in her left hand[…] It is often translated as “holy woman” and (according to some) refers to the sacred prostitutes of the cult of Asherah known as Quedeshot.”
Even in the today falsified Septuagint, the “holy ones” (the Qadesh, Quedeshot) still remain in the mistranslation.
Since the Christians maintain that their Jeshua (Jesus) pro-existed Genesis’ creation and since the latter’s god was El and his pantheon, is the latter Jesus’ father, since he (Jesus) co-existed with him in Genesis?
R&I – TP
Δεσμώτης
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