Yahweh-Elohim's Historical Evolution (Pre-Biblical)
02 September 2001
(Revisions & Updates through 05 May 2008)
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This brief article investigates the "historical evolution" of the Hebrew God, variously called Yahweh, Yaw, Yah, Ya, Yahu, El, Elohim or Ehyeh asher Ehyeh ( "I AM that I AM" Hebrew: Hayah Ex 3:14) over a period of 3,000 years (the 4th -1st Millenniums B.C.) from a Secular Humanist point of view.
In a "nutshell," it is my understanding that Yahweh is an amalgam, a conflation or fusion of various and sundry earlier gods and goddesses, having absorbed their functions, epithets and achievements. That is to say the Latin Motto found on the coins and currency of the United States of America, E PLURIBUS UNUM, "From Many, One," appropriately describes Yahweh-Elohim.
By what "mechanism" did Yahweh-Elohim come to absorb the earlier gods and goddesses, their feats, epithets, titles, and glories? It was via political power. Scholars have noted that as polictical fortunes shifted with the rise and fall of various polities in Mesopotamia the earlier gods came to have their powers usurped by the latest conqueror. Babylon upon coming to power created its Enuma Elish hymn which enumerates how Marduk the son of Ea, has garnered the power and attributes of the earlier gods some 50 of whom are enumerated. They become aspects of his persona. Still later Assyria arose and conquered Babylon. The Assyrians "appropriated" the Enuma Elish and made Asshur the supreme god, and Marduk joined the 50 gods as merely a persona of Asshur. Thus too, I understand that as the political fortunes of Israel "waxed" and she triumphed over the Canaanites, their gods' and goddesses' powers, epithets and feats were ascribed to Yahweh. There was a difference, however, the Hebrews generally challenged or refuted Mesopotamian notions, so instead of enumerating these gods and goddesses as personas of Yahweh, they were altogether "dismissed" as idols of wood and stone and not gods at all, there was only one god, Yahweh. The usurping of earlier gods by later gods went on into Christian times. In the New Testament we are informed that Jesus Christ was Yahweh-Elohim of the Old Testament (John 1:1-18). Christ made Adam and Eve, Christ gave Moses the 10 Commandments, the "God-blinded" Jews unknowingly had been worshipping Christ, not God the Father! Then along came Islam, Jesus was NOT the God of the Old Testament, Allah was! So we have before us some 4,000 years of "Godly usurpations" via the rise and fall of political entities.
Nothing is "lock-tight provable," _all_ is _speculation_ for scholars, myself included. I understand that Yahweh is an almagam of MANY gods and goddesses, Mesopotamian, Hittite, Syrian, Phoenician, Egyptian, and Canaanite. I feel it is a useless methodology to "nit-pick" and stress "the differences" and IGNORE the similarities shared by the various dieties. For me the Hebrews are _not_ attempting to preserve ALL the characteristics of any given god or goddess, they omit what they have no interest in to build their case for there being only one God. So I accept in essence many gods and goddesses as being amalgamated into Yahweh and I DO NOT WORRY about "the inconsistences" which some scholars view as "cancelling-out" identifications. Gods fused into Yahweh's persona are the Sumerian Enki (Akkadian/Babylonian Ea), Enlil (Ellil), An (Anu), Utu (Shamash), _and_ the Egyptian Hyksos' god Baal Saphon (Baal Hadad) as well as Seth (Seth/Set being assimilated to Baal Saphon) and Sopdu of Egypt, said Egyptian gods surfacing in altered form in the Exodus traditions (said associations being made in "other" articles at my website).
Professors Graves and Patai (1963) on the Hebrews borrowing the epithets and achievements of the pagan gods and ascribing them to Yahweh:
"The titles and attributes of many other Near Eastern deities were successively awarded to Yahweh Elohim...Prophets and Psalmists were as careless about the pagan origins of the religious imagery they borrowed, as priests were about the adaptation of heathen sacrifical rites to God's service. The crucial question was: in whose honour these prophecies and hymns should now be sung, or these rites enacted? If in honour of Yahweh Elohim, not Anath, Baal or Tammuz, all was proper and pious." (p. 28. Robert Graves & Raphael Patai. Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis. New York. Greewich House. 1983 reprint of 1963, 1964 editions)
Professor Blenkinsopp (of Notre Dame University) on Atrahasis and Gilgamesh motifs in Genesis:
"...just as Genesis 1-11 as a whole corresponds to the structure of the Atrahasis myth, so the garden of Eden story has incorporated many of the themes of the great Gilgamesh poem." (pp. 65-6. "Human Origins, Genesis 1:1-11:26." Joseph Blenkinsopp. The Pentateuch, An Introduction to the First Five Books of the Bible. New York. Doubleday. 1992. ISBN 0-385-41207-X)
Graves and Patai on Adam's "Fall" being a possible reworking of Enkidu and Adapa:
"Some elements of the Fall of Man myth in Genesis are of great antiquity...The Gilgamesh Epic...describes...Enkidu...shunned by the wild creatures...the priestess ...covered his nakedness...Another source of the Genesis Fall of Man is the Akkadian myth of Adapa...This myth supplies the theme of the Serpent's warning to Eve..." (pp. 78-79. "The Fall of Man." Robert Graves & Raphael Patai. Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis. New York. Greewich House. 1983 reprint of 1963, 1964 edition)
Professor Batto (1992) on the Hebrews recasting of earlier Mesopotamian myths and motifs in the Hebrew Bible:
"...I want to emphasize that this new mythmaking process is a conscious, reflected application of older myths and myhic elements to new situations...In so far as one admits the presence of myth in ancient Babylonian and Canaanite culture, then one must also admit the presence of myth in the Bible...This book, then, is a series of case studies of mythmaking in ancient Israel, or to be more exact, in the biblical tradition." (pp. 13-14. "Introduction." Bernard F. Batto. Slaying the Dragon, Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition. Louisville, Kentucky. Westminster/John Knox Press. 1992)
"Now the Yahwist's primeval narrative is itself a marvelous example of mythmaking based upon prior Mesopotamian myths, notably Atrahasis and Gilgamesh. Interestingly, the reappropriation of mythic traditions and intertextual borrowing posited for biblical writers was already present within ancient Babylonia, and illustrates that biblical writers must be understood within the larger ancient Near Eastern literary and theological tradition." (p. 14. "Introduction." Bernard F. Batto. Slaying the Dragon, Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition. Louisville, Kentucky. Westminster/John Knox Press. 1992)
"The theme of this volume...is, of myth and mythmaking speculation within the Hebrew Bible...biblical writers employed much the same techniques and even the same mythic motifs as their ancient Near Eastern neighbors...Israel...drew heavily upon the Babylonian myth of Atrahasis, supplementing with motifs from Gilgamesh and other traditional myths, to create a specifically Israelite primeval myth...Like their ancient Near Eastern counterparts, Israel's theologians were concerned with the place of humankind -and particularly of their own people- within the realm of being." (pp. 168-169. "Conclusion." Bernard F. Batto. Slaying the Dragon, Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition. Louisville, Kentucky. Westminster/John Knox Press. 1992)
"The focus of this volume has been the various ways in which biblical writers throughout the history of the composition of the Hebrew Bible have used and reused myth...to undergird their religious and/or sociopolitical agenda. My purpose...has been only to show through representative examples how biblical authors actually went about using mythic motifs in their writing and how they consciously manipulated these to serve their specific purposes." (pp. 171-172. "Conclusion." Bernard F. Batto. Slaying the Dragon, Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition. Louisville, Kentucky. Westminster/John Knox Press. 1992)
It is my understanding that the Bible has provided false clues to generations of bible scholars, leading them on a "merry chase" into the Negeb and Sinai for the origins of Yahwehism. One tends to forget that Yahweh's FIRST appearance to Abraham was NOT in the Sinai, but at the city called Ur of the Chaldees in Lower Mesopotamia. I thus understand Yahwehism begins at Ur and this article explores Lower Mesopotamia as "one of the sources" for Israel's God, in addition to N Syria and Haran as well as Phoenicia, Canaan and Egypt (with a "nod" for the Sinai, Negev, Arabah and Midian).
A Jewish savant writing at the time of the Hasmoneans (2d-1st century B.C.) notes that Terah and Abraham FLED Ur of the Chaldees, when their MONOTHEISTIC CHALLENGE was "rejected" by the POLYTHEISTIC populace.
Note that this author understands his Hebrew ancestors were ORIGINALLY CHALDEANS _NOT_ARAMEANS (contra De 26:5), and that ORIGINALLY THEY LIVED IN CHALDEA _NOT_ ARAM (Syria and Haran, here rendered "Mesopotamia"). He also understands that AS CHALDEANS THEY WORSHIPPED MANY GODS, but while IN CHALDEA they came to be aware that there was only ONE GOD, and they were driven from Chaldea (Babylonia) by their CHALDEAN KINSMEN for refusing to worship any longer the ancestral gods. In other words, this anonymous Hasmonean Jewish savant understood that "monotheism" began with Yahweh revealing himself to Terah and Abraham in Chaldea (cf. Ge 11:31-32) rather than at Haran in Aram/Syria (cf. Ge 12:1-4). I have noted, below, that the adventures and feats of Enki/Ea of Eridu, in what later came to be identified with Chaldea by Hasmonean times, were preserved in cuneiform clay tablets at Ur of the Chaldees (a temple to Ea was found at Ur). Ea creates man to work in his Eridu fruit-tree garden, he has man serve him in a state of nakedness denying him the knowledge it is wrong to be naked, he gives man forbidden knowledge but denies him immortality, he causes the one language of mankind to become many languages to spite his brother-god Enlil, and he warns Ziusudra of Shuruppak of a worldwide Flood intended to destroy mankind. And on the 7th day, the sebittu day, Ea with his fellow gods can now at long last achieve a "rest" from man's constant noise, the Flood having destroyed mankind. I am sure that this Jewish Hasmonean savant had _no_ knowledge of Enki/Ea of Eridu in Chaldea being one of the prototypes of Ehyeh, Yah, Yahweh-Elohim, and he probably was also unaware of Enki/Ea's shrine/temple in Ur of the Chaldees (tell Muquyyar) unearthed by archaeologists. Did Terah and Abraham worship Enki/Ea in Ur of the Chaldees at this shrine?
Judith 5:5-9 RSV
"Then Achior, the leader of all the Ammonites, said to him, "Let my lord now hear a word from the mouth of your servant, and I will tell you the truth about this people that dwells in the nearby mountain district. No falsehood shall come from your servant's mouth. THIS PEOPLE IS DESCENDED FROM THE CHALDEANS. At one time they lived in Mesopotamia, because THEY WOULD NOT FOLLOW THE GODS OF THEIR FATHERS WHO WERE IN CHALDEA. FOR THEY HAD LEFT THE WAYS OF THEIR ANCESTORS, and they worshipped THE GOD of Heaven, THE GOD they had come to know; hence THEY DROVE THEM OUT FROM THE PRESENCE OF THEIR GODS; and THEY FLED TO MESOPOTAMIA, and lived there a long time. Then their God commanded them to leave the place were they were living and go to the land of Canaan. There they settled, and prospered..." (Herbert G. May & Bruce M. Metzger. Editors. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. [Revised Standard Version]. New York. Oxford University Press. 1977)
Where possibly is the anonymous author of Judith getting his notions of Terah and Abraham being originally polytheists? Perhaps it is from Joshua's statement that Terah, Nahor and Abraham worshipped "many" gods:
Joshua 24:1-3 RSV
"Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, "YOUR FATHERS lived of old beyond the Euphrates, TERAH, the father of ABRAHAM and NAHOR; and THEY SERVED OTHER GODS. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many."
Genesis has Yahweh revealing to Abraham just how to worship him. In light of the above assertion by the anonymous Jewish Hasmonean Savant, it would appear that Abraham's concepts of the deity "ought to be" _traceable_ to CHALDEAN precepts, or some "re-working" and "transformation" of CHALDEAN beliefs regarding the relationship between man and God:
Genesis 26:5 RSV
"...Abraham obeyed my voice and KEPT my CHARGE, my COMMANDMENTS, my STATUTES, and my LAWS."
Scholars understand that "Ur of the Chaldees" is an _anachronism_ when applied to Abraham who is understood to have flourished circa the 22d century B.C. The city did not become a part of Chaldea until the 8th-6th centuries B.C., when Chaldean tribes who inhabited the marshlands south of Babylonia and extending to Elam, seized the area and ruled it under a "Chaldean dynasty". Thus the 2d century B.C. Hasmonean savant is applying the term Chaldean to Abraham from a "late" geographical convention which equated Babylonia with Chaldea and Babylonians with Chaldeans since the 8th-6th centuries B.C.
Scholars are divided as to Ur's location, positing it is either Urfa in modern Turkey or Ur in Babylonia, modern Tell Mughayir alternately rendered Mugheir, Mugayyar, Muqayyer, Muqqayir or Muqqayyar. This brief article investigates the claims made by both sides. Professor Sarna, favoring it to be Babylonia, notes that the term "of the Chaldees ( Hebrew: Kasdim)," dates the Abrahamic narrative to no earlier than the 7th century B.C.:
"The difficulty, however, lies with the designation "Ur of the Chaldeans." The name "Chaldeans" as applied to lower Mesopotamia does not appear before the eleventh century B.C.E., many hundreds of years after the patriarchs. The city of Ur itself could not have been called "of the Chaldeans" before the foundation of the Neo-Baylonian empire in the seventh century B.C.E. The characterization therefore, as distinct from the tradition, would seem to be anachronistic." (p. 98, "The Problem of Ur," Nahum M. Sarna. Understanding Genesis. New York. Shocken Books. 1966. reprinted 1970)
If Professor Sarna is correct, that the term "Ur of the Chaldeans" must have arisen after the rise of the Neo-Babylonian Empire of the seventh century B.C., then Genesis and the Pentateuch was probably composed no earlier than this period.
2 Kings 25:27 gives a date of ca. 562-560 B.C., this period of time being the reign of the Babylonian king Evil-Merodach (Chaldean: Amel-Marduk), suggesting the sixth century BCE, for the composition of the National History (Genesis to Kings). "Ur of the Chaldeans" serves as a marker that the text is not earlier than the seventh century B.C. (Ur not being a part of Chaldea before that date).
Professor Rogerson's view on the "final dating" of Genesis understands its last redaction or editing was in the Exile (or shortly thereafter):
“The simple answer to the question of date is that Genesis 1-11 is part of the larger work containing Genesis to 2 Kings...This complete work did not reach its final form until during or after the Babylonian Exile in the sixth century B.C.E. However, the date of the final editing does not determine the date of the individual items to be found in Genesis 1-11.” (p. 76. “The Date of Genesis 1-11.” John William Rogerson. Genesis 1-11. Sheffield, England. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. University of Sheffield]. 1991)
Lambert has noted that for the Mesopotamian cosmographers, their efforts were not so much the creation of new gods and new concepts from whole cloth, but rather the taking of older concepts and adding a "new Twist." This is my understanding in regards to Yahweh-Elohim, he is the result of "new twists" derived from a "re-working and transformation" of older concepts by the Hebrews, who followed in the footsteps of their Mesopotamian counterparts.
Professor Lambert:
"The authors of ancient cosmologies were essentially compilers. Their originality was expressed in new combinations of old themes, and in new twists to old ideas."
(p.107. W.G. Lambert. "A New Look at the Babylonian Background of Genesis." [1965], in Richard S. Hess & David T. Tsumra, Editors. I Studied Inscriptions From Before the Flood. Winona Lake, Indiana, Eisenbrauns, 1994)
Scholars have identified some of the motifs and concepts found in Genesis as existing in Sumerian works of the 3rd millennium B.C. (but said motifs and concepts perhaps being of the 4th millennium). Genesis explains how man in the form of Adam, came to lose out on a chance to obtain immortality. His God denies him access to the Tree of Life, whose fruit, if consumed, confers immortality. This is apparently a later Hebrew reworking of the "Adapa and the South Wind myth." Adapa, symbolizing man, has an opportunity to obtain immortality. All he has to do is eat and drink the food of the gods offered him by Tammuz and Nin-gish-zida on behalf of Anu. Adapa refuses both on the prior advice of his god Ea (Akkadian for "house of water," Sumerian: En-ki, en meaning "lord" and ki meaning "earth"), who forewarned him he would surely die if he consumed anything. So, Mankind lost out on obtaining immortality because HE OBEYED HIS GOD. Ea (Enki) did not want "his servant" Adapa to possess immortality, he was willing though to give great "wisdom or knowledge" to Adapa (teaching him powerful incantations, spells and curses, allowing Adapa to break the wing of the south wind god, and thus stopping sea breezes from reaching lower Mesopotamia). So, in Genesis and Adapa, we have motifs of lost immortality, food conferring immortality, a god denying man immortality, man's aquisition of forbidden knowledge (Anu being upset to learn Ea (Enki) has taught the man powerful incantations to use against the gods) but reworked and transformed. Adam loses out on immortality because he disobeyed, whereas Adapa obeyed. Yahweh-Elohim then, is a re-working and transformation of the Akkadian god of Wisdom and Knowledge, Ea, pronounced aya or ayya (any relation to Iah/Yah ? or ehyeh asher ehyeh, "I AM that I IAM, tell them eyheh has sent you" Exodus 3:14). Also of note here is Ea's/Enki's association with freshwater, the Apsu, and Enki's epithet nudimmud naqbi "creator of groundwater", which recalls for me, Yahweh's creating a groundwater spring in the Garden of Eden which became the source of the world's four rivers, the Pishon, Gihon, Hiddekel and Euphrates (Enki is shown on a throne with streams of water flowing from waterpots).
Leick on Enki's assimilation with Ea/Ayya:
"Ea - also 'Ay(y)a; Akkadian god.
The name of this god is probably Semitic, although no reliable etymology has yet been found. Ancient Babylonian scribes derived it from Sumerian E.a, 'house of the water'. In the texts from the Old Sumerian and Sargonic periods Ea/Ayya occurs mainly in Akkadian personal names. The pronunciation Ea (Ay-a) is attested since the Ur III period. The original character of this god is impossible to assess because of his syncretism with the Sumerian god Enki, which probably occurred as early as the Sargonic period. Ea's functions in the Babylonian and Assyrian tradition are therefore essentially the same as Enki's. He is a water god (bel naqbi, 'lord of the Spring') a creator (ban kullat, 'creator of everything') a god of wisdom (bel uzni, 'lord of wisdom'), the supreme master of magic (mash.mash ilani, 'incantation specialist of the gods'), the protector of craftsmen and artisans." (p. 37. "Ea." Gwendolyn Leick. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. London. Routledge. 1991, 1996, 1998)
Leick on Enki:
"Enki, Sumerian god.
The name can either be taken to mean 'Lord Earth', but Ki also stands for the 'Below' in regard to a two-tiered cosmic structure with An (Heaven) as the 'Above'. Certainly the character of Enki ever since the earliest documents from the Old Sumerian period is formed by his association with water, most notably in the ground-water or Apsu. The Apsu is his dwelling place and in the figure of Enki, the creative potential of the fertilizing humidity is given a dramatic expression...One of his literary epithets is nudimmud- 'who creates', while the appellative nagbu means directly 'source, groundwater'. Enki is also the god of wisdom...His main cult center was the lagoon-based Eridu...but...he also had numerous temples elsewhere...[including] Ur..." (p. 40. "Enki." Gwendolyn Leick. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. London. Routledge. 1991, 1996, 1998)
Pinches on Ea possibly being a prototype of the Hebrew God Yah (note: Pir-napishtim is now rendered Utnapishtim, he is the "Mesopotamian Noah"), and that the Flood was a flooding Euphrates river (Note :Microscopic inspection of the flood sediments at Shuruppak where the Flood-Hero lived at the time he was warned of the pending flood, revealed freshwater laid silts and clays, suggesting a river flood):
"Professor Hommel, the well-known Assyriologist and Professor of Semitic languages at Munich, suggests that this god Ya is another form of the name Ea..." (p. 59. Theophilus G. Pinches. The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia. London. Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge. 1908)
"The reason of the coming of the Flood seems to have been seems to have been regarded by the Babylonians as two-fold. In the first place, as Pir-napishtim is made to say "Always the river rises and brings a flood" -in other words it was a natural phenomenon. But in the course of the narrative which he relates to Gilgamesh, the true reason is implied, though it does not seem to be stated in words. And this reason is the same as that of the Old Testament, namely, the wickedness of the world...Pir-napishtim was himself a worshipper of Ae, and on account of that circumstance, he is represented in the story as being under the special protection of that god...It has been more than once suggested, and Professor Hommel has stated the matter as his opinion, that the name of the god Ae or Ea, another possible reading of which is Aa, may be in some way connected with, and perhaps originated the Assyro-Babylonian divine name Ya'u "god," which is cognate with the Hebrew Yah or, as it is generally written, Jah...There is one thing that is certain, and that is, that the Chaldean Noah, Pir-napishtim, was faithful in the worship of the older god, who therefore warned him, saving his life." (pp.112-114. "The Flood." Theophilus G. Pinches. The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia. London. Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge. 1908)
Kramer on "when" Enki became Ea:
"...about 2500 BC, Akkadians introduced the name Ea for Enki." (p. 3. Samuel Noah Kramer & John Maier. Myths of Enki the Crafty God. New York. Oxford University Press. 1989)
Abraham according to the biblical chronology compiled by some scholars was born circa 2100 BCE and lived at Ur of the Chaldees (modern Tell al Muqayyar in Sumer according to some). If Kramer is correct in identifying certain motifs associated with Enki as later ascribed to the Hebrew God Yahweh-Elohim, it is possible that Abraham would have known Enki as Ea, as this name change occured approximately some 400 years before his birth. Did the Aramaic "ear" at Haran where Terah and Abraham later settled, via "assonance" transform Ea (pronounced Ay-a according to Leick) into Ehyeh who allegedly spoke to Moses at the burning bush (Ex 3:14)?
Anderson on Yahweh's different name forms found in the Hebrew Bible:
"It is not certain, however, that 'yahweh' was the oldest form of the name. A short form 'yah' appears 25 times in the Old Testament (Ex 15:2; and cultic cry 'hallelu-yah'= 'praise yah'). Sometimes the short form appears as 'yahu' or 'yo' as in proper names like Joel ('Yo is God') or Isaiah ('Yah is salvation')." (p. 409. vol. 2. B. W. Anderson. "God, Names of." pp. 407-416. George Arthur Buttrick. Editor. The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible. Nashville. Abingdon Press. 1962)
Diane Wolkstein, in collaboration with the late Sumerologist Professor Samuel Noah Kramer noted that Enki possessed the secret to restoring the dead in the Underworld back to life and a resurrection to the earth's surface. In the myth of Ishtar or Inanna's descent into the Underworld, she tells her servant that if after three days and nights she does not return, he is to notify Enki who will effect her release (cf. pp.54, 61. Diane Wolkstein & Samuel Noah Kramer. Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, Her Stories and Hymns From Sumer. New York. Harper & Row, Publishers. 1983. ISBN 0-06-090854-8 pbk)
She is killed by her jealous sister, Erishkigal, the Queen of the Underworld and her naked lifeless body is hung on a stake. After three days and nights, Inanna's servant alerts Enki. He sends two servants to restore Inanna to life by sprinkling on her dead body, "the bread of life and the water of life". She revives and is released from the Underworld (pp. 64-67. Wolkstein). Of interest here, is that in another myth, Adapa and the South Wind, Adapa was offered "the bread and water of life" to consume which would have given him and consequently, mankind, immortality, but a "lying" Enki living on the earth at Eridu in Lower Mesopotamia, forwarned his servant, who prepared his sacrificial meals in his shrine, NOT to partake of these items as they would cause him to die if consumed. Adapa obeyed Enki, who wanted man to continue to serve and feed him and not become a god and co-equal (Who would feed the gods if man was allowed to become a god too?).
Enki was also famed in some Mesopotamian myths as being responsible for the creation of Mankind, intending Man to be a servant, to grow, harvest and present food to the Gods, which would include Enki himself. In the Bible Yahweh sets Israel free of an Egyptian bondage declaring they will now be "his servants," and as events later unfold, it will be they who offer him food and drink in the Tabernacle of the Wilderness and later the Temple at Jerusalem.
It is of interest that Yahweh-Elohim is presented by Ezekiel as having the power to restore Israelite dead back to life, a power also enjoyed by Enki, and that Yahweh is credited with creating man, another achievement attributed to Enki. I understand that several different myths about Enki and his powers have been transferred to Yahweh-Elohim. If Abraham and family really were originally of Ur of the Chaldees in Lower Mesopotamia, then the Enki myths of this region were probably "re-formatted" by Abraham and his descendants over the centuries.
Wolkstein on Enki (Inanna alias Ishtar is the "Queen of Heaven" and daughter of Enki):
"Inanna sets out to visit Enki, the God of Wisdom, who is also the God of the Waters...without the presence on earth of Enki, the God of the Waters, no life is possible. With his presence, water, which permeates and fertilizes the land, gives the earth the power of life and creativity. This in part accounts for the dual aspect of Enki's powers, for as well as being God of the Waters, he also has many powers over the earth (In Sumerian, "Enki" means literally God of the Earth). Enki's iconographic emblem, the goat-fish, further indicates his earth-water aspect: the goat goes to the highest point of all earty animals and the fish to the lowest depths.
The fertilizing, free-flowing, purifying, calming, and raging characteristics of waters are personified in the many roles Enki plays in Sumerian stories. He is the Creator of Humankind ("Enki and Ninmah"), the Fertilizer of the Land, and Organizer of his Creations ("Enki and the World Order"). He is a magician and a Master of Ritual and Incantation...He is a Mediator between Men...and a Mediator before the Gods on the part of the Mortals ("Atrahasis")...Enki's sacred shrine, the Abzu, is built above the regions of the underworld. His city Eridu, is located near where the fresh and salt waters meet, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the Persian Gulf converge." (pp. 146-147. "Inanna and the God of Wisdom." Diane Wolkstein & Samuel Noah Kramer. Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, Her Stories and Hymns From Sumer. New York. Harper & Row, Publishers. 1983. ISBN 0-06-090854-8 pbk)
Kramer on the Adapa myth:
"Enki is the god of secrets. The one who would know and use his advice must be prepared to listen carefully when the cunning god speaks...As you stand before Anu, when the bread of death they offer you, you shall not eat it. When the water of death they offer you, you shall not drink it...The words I have spoken to you, hold them tight!"
...Adapa misses his chance at immortality. Where Ea had warned Adapa against eating the "bread of death"
(akala sa muti) and drinking the "water of death" (me muti), what Anu offers Adapa instead is the bread of life and water of life." (pp.114-115. "The Great Magician." Samuel Noah Kramer and John Maier. Myths of Enki, the Crafty God. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. 1989)
In Sumerian myths Enki is associated with warning the Babylonian Noah, called variously Ziusudra, Atrahasis or Utnapishtim of an impending Flood which will destroy the world and all mankind, telling him to save himself and animals by building a boat. In the Hebrew re-working En-ki becomes Yahweh-Elohim and Utnapishtim becomes Noah.
Kramer noted that Enki was not trusted by the other gods, they made him swear an oath not to reveal to man the Flood they intended to destroy all of mankind. Enki "gets around" his oath by announcing the Flood to "a wall" of the reed house that the Flood hero dwells in. So Utnapishtim, asleep in his house, hears Enki's warning, through the wall, awakes and tears down his reed house and makes a boat of it saving his family and livestock. Later generations embellished this Sumerian myth into a world encompassing flood. Archaeologists later found a _single_ flood deposit which they dated to circa 2900/2800 B.C. at Utnapishtim's city of Shurrupak in Lower Mesopotamian, the Flood was determined to have been a flooding Euphrates river in the 3rd millennium B.C., based on microscopic analysis of the flood sediments. Of interest here, is that some scholars understand Noah's Flood was in the 3rd millennium, circa 2300 B.C. I find it "remarkable" that the Shuruppak Flood is dated to the same millennium as the biblical Flood!
Kramer:
"Advice to the Reed Wall: Enki opened his mouth and addresed his slave: "What am I to seek?" you say: The message I speak to you: make sure you pay attetion! Wall, listen to me! Reed wall, attend to every one of my words. "Destroy a house- build a boat. Property? Hate it. Save life. The boat that you build- let its breadth equal its length. Roof it over like the apsu..." pp.130-131. "The Persistence of the Enki Tradition." Samuel Noah Kramer and John Maier. Myths of Enki, the Crafty God. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. 1989)
Enki (called "the Trickster god" who plays "tricks" on the gods as well as man) confounds the language of the people of the earth. Originally they all spoke one language, but he causes many languages to be spoken. This motif is reworked by the Hebrews into God's confounding man's one language because of their hubris in building the Tower of Babel.
Professor Kramer on Enki's confounding man's language:
"The Nam-shub of Enki- The nam-shub is a speech with magical force. This is in the form of a highly compact story. Something like the mythical Golden Age- an age when human beings lived at peace in Nature and with one another- is linked in the story with what looks like a version of the Tower of Babel. All of the known world spoke the same tongue, worshipping the powerful Enlil. It is Enki, who, for reasons that are not made entirely clear, sets up 'contention' in the speech of humankind and brings the Golden Age to an end. He is the "contender" the great rival to Enlil in the story.
"Once, then, there was no snake, there was no scorpion, there was no hyena, there was no lion, there was no wild dog, no wolf, there was no fear, no terror human had no rival. Once then, the lands of Shubur-Hamazi, polyglot Sumer, that land great with the me of lordship, Uri, the land with everything just so, the land of Martu, resting securely, the whole world- the people as one- to Enlil in one tongue gave voice. Then did the contender- the en, the contender- the master, the contender- the king, Enki, the contender...en of cunning, the shrewd one of the land, sage of the gods, gifted in thinking, the en of Eridu, changed the speech of their mouths, he having set up contention in it, in the human speech that had been one." (pp. 88-89. "The Enigmatic Enki." Samuel Noah Kramer and John Maier. Myths of Enki, the Crafty God. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. 1989)
Enki's residence is under the earth (which floats upon the freshwater ocean) in the depths of the Abzu/Apsu at Eridu in Lower Mesopotamia (south of Babylon). From this place emerges a freshwater stream that is the source of all the rivers of the world. He sits upon a throne decorated with pots from which flow two streams of water, indicating he is the source of the earth's streams of freshwater. Yahweh's throne is portrayed as being over a stream of freshwater that leaves the temple in Jerusalem and travels eastward to the Dead Sea, rejuvenating it (Rev 22:1).
Kramer, a Sumerologist, notes the indebtedness of Israel's mythographers to Sumerian concepts:
"The literature created by the Sumerians left its deep impress on the Hebrews, and one of the thrilling aspects of reconstructing and translating Sumerian belles-lettres consists in tracing resemblances and parallels between Sumerian and Biblical literary motifs. To be sure, the Sumerians could not have influenced the Hebrews directly, for they ceased to exist long before the Hebrew people came into existence. But there is little doubt that the Sumerians had deeply influenced the Canaanites, who preceeded the Hebrews in the land that later came to be known as Palestine, and their neighbors, such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Hittites, Hurrians, and Arameans." (pp.143-144. "The First Biblical Parallels." Samuel Noah Kramer. History Begins at Sumer, Twenty-seven 'Firsts' in Man's Recorded History. Garden City, New York. Doubleday Anchor Books. [1956] 1959)
Kramer notes a few of the Sumerian motifs found later in the Bible:
"Sumerian literature contained a number of literary forms and themes found much later in the Bible...Some of the more conspicuous themes involve creation of the universe, creation of humankind, techniques of creation (in two ways, by word and by 'making' or 'fashioning'), paradise, the 'Cain-abel' motif, the 'Tower of Babel' motif, the earth and its organization, a personal god, divine retribution and natural catastrophe, the plague, the 'Job' motif, death and the nether world, and concerns with law, ethics and morality. The most conspicuous of all, the story that has the closest connection with biblical literature, is the story of the flood. There are a few twists to the flood story that will be taken up later." (pp.154-155. "Traces of the Fugitive God." Samuel Noah Kramer and John Maier. Myths of Enki, the Crafty God. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. 1989)
Marduk, the supreme god of Babylon, in a myth called the Enuma Elish, after slaying Tiamat (who personifies the flooding Salt Sea Ocean), holds his bow up for praise and places it in the heavens as a "bow star constellation," a type of memorial to his ending the threat of a flood to destroy the gods who dwelt on the earth. Yahweh-Elohim, like Marduk, places his bow in the heavens after bringing to an end the Flood, as a rainbow.
Gaster:
"Thanks to the rediscovery in recent times, of considerable portions of Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Hittite, and Canaanite literature, it is now possible to recognize in the Bible several traces of ancient Near Eastern mythology. These appear in three forms : (a) direct parallels; (b) allusions; and (c) survivals in figurative expressions.
In all cases they are accommodated to the religion of Israel by boldly transferring to Yahweh the heroic feats of the older pagan gods..Direct parallels to ancient Near Eastern myths are represented principally by (a) the fight of Yahweh against the dragon; (b) the stories of Creation and Paradise; and (c) the tale of the Deluge...All this is simply the Hebrew version of the story told in the Ugaritic myth of Baal concerning the victory of that god over the draconic Yam (alias Nahar), the genius of the Sea and Rivers..." (p. 481. Vol. 3. T. H. Gaster. "Myth, Mythology." G. A. Buttrick. Editor. The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible. Nashville, Tennessee. Abingdon Press. 1962)
In Ugaritic myths the supreme god is called El or Bull-El. He is portrayed as bearded and gray-haired. He is the father of the gods and the father of mankind, ab-adm. As Yahweh-Elohim is a type of "father" to man, I suspect a borrowing of concepts by the Hebrews from the Ugaritic motifs. God is alternately called El or Elohim (the latter being a plural of majesty). Bull-El is the father of Baal (alternately called Baal-Hadad) and Yam (alternately called Yaw). Baal is identified with thunderclouds which bring rain to nourish the earth. Thunder clouds are called "Adad's Calves." The thunder is Baal's voice. Baal's brother, who contends with him for rulership of the earth, is Yam, meaning "Sea," alternately called Nahar or "river." He acquires a new name from El, Yaw.
Professor Cohn noted that some scholars suspected that Ugaritic Yaw might be the prototype for Yahweh:
"It is becoming ever more difficult to say with any confidence when, where and how the Israelites first came to know the god Yahweh. It may be that, as Exodus says, he was originally a Midianite god, introduced into the land of Canaan by immigrants from Egypt; or he may have started as a minor member of the Canaanite pantheon...Originally El was the supreme god for Israelites as he had always been for Canaanites. Even if one discounts the pronouncement of El in the Baal cycle,'The name of my son is Yaw'- the import of which is still being debated- one cannot ignore a passage in the Bible which shows Yahweh as subordinate to El. Deuteronomy 32:8 tells how when El Elyon, i.e., El the Most High, parcelled out the nations between his sons, Yahweh received Israel as his portion." (pp.131-132. "Yahweh and the Jerusalem Monarchy." Norman Cohn. Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come, The Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith. New Haven and London. Yale University Press. 1993)
Cohn on the pagan god Yaw is Yahweh debate:
"For two opposing views see John Gray, 'The god Yaw in the Religion of Canaan,' in Journal of Near Eastern Studies. Chicacgo. Vol. 12. 1953. pp. 278-283 and Garbini, op. cit., pp. 57-58. Gray cites the scholars who originally identified Yaw with Yahweh but rejects the identification, Garbini reaffirms it. Redford op.cit., p. 272, holds Yahweh was first worshipped by proto-Israelites in Edom." (p.246, note 5, to p. 132. Norman Cohn. 1993)
I have noted that some Phoenican kings appear to me to have names which suggest they may have worshipped some form of the Hebrew God Yahweh. Professor Pritchard on Phoenician kings of Byblos (emphasis mine) :
"This inscription records the dedication of a new building, possibly a temple, and is now quite generally dated in the 10th century B.C. It was found in Byblos in 1929."
"Building Inscriptions, YEHIMILK OF Byblos.
A house built by Yehimilk, king of Byblos, who also has restored all the ruins of the houses here. May Baalshamem and the Lord of Byblos and the Assembly of the Holy Gods of Byblos prolong the days and years of Yehimilk in Byblos, for (he is) a righteous king and an upright king before the Holy Gods of Byblos !" (p. 215. James B. Pritchard.Editor. The Ancient Near East, An Anthology of Texts and Pictures. 1958. Princeton University Press)
"YEHAWMILK of Byblos.
This ex-voto has been known since 1869, but a fragment completing most of its lower right-hand corner was found only 60 years later. It appears to be from the 5th or 4th century B.C. The identity of the second of the the three main objects which Yehawmilk here dedicates to his goddess has not been fully cleared up. Instead of an engraved object, it might have been a door.
"I am Yehawmilk, king of Byblos, the son of Yehar-ba'l, the grandson of Urimilk, king of Byblos, whom the Mistress, the Lady of Byblos, made king over Byblos...May the Lady of Byblos bless and preserve Yehawmilk, king of Byblos, and prolong his days and years in Byblos, for he is a righteous king...." (pp. 220-221. Pritchard. 1958)
I "suspect" that the name Yehaw-milk (alternately rendered Yehi, and perhaps even Yehar?) may mean "Yehaw is king," perhaps _Yehaw/Yehi_ is but the Phoenician form of Hebrew Yah/Yahweh/Yahu? An image of the Phoenician/Canaanite sea-god Yaw or Yeuo exists on a coin from Gaza made in the Persian period of Greek craftsmanship, Langdon has argued that this is an image of the Hebrew God, Yahweh. Please click HERE for the image, then scroll down to the bottom of the page for the coin.
The Phoenicians were famed as builders of the Temple of Solomon, and perhaps they too worshipped Yahweh, but under the name of Yehi-milk (10th century B.C.) or Yehaw-milk (5th/4th century B.C.)?
Not only do the Phoenicians have kings appear to be bearing Yahweh form names, the Phoenicians also show their male and female gods seated on winged sphinx thrones, which have been identified by some scholars as prototypes behind Yahweh's Cherubim throne in the Jerusalem Temple. It should come as no surprise then that if the kings of Byblos bore Yahweh names, and showed their gods seated on Cherubim thrones, that perhaps Phoenicia is one the sources for the Yahweh imagery appearing in the Bible.
The late Professor Albright on Cherubim being human-headed winged sphinxes:
"...in Syria and Palestine it is the winged sphinx which is dominant in art and religious symbolism. The God of Israel was often designated as "He who sitteth (on) the cherubim" (I Sam 4:4. The conception underlying this designation is well illustrated by the representations of a king seated on a throne supported on each side by cherubim, which have been found at Byblus, Hamath, and Megiddo, all dating between 1200 and 800 B.C. One shows king Hiram of Byblus (period of the Judges) seated upon his cherub throne."
(William Foxwell Albright. "What Were the Cherubim ?" pp. 95-97. G. Ernest Wright & David Noel Freedman. Editors. The Biblical Archaeologist Reader. 1961. Quadrangle Books. Chicago. Note on p. 98 is a line drawing of Hiram's seated on his Cherubim throne, from a stone sarcophagus)
In Phoenician/Canaanite myths preserved at Ugarit (13th century B.C.) Baal-Hadad fights his brother Yam/Nahar (Sea/River) for dominion of the earth, and Yam is called dotingly, by his father, Bull-El, my son _YAW_ ! For me, from my Secular Humanist viewpoint, Yahweh of the Bible and his struggle against Baal (Baal Hadad) is nothing more than the continuation of Late Bronze Age (ca. 1560-1200 B.C.) myths of Yaw (Yahweh ?) vs. Baal for supremeacy of the earth in Iron Age times (ca. 1200-587 B.C.).
That is to say, scholars have been misled by the Bible's false clues that Yahweh is "originally" a god of the Sinai, he's really a Canaanite-Phoenician-North Syrian God of Ugarit and Byblos. One sometimes forgets that Yahweh's FIRST APPEARANCE to Abraham is NOT at Sinai, its at Ur of the Chaldees, where a temple existed, according to Leick, to the Mesopotamian god, Enki/Ea/Ayya, and later at Haran in Northern Syria as well as Damascus.
The Lady of Byblos which is appears seated on an Egyptian style throne wears and Egyptian horned head-dress and probably is Hathor, who was called "Lady of Byblos" as this city trades with Egypt since Old Kingdom times. Hathor in Egyptian myths gave birth to the sun each day as a cow-sky-goddess, in the form of a GOLDEN CALF, which at sunset, mounted her as a virile bull, imprgnating her so that he might be reborn the next day as a Golden Calf again. Hathor shrines exist in the southern Sinai at Serabit el Khadim and at Har Timna in the southern Arabah. I understand that Israel worshipped Yahweh as the Golden Calf, which is a fusion of Northj Syrian, Phoenician, Canaanite and Egyptian myths (cf. my two articles on the Golden Calf's pre-biblical origins).
In Ugaritic myths Bull-El or El dwells in the depths of a mountain, at the source of the double deep (tehom), that is the source of the fresh and salt water oceans. So he is to a degree associated with the sea. Enki dwelt in the watery depths of the Abzu, and was associated as being the source of freshwater streams or rivers. I suspect the Ugaritic myths are but reinterpretations of the older Mesopotamian myths. Tiamat the female personification of the salt sea ocean in Babylonian myths has been transformed into a mere body of water, tehom, in the Ugaritic myths, and the Hebrews have drawn from the Ugaritic imagery in associating Yahweh-Elohim in the opening lines of Genesis with tehom (English: "the deep").
Bull-El's wife is Athirat, whose name means "she who treads upon the sea" (Athirat is alternately rendered as Ashirat or Asherah by some scholars). El being called "Bull-El" suggests his sons are born as "bull-calves" and become "bulls" at maturity. Thus Baal-Hadad is shown at times standing on a bull hurling lightning bolts. Thunderclouds were called "Adad's Calves." As Yahweh-Elohim appeared at Mt. Sinai as a Thundercloud, he is in Ugaritic imagery, "a calf" of Adad. I note a golden calf is made at Mt. Sinai shortly after Yahweh's appearance as a Thundercloud. Jeroboam honors Yahweh-Elohim with two golden calves set up at Dan and Bethel. I suspect this is harkening back to the reality that Yahweh-Elohim was portrayed alternately as a "bull-calf" in his manifestation as a Thundercloud. The Bible's Late Iron II writers (ca. 640-560 B.C.) apparently were "ignorant" of the true Late Bronze Age origins of Yahweh-Elohim (ca. 1560-1200 B.C.) and failed to realize he was actually a conflation and fusing together of Bull-El, Baal-Hadad and Yaw/Yam of the Ugaritic Myths as well as Ea/Ayya/Enki of the Mesopotamian myths. Of interest here, is that some scholars have sought to identify the Exodus from Egypt motif with the Hyksos expulsion of ca. 1540/1530 B.C.. If they are correct, it is worth noting that the Hyksos' god was Baal Hadad, who defeated his brother Yam 'Sea', and who assured his worshippers a safe passage via the sea (Some of the Hyksos being understood to be sea-traders or merchants from ports in Canaan and Phoenicia and North Syria).
The Epic of Gilgamesh notes that Baal Hadad (alternately, Adad) is portrayed as a god who dwells with the darkness of a thundercloud, whose thunder is his voice, and whose rains, initiate the Flood which destroys all mankind. I suspect that the Bible's portrayal of Yahweh as a god who dwells within the darkness of the thundercloud (Deut 4:11; 5:22, 23) is borrowing imagery from Baal Hadad, who also dwells in a dark thundercloud and whose voice is the thunder. The Bible aslo relates that Yahweh was called Baal by some Israelites-
(Hosea 2:16)
"And in that day, says the Lord, you will call me, 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call me, 'My Ba'al.' For I will remove the names of the Ba'als from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more."
Could Yehar-ba'l, the king of Byblos be an archaic echo of the time when Yah was also called Baal ("Yah-Ba`al, "Lord Yah"?)?
Clay, on Adad being within a black stormcloud, which Floods the land, destroying all mankind:
"There rises from the foundation of the heavens a black cloud. Adad thunders in the midst of it." (p.153, "The Gilgamesh Epic." Albert. T. Clay. The Origin of Biblical Traditions: Hebrew Legends in Babylonia and Israel. New Haven. Yale University Press. 1923)
Deut 4:11 (RSV)
"And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud and gloom.
Deut 5:22,23 (RSV)
"These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness with a loud voice...And when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire...."
These Ugaritic myths are dated ca. 1500-1200 B.C. Circa 1200 B.C. is the beginning of Iron Age I A, when Israel settles the land with hundreds of agrarian settlements extending from Galilee to the the Negeb, as portrayed in the book of Joshua.
We are informed that an agrarian Israel under the Judges, whose simple rural village life appears to be reflected in the Iron I period, worshipped Baal and Yahweh. Some Israelites bore Baal names. Israel's first king, Saul, had sons bearing Baal names. Hosea informs us that at times Yahweh was called Baal.
I suspect that the animosity between Baal and Yahweh, ca. 1200-587 B.C. is arising directly from the 1500-1200 B.C. Ugaritic myths, and the animosity between Baal (Baal-Hadad) and his brother Yam/Nahar ("Sea/River") or Yaw, to see which would become "lord of the earth."
The Hebrews came in later ages to conflate and fuse the earlier (1500-1200 B.C.) mythical protagonists. Eventually Yahweh-Elohim came to absorb the names, epithets, and feats of his rivals and other gods. It is my understanding that Yahweh-Elohim is a conflation and fusing of the sea and river god Yaw (sea is Yam in Hebrew) and Baal-Hadad (Baal being asssociated with thunderclouds and Yahweh-Elohim manifesting himself as a thundercloud at Mt. Sinai), as well as the persona of El (Bull-El), the father of Baal and Yam, and of mankind (Ugaritic ab-adm). Thus Ugaritic adm meaning "mankind" was later transformed by the Hebrews into Adam, the first man and eponymn for mankind.
In the Ugaritic myths Baal conquers the tannin of the sea, so does Yahweh. Cohn noted that Baal-Hadad the storm god was the chief god of the Arameans, and it worth noting that Israel claimed her ancestors were Arameans, and that Yahweh is likened to possessing the epithets and achievements of Baal-Hadad, he appearing at Mount Sinai in the form of a Storm Cloud.
Cohn:
"With the establishment of the monarchy Yahweh became the patron god of the kingdom, and when the kingdom was divided into two kingdoms he remained the patron god of each- just as Chemosh was the patron god of the Moabites, Milcom of the Ammonites, Hadad of the Arameans, Melkart of the Tyrians." (p.132. Norman Cohn. Cosmos, Chaos, and the World to Come, The Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith. New Haven and London. Yale University Press. 1993.)
"But if Yahweh was originally subordinate to El, could it be that the Israelites at first imagined him as a god of the same type as Canaanite Baal...?...Yahweh appears as a storm-god...Baal first established his kingship over the world by subduing the unruly cosmic waters, symbolized by a serpent or a dragon. There are psalms that show Yahweh subduing the waters along with the dragons Leviathan and Rahab...Yahweh had been a god who, like Baal, had to fight the waters until they submitted to his will...Like Baal, Yahweh constantly sustained the ordered world..." (pp.132-133. Cohn)
"Yahweh did not -any more than Baal or Marduk- remain subordinate to the supreme god. It was normal for a people to exhalt its patron god to a position of unique dignity, setting him above all other gods. This happened to Yahweh too: he came to be identified with El...A common epithet of El was Elyon, meaning 'the Most High.' In these psalms Yahweh is likewise called 'the Most High,' and his dominance is as absolute as El's." (p.135. Cohn)
Note: Marduk came to become the supreme god of Babylon. Originally the supreme god of Lower Mesopotamia was Anu or An; later, in a national hymn called the Enuma Elish, Marduk, becomes "supreme" and honored above all other gods because of his skill as a great warrior in defeating Tiamat, the raging, flooding Sea, who threatend to destroy all the gods.Marduk is declared "to be" the other 50 gods, that is, they become aspects of his persona, and they are assimilated to him. Yahweh probably came to assimilate like Marduk, the Canaanite gods, El and Baal, as well as others.
Professor Cohn (Professor Emeritus, University of Sussex, England), in passing, mentions mainstream scholarship's understanding that Yahweh assimilated the pagan gods of Canaan:
"All in all, the Israelite world-view in the days of the monarchy had much in common with the world views of the Canaanites, the Mesopotamians, even the Egyptians. Israelites too thought of themselves as living within a divinely appointed order which had been established for their benefit and which would nver basically change. What that order meant to them is indicated by three Hebrew words: mishpat, tsedeq, shalom...For Canaanites tsedeq was the beneficicent manifestation of the sun god- that mighty deity who in Canaan, as in so many other societies, watched over the world as judge, bringing hidden crimes to light and righting wrongs done to the innocent. When the Canaanite gods were merged into Yahweh tsedeq became his attribute, and the visible manifestation of his activity was called tsedaqah." (p.139. Cohn)
It is worth noting here that the Hebrews were NOT alone in having their God, Yahweh, assimilating the personas and feats of other gods. A Babylonian hymn called the "Enuma Elish" portrays 50 gods as nothing more than personas of one god, Marduk. When Babylonia became a part of the Assyrian empire the Assyrians "appropriated" the Enuma Elish and had the 50 gods plus Marduk as personas of the one god, Asshur! Even the Egyptians toyed with this notion of the "many being only aspects of the one." For example in the litany of the sun-god Re, it is said that he has 75 forms or 'acclamations' as for example, Horus and Isis (cf. pp. 30-31. "The sun in all creation: the Litany of Ra." Stephen Quirke. The Cult of Ra, Sun-Worship in Ancient Egypt. London. Thames & Hudson. 2001. ISBN 0-500-05107-0)
In Mesopotamia, since Sumerian times, the 4th-3rd millenniums B.C., Inanna, "the Queen of Heaven," is honored yearly in a marriage ceremony in the Spring. Her human husband Dumuzi/Tammuz, is represented by the king who mates with a priestess representing the goddess. This brings the favor of Inanna upon the people and guarantees good harvests and protection from their enemies. I suspect that the Hebrews have borrowed this sacred marriage concept and transformed it. A God, Yahweh-Elohim, marries his people instead of a Goddess marrying her people.
Yahweh's triumph over other gods in some cases is due to his absorbing these gods, that is their powers and feats are attributed to him and denied to the older gods, who are labeled as "false gods," of wood, stone and metal.
I thus understand that the rantings and ravings of the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, et al, is over Israel's refusal to give up their cherished traditions and understandings of Yahweh-Elohim as Bull-El, Baal, and Yaw/Yam; these prophets have a "new concept" to offer about God and not all the populace has bought into it.
It follows that if the Israelite Yahweh is really a recast Yaw of the Ugartic myths, that the Hebrew meaning of his name, revealed suppossedly to Moses at Mt. Sinai, ehyeh asher ehyeh "I am that I am," is false, and is probably a speculation from a late period.
Alternately, could ehyeh be derived from Ea/Ayya/Aya (Enki) ? If Terah and son Abraham were Arameans living at or near Ur in Lower Mesopotamia, they could have "heard" Ea as "Aya" or "Ayya" and, rendering it into an Aramaic word form possessing an Aramaic meaning, transformed it.
For example, scholars are aware that a number of place names or geographical sites appearing in the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament are preserved in Arabic. But the Arabic word, while resembling "in sound" the Hebrew word, very often has a different meaning. The late Israeli scholar Yohanan Aharoni proposed that the "wilderness of Paran" appearing in the Exodus account was preserved in the Arabic Feiran Oasis and Wadi Feiran to the west of Gebel Musa and Saint Catherine's Monastery. However, another Israeli scholar, Menashe Har-El noted that Feiran in Arabic means "mice," and thus rejected the identification, despite Aharoni's noting that Hebrew Paran appears as Greco-Roman Pharan in an Early Christian Pilgrimage made by a Spanish or French pilgrimess called either Etheria or Egeria ca. the 5th century A.D., she stating it lay 35 Roman miles west of Mount Sinai (Gebel Musa), and that a Greco-Roman Geographer named Ptolemy of the 1st century B.C.-1st century A.D. had also mentioned a Pharan in the same general area. Both Pharans were in existence BEFORE the Arabs in the 7th centry A.D. conquered this region and began rendering site names into Arabic forms that sounded similar. Professor Menashe Har-El argued that Kadesh Barnea's location _in_ the wilderness of Paran suggested Paran was somewhere in or near the Negev, not the southern Sinai.
A number of scholars have sought Yahweh and its forms Yah, Yahu, Yo in a verb, hayah, but there is NOT universal consensus, some object and suggest this etymology is unsupported in 2nd millennium B.C. examples.
Beitzel's views (1980) on the Tetragrammaton YHWH and Ehyeh (Emphasis mine):
"Arrayed against the inherently improbable conclusions of the first two standpoints, this writer should like to theorize that, with the tetragrammaton, one is most likely dealing with a quadriliteral divine name in which the initial yod is lexically intrinsic. In support of this suggestion, one summons the following evidence. As a second millennium extra-biblical phenomenon, this name is ubiquitious. One is able to locate the name in an onomastically identical or equivalent form in three corpora of second millennium literature. It appears (1) as a Ugaritic divine name [yw], (2) as an Egyptian place name [ya-h-wa/yi=ha] (Amenhophis III text from Soleb, Rameses II text from 'Amara, Rameses III text from Medinet Habu), and (3) as a Byblian divine name ['Ieuw]. Morever, some authorities argue that it may be found as an element in Babylonian proper names from the Cassite period [e.g. Ya-u-ha-zi] and as an element in personal names [e.g. Is-ra-il/lu du-bi-zi-pis, Is-ra-ya lu du-bi-zi-pis; dinger Ya-ra-mu] at Ebla. This list cuts a wide swath linquistically and geographically, and it evidences a great antiquity for the word as a personal name, and as a divine name in particular.
Now Semitic philologists are familiar with the onomastic proposition which states that geographical names and personal names derive from divine names, but that the converse is not generally true. Further, the complexity of phonetics, and orthography between the Akkadian [Babylonian], West Semetic and Egyptian writing systems is profound, but it is a fundamental principle in onomastic studies that "divine names and other substantives lend themselves to borrowing more easily than do adjectives and that borrowing of verbal forms is highly improbable."
This latter dictum of linguistic borrowing is obviously recognizable in the first millennium extra-biblical evidence, where Yahweh is found in Aramaic, Greek, Moabite and Canaanite literature. But the antiquity and ubiquity of the second millennium evidence coupled with these two onomastic axia strongly suggest the word was already a divine name centuries before the Mosaic epoch. Accordingly, it seems preferable to conclude that the tetragrammaton is a quadriradical divine name of unknown lexicographical and ethnic origin, and that its relationship with hayah in Exodus 3:14 is one of paronomasia, not etymology.
Since the use of of paronomasia promoted certain excitement and curiosity to invite a search for meanings not readily apparent, it is not at all surprising to find that a divine revelation like Exodus 3:14 would be couched in paronomastic forms. Nor is such a view inconsistent with those Johannine passages in which Jesus consciously seeks to identify Himself with the "I am" of Exodus. But neither the gospel nor the proclamation of Exodus is attempting to supply us with the etymology of the teragrammaton. Exodus 3:14 becomes, therefore, yet another instance of paronomasia in the Bible." (Barry J. Beitzel. "Exodus 3:14 and the Divine Name: A Case of Biblical Paronomasia." Trinity Journal. Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. 1.1. pp. 5-20. 1980)
"In its broadest definition, paranomasia is a comprehensive term first employed by ancient Greek scholastics when referring to rhetorical devices designed to engage and retain the attention of the audience. This extremely persuasive literary embellishment was so-called because one word was "brought alongside" (literally: "to name beside") of another which appeared or sounded similar or identical-- thus producing an aura of literary ambiguity-- but which was actually quite different in origin and meaning.
Paronomasia is a common ancient New Eastern phenomenon, specimens of which are preserved in Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Arabic literatures. It is also attested in the New Testament and postbiblical corpora. Though regarded by contemporary Westerners only as an appropriate form of comedy, paronomasia is characteristically utilized in the Old Testament to arouse curiosity or to heighten the effect of a particularly solemn or important pronouncement, in this way permanently and indelibly impressing the proclamation upon the memory of an audience. This essay will conside the two foci of paronomastic types-- visual and oral-- and advance a paronomastic explanation of Exodus 3:14.
Since the writing of G. R. Driver, a number of scholars have embraced the opinion that the divine name, when it first arose, did not have a readily intelligible form, instead being an emotional cultic outburst, such as dervishes might cry out ecstaticly. In the main basing his conclusions upon extra-biblical evidence, Driver affirmed that the antique form of the deity worshipped by some pre-Mosaic Hebrw ancestors was the digrammaton Ya, a form whose origin was a kind of numinal exclamation. Conclusive for Driver was the fact that whereas Hebrew compound proper names were never formed with Yahweh, many were formed with Ya
