Porcelain Vs. Stoneware Dishes

The origin of God.

In the XXI century, almost four billion people worship
an amalgam of ancient Canaanite gods.

The largest religious complex of our time is, without doubt, the system Abrahamic monotheistic religions. Christianity and Islam, originated in Judaism, declared today about 3,600 of his fans and constantly increasing with the increase in world population. The role of these beliefs in the events and conflicts of this, since the end of the Cold War could not be more clear and relevant. But where does it come from? What kind of deity is this? How did the god of the Abrahamic religions?

of the ancient Jews.

The Exodus did not happen.

Yes, it is a pity because the cartoon is really cool and the Hollywood blockbuster was the cane. But all historical and archaeological evidence suggests that there was never a great mass of Jews in Egypt, and out of Egypt, or traveling the Sinai for however many years. And least 603,550 "fit for war," says Numbers 1:46, and the 600,000 "men on foot, besides children" (and presumably also the women and girls ...) mentioned in Exodus 12 : 37, what may add about two million people in total.

It so happens that Egyptian scribes were as a kind of Germanic accounting obsessive-compulsive disorder, taking note of everything and kept a copy everything. And in all Egyptian history is not one single reference, even indirect, to an event of this draft: the sudden migration of 66% of its population approximately (Ancient Egypt had a population of three million of people around the New Empire period of approximately seven million by the end of its existence). In fact, do not even mention the notable presence of Jews in Egypt, in fact, only speak of them as other more peripheral people. The closest is a vague reference to anything remotely similar to a "plague", subject to which the ancients were very fond, and also modern.

Nor is there any archaeological record of such a mass of humanity moving through the desert of Sinai for decades (and even less in populations Torah says ), no way to square the Pharaoh of the Exodus to any of reality (except in the usual fantasy exercises), or indeed any form of tracing the original text before the middle of the first millennium BC.

In fact, it is quite obvious that the Exodus is not only a national foundation myth of Jewish-like so many others. If you did anything remotely like that could inspire their authors, certainly not was in the second millennium BC (as it should be to form the foundation of Israel) but in the first, when Israel had already been there a while. The Politics of Exodus is the first millennium, not the second. The geography of the Exodus is the first millennium, not the second (in the second there were still many of the locations indicated by the Torah). And the need of Exodus is the first millennium, not the second, from exile in Babylon, around the sixth century BC That is, of course, when he founded the Jewish religion as we know it: you can not draw any their texts to dates before V century BC and most likely its complete form is present even before to II.

never been crossing the Red Sea, manna raining from heaven, Tables of the Law, Ten Commandments, Ark of the Covenant, the golden calf or something similar. It is quite possible that even had King Solomon or the First Temple in Jerusalem (not the meaning that we are told, at least). What there was a cluster of Canaanite peoples in the cultural complex called Levante, linked to Assyria and Mesopotamia on the one hand, Egypt and Turkey on the other and the Greek islands by sea. The culture of the early Israelite sites is Canaanite, sacred objects are those of the Canaanite pantheon, pottery belongs to local tradition and the Canaanite Canaanite alphabet is early. The only difference between the towns of Israel and the rest of the Canaanites is the absence of pig bones, still not sure why (but is reminiscent of the prohibitions in Judaism and Islam). Beyond reasonable doubt one or any combination thereof Canaanite peoples are at the origin of modern Hebrew.

Canaanites

These people shared the same gods, and notably the one called , who was also the generic term for "deity" means an elder god, often depicted with a beard, which appears often sitting on his throne. Is more commonly referred to in plural, Elohim , because the Canaanites were essentially political. No, not a royal we . It is polytheism: the gods .

El, Elohim, Allah

Look we have been grilled with Dead Sea Scrolls, and what little has been said about the cultures and Ugaritic Eblaite , who gave us a huge documentary record of the Canaanite peoples of the third and second millennium exactly when it started to form the Jewish religion later would result from Christianity and Islam. It turns out that the Bible was Elohim and Ugaritic deities, Eblaite and other peoples of the region. In the Levantine pantheon these Elohim are children of the seventies, a conglomerate deities venerated throughout the area since prehistoric times. And, very significantly, with a clear component-Babylonian Akkadian.

him singular of Elohim, is already presiding over the list of gods in the ruins of the Royal Library eblita (archaeological site of Tel Mardik), back in 2250 BC That is long before anything bearing the name of Israel or Jewish adjective (and say no Christian or Muslim) speak of the contemporary Egyptian Old Kingdom, when the pyramids were still nearly new. Him, a bull-god, is itself a cognate of the Akkadian Ilu or Ilum and it is probably the same god Baal-Hammon, whom the other Canaanites, Phoenicians sacrificed their babies to Moloch by burning them alive.

All these words, in fact, modern versions of how these things were spoken. Because the reality is that these protosemíticos Semitic languages \u200b\u200band always have been written only with consonants. And when they are written only with consonants, which is like was made, all are identical to each other: variations on the roots' L and LM. El, Elohim, Eli, Ilah, Ilu, Ilum and other divine expressions are but different expressions of 'L & LM: the god, gods .
protosemíticas
These roots not only travel to our time through the God of the Torah and the Old Testament, or Eli's new, but also by way of Arab cultures that developed in the same territory and its surroundings. The god of Muslims is the same Abrahamic God than Christians and Jews, and the name of God is carried by the following L, becoming Allah (which means, exactly ... God.) The famous Islamic shahada "there is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger" literally starts: lā 'ilaha' illa-llahuar ... , ie, no more ilah Allah . Islam, of course, also come from the Semitic root S-[LM] and means "submission [Elohim].")

LORD.

However, Jews and Christians say their the has another name and that name is Yahweh, Yahweh, Yehová (Jehovah) or any other invention of the Hebrew tetragrammaton YHWH. Usually, what they do is to combine different sets of YHWH with members drawn from Elohim or Adonai ("Lord"). But as far as I know, you could say also rained (decorated like Yohvíh ) Take ( Yehvah ) Key ( Lord ) or any other combination to use because, supposedly, the name of your god was so, so sacred and so, so secret that the original has been lost. This, what you see, is very important and distinguishes them from other followers of the ancient Levantine bull-god, also is a singular term and thus away from the uncomfortable and polytheistic Canaanite plural Elohim.

The origin of the name YHWH is darker but no more exclusive territories than very vulgar Levantine Elohim. To begin with, and in the same Old Testament appears fifty times in a shorter variant, usually given or Yah Jah (YH): twenty-six and twenty solo as part of the word hallelujah (hallelujah-yah " Praise Yah "). There are three curious circumstances. The first is that the biblical texts which appear predominantly tend to be among the oldest (as Psalms or the Song of Songs), suggesting a primitive form of the name. The second is that there an ancient Egyptian moon god named Yah also, and sent a lot of Egyptians in Canaan during several periods in its history (with an extensive influence in its southern regions ...). And the third is that the root consonant YW ( Yav ) longer appears in the Epic of Baal Ugaritic texts and in several Eblaite as a variant on the sea god Yam.

But enough speculation. This god is a god YHWH south of Edom , another Semitic people who lived in the Negev Desert and was finally treated the Jews. There are notable archaeologists say they have found YHWH in Egyptian texts referring to the shasu , a Bedouin village of nomadic herders who hovered around these deserts, but others say this word YHWH refers to their camp (which is not necessarily exclusive). In any case this is a god emerged in southern Levantine territories where once roamed the shasu and then worked Edom copper ... which, curiously, are in the Sinai, where according to the biblical version ineffable name "was revealed to Moses." The first text where it appears the god of the Jews YHWH is a Moabite Stela preserved in the Museum the Louvre, and not stand out very well, tells how they have defeated and how the glasses are washed YHWH sacred to a god of Moab.

(Click to enlarge)

In any case, it is quite obvious that the god of the ancient Jews is a blend of supreme bull-god common to all the Canaanite peoples, the ( Elohim in its political form), and a dark side god southern territories absorbed at some point in their history. In practice, there is no noticeable difference between the Levantine revered by Ugaritic or Eblaite and El-Yahweh adopted by the Jews. This ancient Canaanite deity worship is still almost four billion people in the XXI century.

The goddess disappeared.

Yes, that of the goddess is very popular in the trade literature, but all had their ancient gods for God, and the Elohim-Yahweh-was no exception. In the Levantine cultural conglomerate, the mother goddess Asherah he was also known under other variants as Ashratu or Atirat. In the Ugaritic Baal Epic, Asherah is the creator of the Elohim .

Asherah in the Bible, and specifically in the Book 2 of Reyes, explaining how to destroy their religion and burn "all the objects that were made for Baal, Asherah and all the host of heaven " (2 Kings 23:4-7) during what appears to be the account of a violent crackdown on Taliban monotheistic flying Buddhas plan (well, worse ...). In other places is translated as a cipo should not be planted near the temple of Yahweh .

And it seems that the cult of goddess Asherah as the consort of Yahweh-Elohim-was widespread among the ancient Jews, there is an extensive archaeological record about it, and in fact you'd think it was a very popular goddess before The monotheistic spend as much by the sword and fire. Nor do we go to idealize as things: there is a certain possibility that Asherah will be as human sacrifice as much as his daughter Anat / Tanit, which they say will put less nasty smelling of cooked (or cooked) in the Tophet. The truth is that among a bunch of politicians willing to sacrifice a samophlange to appease the goddess and a bunch of monotheistic willing to sacrifice the whole world to impose its own, I stay with a AK-47 and by sunrise Antequera. Yes, the past was a mess.

But the truth is that Asherah loved the ancient Jews, he said, as evidenced by numerous archaeological discoveries. Entries are retained even where it is linked directly to Yahweh as an ostracon VIII century BC Israeli archaeologists discovered in 1975 that read "I bless you by Yahweh of Samaria and His Asherah" (site of Horvat Teman). Another, from Khirbet el-Kom (near Hebron), reads: "Blessed be Uriyahu by YHWH and His Asherah, saved from its enemies!". All this may sound somewhat heretical to some, but findings are supported by renowned archaeologist Israel Finkelstein as-teacher and ex-director of the Department of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, co-director of excavations of Megiddo and probably the greatest living expert on the Bronze Age and Iron Hebrew-o Neil A. Silberman, Department of Archaeology, University of Massachusetts. Those who, of course, biblical literalists and other fans like that can not stand the sight of.

Ostracon Copy of Kuntillet 'Adschrud (Horvat Teman, Sinai, southern Israel). The inscription (ancient Hebrew) is read "A [shy] or R [e?] Said: I gave a (X) (Y) (Z), you are blessed by YHWH of Shomron (Samaria) and his Asherah."

There was a goddess of Israel. In fact, surely, there were several among these Elohim Canaanites. That all this was swept by monotheism, and now pretend that never happened, does not detract one iota of truth. But what happened? How was it? And why?

Monotheism.

Today we have the Israelites notable warriors, but this has not happened very often during the course of history. Over a long time were a small and backward, which gave him hair and over again, resulting in numerous exiles. For example, the Romans. The Jerusalem that now visit many credulous thinking are in the city of Jesus is in fact the Arab development of Aelia Capitolina : a good pagan Roman colony and built from scratch, including the layout of the streets "after the imperial legions noses are swell with Jews, destroyed the city completely and finally the diaspora be sent to the following for nineteen centuries. Few jokes with Latinos. Yes, to the Via Dolorosa is a Roman street with no connection to ancient Jerusalem, like everything else in that place, to be exact, a branch of decumanus maximus as standard imperial urbanization. The supposed location of the current holy places Christians, Jews and Muslims is already a kind of sacrilegious joke on the people seem ready to continue killing.

was not the first time. Six-odd centuries earlier, in 587 BC, the Babylonians of Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldean suit. Jerusalem was sacked, the Temple was destroyed and the Jews were taken to Babylonia as slaves. It is during this period of slavery when it comes to the Abrahamic religion emanating from the current Jewish, Christian and Muslim. was subjected in Babylon or after where they wrote most of the Torah and the Old Testament (including the legends of Genesis, Exodus and the Pentateuch in general), and is also at this time when developing unique and exclusive monotheism that characterizes them.

Let us in the situation. We are in the times my gods are more cool than yours because you have overcome . And the Jews had been defeated, but defeated at all, much as their Nazi enemy two thousand and odd years later, making the Reichstag and all the paraphernalia. Plus, if I hurry. Following the logic of the time, the Elohim-Yahweh should have been absorbed under the umbrella of the pantheon heating, or even should have been very difficult, since many of the Levantine Elohim were parallel to the Babylonian gods and goddesses.

But that meant losing the identity completely and disappear as a people, one more on the winds of history. It is in this context that new (and, again, there is no historical or archaeological data to suggest that happened before.) On the one hand, it creates a national legend steeped in Babylonian mythology strongly: the Flood is a direct plagiarism of the Sumerian epic Similarly, Genesis 1 drink directly Enuma Elish of and Genesis 2 of Atrahasis , Adam is like Adapa (and both are also cognates), the snake has strange similarities to Ningizzida , and so with everything. Furthermore, Yahweh Elohim, God becomes an omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent and unique, and whatever happens to the Jews, His chosen people, is part of his plan , pre-engineered from the beginning of time. Even his enemies work for him without knowing it. This also disappear mythological stories of gods and goddesses, as they no longer make sense.

This

is certainly a novelty in human history that is not clearly documented in another time or place (although there are parallels in some traditions of Hinduism). This god is not exactly supernatural, but extranatural , everything is justified in him and through him. There is much more than a form of circular thinking (not be confused with the circular reasoning of Aristotle), but certainly powerful. Because, although at first no more than a rarity of a people of antiquity, half a millennium and begin to peak after becoming the essential religious substrate most of the world. Until today.

Angels & Demons.

What happened to the rest of the Elohim? Then they became demons. Beelzebub, for example, Zebub Baal, the god flies in what very well could be a corruption more or less derogatory Zebul Baal (the god of the heights). Leviathan is probably related to the Ugaritic monster Lotan or Lawtan . However, it is not clear where they took the names of the angels. Third-century Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish recognized that the angels were unnamed former and current names come (also) from exile in Babylon. In any If they are all names theophoric including mention of him: Gabriel, Raphael, Michael, Azrael Muslim, and so on.

Locate these angels and demons in the new monotheism was always very complicated. In particular, there arises a greater evil angel (Satan, Lucifer, Iblis) that a twisted form must necessarily be an agent of God Almighty, omnipresent and omniscient (or, otherwise, this could not be God Almighty, omnipresent and omniscient). All these institutions are the legacy of earlier policies. Abrahamic religions share a number of levels of angels (archangels, seraphim, cherubim ...), one or more levels of demons (which Muslims call shaitan), a "greater evil" (Satan, Iblis ...) and in the unique case Islam, a lot of genies (djinn ).

Christianity also returns to multiply the number of divine entities by the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three gods in one, so contradictory and inexplicable as it is considered a divine mystery ). And, in some denominations such as Catholic, incorporating what may well be interpreted as a demigod (Virgin) and saints, many members of other religions or no religion people believe these additions a form of polytheism soft for easy expansion and integration in political and less traditional territories near the Levantine cultural environment.

Monotheistic and empires.

Because the success and extent of these new religions (in season) is closely linked to the expansion of empires that have adopted them as their own: so notorious, the late Roman Empire, the Umayyad Caliphate and-after - the places where they arrived their successors, conquerors and traders. At first, for more than half millennium, the Abrahamic monotheism was but a rarity Jewish and thus would have been if it had remained exclusively Hebrew. Transmission is Christianity and Islam what would become a global religion.

has often insisted that this idea of \u200b\u200bone god almighty and paste especially well with social organizations and imperialist pyramid-like, but in my opinion this is not self-evident. There were great empires in antiquity, perfectly pyramidal and perfectly imperialists who were polytheists or whatever else they wanted. Not obvious reason why the Abrahamic monotheism was accepted by many people in so many places (although a strongly proselytizing and high degree of theological development can shed some light), nor why he never managed to penetrate deep in some areas important (the ones who were previously occupied by dármicas religions and eastern and were not displaced by means of military conquest or, in some cases commercial).

seems as if the Abrahamic monotheism would have been particularly likely to destroy or absorb with relative ease to animism and paganism polytheistic (with major or minor concessions), but I would have been much more difficult to deal with other complex philosophical and theological systems. Since the mid-nineteenth century, its geographical expansion is interrupted in general, the British colonial rule in India, for example, no longer resulted in his Christianity at significant levels (or the Islamic movement which was already present, and Pakistan ), unlike what happened during the colonization of America or was happening even in sub-Saharan Africa. The strong presence of colonial powers in China in the same period did not produce an effective Christianization. And it was not for lack missionaries and proselytizers, or in a place or the other.

As the twentieth century, Abrahamic monotheism began to back away from their places of origin. On the one hand there is a phenomenon of syncretism with some of these Eastern religions, in what is often called New Age globally, especially in Europe and North America and at the same time, a process rapid secularization and very significant in Europe and Israel (and for a time also in the Islamic world, before a new form of fundamentalism emerged about the struggles of the Cold War a trend that also are outside the U.S.).

early twenty-first century, the old god of the Canaanites is still the most revered deity of the world in all its aspects, alone or mixed with Edomite Yah, and, however, is reeling in developed countries. Surely none of his original followers, four or five thousand years ago, never dreamed that go as far or with such styles. Until today.

Bibliography:

• Lemche, Niels P. (2008) The Old Testament, Theology and history entre . Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville KY. ISBN 978-06-642-3245-0.
• Finkelstein, I, Silberman, NA (2007) David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's sacred kings and the roots of Western tradition . Ed Spain's Siglo XXI, Madrid. ISBN 978-84-323-1296-0
• Davies, Philip R (2006) In search of 'Ancient Israel' (2 nd edition). Continuum, London. ISBN 978-1-850-75737-5.
• Finkelstein, I, Silberman, NA (2003) The Bible Unearthed: a new archaeological vision of ancient Israel and the origins of their sacred texts . XXI Century España Ed., Madrid. ISBN 978-84-323-1124-6.
• Day, John (2002) Yahweh and the gods and goddesses of Canaan . Sheffield Academic Press Ltd., Londres. ISBN 978-08-264-6830-7.
• Smith, Mark S. (2002) The early history of God: Yahweh and the other deities in ancient Israel (2ª edición). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids MI. ISBN 978-08-028-3972-5.
• Smith, Mark S. (2001) The origins of biblical monotheism . Oxford University Press, Nueva York. ISBN 978-01-951-6768-9.
• Van der Toorn, K.; Becking, B.; Van der Horst, P. W. (1999) Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (2ª edición) Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden. ISBN 90-04-11119-0.
• Coogan, Michael D. (1998) The Oxford history of the biblical world . Oxford University Press, Nueva York. ISBN 0-19-513937-2.
• Keel, O.; Uehlinger, C. (1998) Gods, goddesses and images of God in ancient Israel . Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis MN. ISBN 0-567-08591-0.
• Olmo Lete, G. del (1993) La religión cananea . Ausa, Barcelona. ISBN 978-84-86329-89-1.
• Thomson, Thomas L. (1992) Early history of the Israelite people . Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden. ISBN 90-04-11943-4.