Who is YHWH?
Jun. 29th, 2022 01:22 pmI found out today that YHWH is very likely a lesser god and somewhat reminiscent of the demiurge:
"Yahweh worship also has its roots in an ancient religion of Canaan, the land which God promised to Abraham. Within this polytheistic religion, Yahweh was but one of many deities united under a figure known as El. In the northwestern Semitic language spoken in Canaan, “El” had multiple meanings: It was the word for “god,” the name of a specific god, and the title of a god who stood removed from other, lesser gods.
These lesser gods included Yahweh, Asherah (El’s consort as well as the religion’s chief mother goddess), and Baal, whose worshippers went on to challenge Yahweh’s supremacy in Israel. Yahweh and Baal were merely two of El’s 70 children. According to the mythology, each child of El was given a region to look after. Baal ruled over Canaan while Yahweh, fatefully, was assigned the land of Israel.
Like ancient Near Eastern myths from the same period, the earliest Biblical literature describes Yahweh as possessing particular as opposed to general attributes. He is represented as a storm god who marches into battle alongside stars and planets to defend Israel from enemies. This warrior-like iteration of Yahweh may explain the brutal and volatile behavior he exhibits in the Old Testament, which is a far cry from the omnibenevolent deity we find in Christ."
The trope of an omnibenevolent Christ, was of course debunked and criticized by many.