Saturday, November 21, 2015
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
主妇的生活
Tuesday, October 6, 2015 at 17:02
天天这么辛苦地干，但看不到成果，无穷无尽的家务，现在终于知道东西少而精的重要。拥有的太多，就会泛滥贬值，质量下降，徒然耗费精力穷于应付，无法解脱。
现在有点怀念童年青少年时期物质匮乏时期，每样东西都是宝贵的，充分使用，并且还有很多精神参加很多活动，比如合唱团，朗诵队，鼓乐队，春游秋游，阅读小说和各种散文，背诵古代诗词，参加画展，办版报，文艺演出，打排球，写作文日记。。。生活很丰富，即使没有电视电脑手机。那时候人之间的关系也更简单。
单纯的生活和时代总是让人怀念。
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Thursday, November 13, 2014
What does El-Shaddai mean?
"El Shaddai" is first found in Genesis 17:1 where the Lord appeared to Abram for the sixth time (7th if you believe that Melchizadeck was Christ) and then changed his name to Abraham.
The most simple translation is ’God’ (’el’), THE ALL-MIGHTY ONE (’shadday’), to clearly differentiate the One true God from other ’gods’, as ’el’ was a common term for any god at that time, age and area.
It is significant that it is THE Name that God uses in reference to Himself as He begins to set aside a people for Himself, to be uniquely His as a possession, and to be uniquely His as His representatives on this planet. It was at this point that God revealed himself as "THE ALMIGHTY GOD", or the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient One.
A.W. Pink, in Gleanings in Genesis says, "The revelation which God here made of Himself was well suited to the occasion. This was the first time that He revealed Himself as "the Almighty." None but One who possessed all power could meet Abram’s need at this time. Ninety and nine years of age, his body dead; Sarah barren and long past the age of child-bearing - how could they have hope to have a son? But with God all things are possible. And why?Because He is El Shaddai, the All-Sufficient One."
In Genesis 28:3, the second reference of "El Shaddai", we find that here Isaac is speaking to his son Jacob using "El Shaddai" as the name of the Lord God.
The third occurance (second time God revealed Himself as such) is in Genesis 35:11, where God is now revealing Himself personally to Jacob indicating this is His Name and changing Jacob’s name to Israel (as He changed Abram to Abraham); Israel (Jacob) uses this name of God in speaking to his sons in Gen. 35:11 prior to their return to Egypt and Joseph. It is only El Shaddai that can fulfill His word to Jacob, "A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come forth from you."
The Bible, and all of history, is a progressive revelation of God to man - who He is, what He is like, etc. Accordingly, when we get to Exodus, and God is revealing Himself now to Moses, God Himself indicates that El Shaddai, The Almighty God, was only a partial revelation of Who He is, as He revealed Himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But now, with Moses, a greater revelation is being given - the further revealing Name of Jehovah, or Yahweh, or as the Hebrews would indicate in deep reverence (prior to the full revelation of Christ in His life, death, burial and ressurection) as "Y_h-w_h" - too holy a name to even pronounce.
It is generally accepted that Job is the oldest book in the Bible. It is commonly accepted that Job lived during the patriarchal age, and possibly even predated Abraham. For Job a common title for God was "El Shaddai"
The sense of the Hebrew word ’Shadday’ is All Powerful, All-Mighty. The word, ’El’, also means God, and/or strength. So it appears that there is a double emphasis on the thought here. There are some 48 uses of the term in the Old Testament, and studying the context of the whole makes it very clear that in most of these references, the emphasis is on God’s all-pervasive power, influence, and authority in all of creation.
The same term, The Almighty, is found in the New Testament (see II Corin. 6:17,18). Today, most Christians accept the meaning of ’El Shaddai’ as being both The All-Mighty, All-Powerful and Only True God, and the One who has further, finally, and completely revealed Himself in the New Testament and in the Lord Jesus Christ to be All-in-All:
"God Almighty - El Shaddai, the Father-Mother God - proved sufficient for everything. The wonder of El Shaddai (the power to create new things in the old world) runs through the whole kingdom of grace." "The Everlasting Yea is reached when we perceive that God is El Shaddai, the All-Sufficient God."
- Oswald Chambers, Not Knowing Where
And He [the Lord Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to HAVE FIRST PLACE IN EVERYTHING. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
- Colossians 1:15 - 20
Enki: ("Lord Earth")
Enki: ("Lord Earth"); firstborn son of Anu from Nibiru by a concubine (5); father of Marduk (1) half brother to Enlil; leader of the first group of Anunnaki to arrive on Earth; the fashioner of Mankind and its savior from the Deluge; given the epithets Nudimmud/Nidimmud ("the Fashioner"), Ptah ("the Developer" in Egypt), also IA Sumerian pre-Diluvial flood king which means Lord of the Flood or Lord of the Deep Waters. (11) Poseidon (39) or Potei-Dan (43) Neptune, (1) (39) Oannes, (Babylonian) (43) Samael, (Akkadian); Lucifer (Roman); Satan (Catholic) (61) Raphael, (Raphael was the prince who appeared to Adam in Eden according to Milton) (62) Ahura-Mazda (Aryan pantheon) and Zoroaster (Iranian) (64) Bel-Nimiki (The Lord of Mining") (75) Tvashtri "The Fashioner" (Aryan) (76) Khem, Pan, and Khem-Pan/Pan-Khem, also Puck; Ham/Khem/Chem-Zoroaster and Ormuzd (77) Mithras (79) Frey (80) Dagon (84) Shiva, (Hindu God), Itzamna (95) Iapetus (4) Typhon (103) Ialdabaoth
*Known also as Samael, Enki's wife was known as Lilith. Their daughter was known as Kali (Kalimaath or Kali Marg (64); also Kali-Azura and the Blue Kali (65)
* It was Enki, according to Sitchin, who played the role of the "Nacash" in the Garden of Eden. Nacash which means serpent which also means "He who knows/possesses secrets." (13)
...
*Note: The Phoenicians regarded El-Saturn as their chief deity; Eusebius informs us that El, a name used also in the Bible as a name for God, was the name of Saturn. (34)
Praeparatio Evangelica IV.xvi: “Kronos [El] was deified in the star Saturn.” This statement is quoted by Eusebius from Philo’s redaction of the lost Phoenician History of Sanchuniathon. Some classical writers, among them Tacitus (Histories V.4) alleged that the Jews were worshippers of Saturn; cf. Augustine’s refutation in Contra Faustum Manichaeum XX. 13. (34)
*Note: Historians of the first Christian centuries reported that the people who dwelt in the Sinai and its bordering areas of Palestine and North Arabia worshipped the god Dushara ("Lord of the Mountains") and his spouse Allat, "Mother of the Gods." They were of course the male El and the female Elat, his spouse Asherah. The sacred object of Dushara was, fortunately, depicted on a coin struck by the Roman governor of those provinces. It resembles the enigmatic chambers within the Great Pyramid-an inclined stairway ("Ascending Gallery") leading to a chamber between massive stones ("The Kings Chamber") (58) This confirms the article The History of Jehovah concerning Jehovah's concubine Asherah.
Erishkigal: "Mistress of the Great Land" (12) (Anunnaki, granddaughter of Enlil, mistress of the lower world (southern Africa); spouse of Nergal; sister of Inanna (1) probable mother to Ningishzidda (12) Demeter and Persephone ?(73)
Hathor/Hat-Hor (Egyptian) Daughter of Anunnaki Marduk/Ra and human Sarpanit. Sarpanit was the daughter of the biblical Enoch. (1) (4) Wife to Horon/Horus (4) She was also the goddess of love and beauty; for this reason, she was identified often with the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Worshiped throughout Egypt, she was often represented as a star-studded cow or as a woman with a cow's head. Her name also appears as Athor or Athyr. (4) Known also as the "Lady of Sinai" and "Lady of Mafkat" (54) Nin-Kursag (72) Nin-Khursag, mother of Inanna (Summerian); Ishtar (Akkadian); Astaroth (Semitic); Aphrodite (Greek); Freja (Norse); Venus (Roman) (74)
Hermes: (Greek) (Son of Utu) (20) Husband to Hathor (4) Also Mercury (Roman) (4) Anubis was sometimes identified with Hermes in Greek mythology. (4) Also Bacchus, (52) Dionysus, (Greek) (4) also (IHS) in Greek. (See below note); also Liber, which in Latin means a) liberty or release, b) Tree, c) Wine, d) a book, wisdom or secret knowledge, the Hidden Torah. (69) Son of Enlil (77) Also Identified with CHiram (Hiram Abiff) through the inscription on the Emerald Table. (93)
*Note: The letters IHS were the sacred monogram of the Greek god Bacchus. The Christians adopted them and made them the root of the name Jesus. The IHS when Latinized became IES, and adding the Latin masculine suffix -US, that is IES plus US, became IESUS. When anglicized, the 'I' became 'J' thus giving Jesus" (John G. Jackson, Christianity before Christ, p. 166) (55)
... Hermes, the god of wisdom, called also Thoth, Tat, Set, and Sat-an; and that he was, furthermore, when viewed under his bad aspect, Typhon, the Egyptian Satan , who was also Set." [Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled , Vol. I: Science, New York, Trow's Printing and Bookbinding Company, 1877, p. 554, xxxiii. Colored Emphasis added]
Horon: (demi-god, the Egyptian god known as Horus (1) Also Netch-Atef "The Avenger" (17) Son of Asar/Osiris and Asta/Isis (1) (4) Also Ra-Hoor-Khuit (Warrior God Aspect) (25); Sokar was also pictured with the head of a hawk (Horus) (26) Harpocrates (4) Tammuz (60) Some scholars say Horus was Nimrod.
*Note: A statue of Harpocrates, the Greek god of secrecy and silence, was to be found on the premises of the Hellfire Club depicted with a finger held to his mouth.
*Harpocrates, the God of Silence, holding his fingers to his mouth, often accompanies the statue of Isis. He warns all to keep the secrets of the wise from those unfit to know them. (90)
Inanna/Ishtar: "An's Beloved" (12) (Anunnaki, Daughter of Nannar and Ningal, twin sister of Utu; was betrothed to Dumuzi; ferocious in war, lusty in lovemaking; mistress of Uruk and of the Third Region; associated with the planet we call Venus) Ishtar/ Easter (modern day holiday Easter) (Akkadian) (1) Ashtoreth (Canaanites) Ashtaroth; Associated with Astarte (12), Aphrodite (Greeks), Venus (Romans) (4) (12) and Anunitu "Anu's Beloved" (8) Asherah (Syrian) (3) Allat/Elat (58) Semiramis/Astraea (Astraea, believed by the Illuminati Medicis in Tuscany to be the ruler of the coming Golden Age) (60) Springmeier also associates Semiramis with Isis, as well as others. Sitchin does not. Hathor (94) Siduri, Irnini (98)
*Note: Historians of the first Christian centuries reported that the people who dwelt in the Sinai and its bordering areas of Palestine and North Arabia worshipped the god Dushara ("Lord of the Mountains") and his spouse Allat, "Mother of the Gods." They were of course the male El and the female Elat, his spouse Asherah. The sacred object of Dushara was, fortunately, depicted on a coin struck by the Roman governor of those provinces. It resembles the enigmatic chambers within the Great Pyramid-an inclined stairway ("Ascending Gallery") leading to a chamber between massive stones ("The Kings Chamber") (58) This confirms the article The History of Jehovah concerning Jehovah's concubine Asherah.
Ishkur: "He of the Mountains" (12) (Anunnaki, youngest son of Enlil by his spouse Ninlil; also known as the Akkadian god Adad (1) Hadad (Hebrew) (3) Also known as Ishkur Shala (9) Viracocha (17); Teshub "Wind/Storm God" (Hittite) (17) El-Shaddai and Yahweh (3) Seems to have appeared as "I Am" in Exodus 6:3. (See below note); god of Mount Sinai; Ares, God of War. (95) Horus, Mars, Aria, Mitra, Ve, Perun, Og (97)
*Note: Exodus 6:3 states "And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by [the name of] God Almighty (El Shaddai), but by my name "I AM" was I not known to them." In the King James Version, "I AM" is translated as Jehovah (Yahweh) but means the same: "I AM". The use of "God Almighty" is a traditional translation of Shaddai, thought to have meant "Omnipotent", but arguably it could be linked to the Akkadian root word Shadu, meaning literally "mountains". And El Shaddai is only one of the versions of God described in Genesis. El Shaddai literally translated means, "God the one of the mountains", but there was also El Olam (God the everlasting one) El Elyon (God most high) El Ro'i (God of vision).
The obvious question is, why did YHWH reveal himself to the patriarchs as El Shaddai? The answer lies in the religious traditions of Canaan, where Abraham is said to have lived for a time, and which were brought to Canaan by the Phoenicians. (In turn, the root of Phoenician religious tradition is Sumer). God-the-one-of-the-mountains has a Sumerian equivalent. ISH.KUR, the youngest son of Enlil, means God the one of the far mountains. Ishkur was also known as Adad or Hadad in Hebrew, brother of Nannar/Sin, and was the pre-eminent God of Canaan - El-Shaddai. (3)
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message735239/pg1
*Known also as Samael, Enki's wife was known as Lilith. Their daughter was known as Kali (Kalimaath or Kali Marg (64); also Kali-Azura and the Blue Kali (65)
* It was Enki, according to Sitchin, who played the role of the "Nacash" in the Garden of Eden. Nacash which means serpent which also means "He who knows/possesses secrets." (13)
...
*Note: The Phoenicians regarded El-Saturn as their chief deity; Eusebius informs us that El, a name used also in the Bible as a name for God, was the name of Saturn. (34)
Praeparatio Evangelica IV.xvi: “Kronos [El] was deified in the star Saturn.” This statement is quoted by Eusebius from Philo’s redaction of the lost Phoenician History of Sanchuniathon. Some classical writers, among them Tacitus (Histories V.4) alleged that the Jews were worshippers of Saturn; cf. Augustine’s refutation in Contra Faustum Manichaeum XX. 13. (34)
*Note: Historians of the first Christian centuries reported that the people who dwelt in the Sinai and its bordering areas of Palestine and North Arabia worshipped the god Dushara ("Lord of the Mountains") and his spouse Allat, "Mother of the Gods." They were of course the male El and the female Elat, his spouse Asherah. The sacred object of Dushara was, fortunately, depicted on a coin struck by the Roman governor of those provinces. It resembles the enigmatic chambers within the Great Pyramid-an inclined stairway ("Ascending Gallery") leading to a chamber between massive stones ("The Kings Chamber") (58) This confirms the article The History of Jehovah concerning Jehovah's concubine Asherah.
Erishkigal: "Mistress of the Great Land" (12) (Anunnaki, granddaughter of Enlil, mistress of the lower world (southern Africa); spouse of Nergal; sister of Inanna (1) probable mother to Ningishzidda (12) Demeter and Persephone ?(73)
Hathor/Hat-Hor (Egyptian) Daughter of Anunnaki Marduk/Ra and human Sarpanit. Sarpanit was the daughter of the biblical Enoch. (1) (4) Wife to Horon/Horus (4) She was also the goddess of love and beauty; for this reason, she was identified often with the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Worshiped throughout Egypt, she was often represented as a star-studded cow or as a woman with a cow's head. Her name also appears as Athor or Athyr. (4) Known also as the "Lady of Sinai" and "Lady of Mafkat" (54) Nin-Kursag (72) Nin-Khursag, mother of Inanna (Summerian); Ishtar (Akkadian); Astaroth (Semitic); Aphrodite (Greek); Freja (Norse); Venus (Roman) (74)
Hermes: (Greek) (Son of Utu) (20) Husband to Hathor (4) Also Mercury (Roman) (4) Anubis was sometimes identified with Hermes in Greek mythology. (4) Also Bacchus, (52) Dionysus, (Greek) (4) also (IHS) in Greek. (See below note); also Liber, which in Latin means a) liberty or release, b) Tree, c) Wine, d) a book, wisdom or secret knowledge, the Hidden Torah. (69) Son of Enlil (77) Also Identified with CHiram (Hiram Abiff) through the inscription on the Emerald Table. (93)
*Note: The letters IHS were the sacred monogram of the Greek god Bacchus. The Christians adopted them and made them the root of the name Jesus. The IHS when Latinized became IES, and adding the Latin masculine suffix -US, that is IES plus US, became IESUS. When anglicized, the 'I' became 'J' thus giving Jesus" (John G. Jackson, Christianity before Christ, p. 166) (55)
... Hermes, the god of wisdom, called also Thoth, Tat, Set, and Sat-an; and that he was, furthermore, when viewed under his bad aspect, Typhon, the Egyptian Satan , who was also Set." [Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled , Vol. I: Science, New York, Trow's Printing and Bookbinding Company, 1877, p. 554, xxxiii. Colored Emphasis added]
Horon: (demi-god, the Egyptian god known as Horus (1) Also Netch-Atef "The Avenger" (17) Son of Asar/Osiris and Asta/Isis (1) (4) Also Ra-Hoor-Khuit (Warrior God Aspect) (25); Sokar was also pictured with the head of a hawk (Horus) (26) Harpocrates (4) Tammuz (60) Some scholars say Horus was Nimrod.
*Note: A statue of Harpocrates, the Greek god of secrecy and silence, was to be found on the premises of the Hellfire Club depicted with a finger held to his mouth.
*Harpocrates, the God of Silence, holding his fingers to his mouth, often accompanies the statue of Isis. He warns all to keep the secrets of the wise from those unfit to know them. (90)
Inanna/Ishtar: "An's Beloved" (12) (Anunnaki, Daughter of Nannar and Ningal, twin sister of Utu; was betrothed to Dumuzi; ferocious in war, lusty in lovemaking; mistress of Uruk and of the Third Region; associated with the planet we call Venus) Ishtar/ Easter (modern day holiday Easter) (Akkadian) (1) Ashtoreth (Canaanites) Ashtaroth; Associated with Astarte (12), Aphrodite (Greeks), Venus (Romans) (4) (12) and Anunitu "Anu's Beloved" (8) Asherah (Syrian) (3) Allat/Elat (58) Semiramis/Astraea (Astraea, believed by the Illuminati Medicis in Tuscany to be the ruler of the coming Golden Age) (60) Springmeier also associates Semiramis with Isis, as well as others. Sitchin does not. Hathor (94) Siduri, Irnini (98)
*Note: Historians of the first Christian centuries reported that the people who dwelt in the Sinai and its bordering areas of Palestine and North Arabia worshipped the god Dushara ("Lord of the Mountains") and his spouse Allat, "Mother of the Gods." They were of course the male El and the female Elat, his spouse Asherah. The sacred object of Dushara was, fortunately, depicted on a coin struck by the Roman governor of those provinces. It resembles the enigmatic chambers within the Great Pyramid-an inclined stairway ("Ascending Gallery") leading to a chamber between massive stones ("The Kings Chamber") (58) This confirms the article The History of Jehovah concerning Jehovah's concubine Asherah.
Ishkur: "He of the Mountains" (12) (Anunnaki, youngest son of Enlil by his spouse Ninlil; also known as the Akkadian god Adad (1) Hadad (Hebrew) (3) Also known as Ishkur Shala (9) Viracocha (17); Teshub "Wind/Storm God" (Hittite) (17) El-Shaddai and Yahweh (3) Seems to have appeared as "I Am" in Exodus 6:3. (See below note); god of Mount Sinai; Ares, God of War. (95) Horus, Mars, Aria, Mitra, Ve, Perun, Og (97)
*Note: Exodus 6:3 states "And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by [the name of] God Almighty (El Shaddai), but by my name "I AM" was I not known to them." In the King James Version, "I AM" is translated as Jehovah (Yahweh) but means the same: "I AM". The use of "God Almighty" is a traditional translation of Shaddai, thought to have meant "Omnipotent", but arguably it could be linked to the Akkadian root word Shadu, meaning literally "mountains". And El Shaddai is only one of the versions of God described in Genesis. El Shaddai literally translated means, "God the one of the mountains", but there was also El Olam (God the everlasting one) El Elyon (God most high) El Ro'i (God of vision).
The obvious question is, why did YHWH reveal himself to the patriarchs as El Shaddai? The answer lies in the religious traditions of Canaan, where Abraham is said to have lived for a time, and which were brought to Canaan by the Phoenicians. (In turn, the root of Phoenician religious tradition is Sumer). God-the-one-of-the-mountains has a Sumerian equivalent. ISH.KUR, the youngest son of Enlil, means God the one of the far mountains. Ishkur was also known as Adad or Hadad in Hebrew, brother of Nannar/Sin, and was the pre-eminent God of Canaan - El-Shaddai. (3)
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message735239/pg1
The Secret Identity of Yahweh
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message735239/pg1
The use of Yahweh as the name of God has always fuelled speculation and philosophical argument. YHWH, sometimes pronounced Jehovah, is taken to mean "I AM" or "I AM WHO I AM". There is also the puzzle of the rule that his mysterious real name is not to be spoken.
The identification of the goddess Asherah (Asherat) as His consort somewhere within the original Jewish faith leads to some explosive conclusions about the identity of the Jewish/Christian God of the Cosmos, the one Monotheistic God with whom we are so familiar from western religion.
But before looking at Asherah, and what she means to the identity of Yahweh, it is worth taking a look at another goddess, Ashteroth. Her significance will become evident a little later. Referred to as an "abomination" in 2 Kings, Ashteroth was an important deity in the Near East pantheons.
To the Sumerians she was IN.ANNA (Anu's beloved) and is an important character in the Sumerian Epics. To the Assyrians and Babylonians she was Ishtar; Ashtoreth was her name for the Canaanites; to the Greeks - Aphrodite; the Romans - Venus. The most important equivalent however is the Egyptian goddess Hathor, who the Greeks identified with Aphrodite. Hathor was the wife of Horus, the God of War. Hathor is identified with the symbol of the cow, and statues of her in the 26th Dynasty (572 - 525 BC) in Egypt actually depict her as a cow.
Asherah, (whose name means "she who walks in the sea") supposedly consort of the supreme god El, was also referred to as Elath (the goddess). According to the Ugarit tradition, whose clay tablets contain the earliest known alphabet, she was consort of El, and mother of seventy gods. She is also associated with Baal and is supposed to have interceded to her husband, the supreme god, on Baal's behalf, for the building of a palace - in order to grant him equal status with other gods.
In the cuniform tablets of Ras Shamrah (Circa 1400 BCE) the head of the Pantheon was El; his wife was Asherat-of-the-sea (Asherah). After El, the greatest god was Baal, son of El and Asherah. Curiously, Baal's consort is his mother, Asherah. In the Lebanon traditions Baal is equated with Jupiter.
Carvings of Asherah in Syria show her wearing Egyptian head-dress. She was also referred to later as "the cow" - a reference to her great age.
Significantly, Baalat (an important Goddess at Byblos) is depicted in carvings as having cow's horns, between which is a halo. Baalat is in fact the form of Asherah when she appears alongside Baal.
But what does this say about the identity of Yahweh? The Bible has always presented a confusing picture of Yahweh. In the light of Herzog's discoveries and conclusions that Yahweh's consort was Asherah, it deserves a closer examination.
Exodus 6:3 states "And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by [the name of] God Almighty (El Shaddai), but by my name "I AM" was I not known to them." In the King James Version, "I AM" is translated as Jehovah (Yahweh) but means the same: "I AM". The use of "God Almighty" is a traditional translation of Shaddai, thought to have meant "Omnipotent", but arguably it could be linked to the Akkadian root word Shadu, meaning literally "mountains".
And El Shaddai is only one of the versions of God described in Genesis. El Shaddai literally translated means, "God the one of the mountains", but there was also El Olam (God the everlasting one) El Elyon (God most high) El Ro'i (God of vision).
The obvious question is, why did YHWH reveal himself to the patriarchs as El Shaddai? The answer lies in the religious traditions of Canaan, where Abraham is said to have lived for a time, and which were brought to Canaan by the Phoenicians. (In turn, the root of Phoenician religious tradition is Sumer).
God-the-one-of-the-mountains has a Sumerian equivalent. ISH.KUR, the youngest son of Enlil, means God the one of the far mountains. Ishkur was also known as Adad or Hadad in Hebrew, brother of Nannar/Sin, and was the pre-eminent God of Canaan - El-Shaddai.
According to biblical scholars who focus on the "P Source" for the old testament, Yahweh as a name is first used with Moses in Exodus, and is indicative of monolatory (exclusive worship of one of many Gods) rather than monotheism. The name Yahweh can also be translated as "I am who I am", literally a way of saying "mind your own business", a way of disguising his true identity. Yahweh does not appear until Exodus and, strangely, the god Baal is entirely absent in Genesis.
(El Shaddai is still venerated in the Jewish faith in the form of the Teffilin, one of two small leather cube-shaped cases containing Torah Texts, traditionally to be worn by males from the age of 13. The Teffilin are worn in a manner to represent the letters shin, daleth, and yod, which together form the name Shaddai.)
In Exodus 33:2 it states "And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:
33:3 Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou [art] a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee on the way."
This Yahweh is prone to violence and seems to despise his chosen people. He is a perfect match for ISH.KUR (Hadad), whose land is occupied by the Amorites and Hittites, and is a known demonstrator of violence and contempt for his worshipers.
ISH.KUR's image, traits, and symbols match those of Baal. He is also anti-Babylon and anti-Egypt, as is Yahweh. And like Yahweh's, the real name of the Canaanite Baal (Hadad) must not be spoken.
On the basis of Herzog's discovery, the evidence within the Bible itself, the Sumerian, Phoenician and Canaanite traditions, the following is a logical conclusion and solution to the identity of the Jewish God of the Old Testament: ISH.KUR = Hadad = El Shaddai = Baal = Yahweh. (The Canaanite's Baal was also known as Moloch, who we will examine later.)
This indicates, as does Herzog's work, that the Jewish people evolved from polytheism to monotheism with the promotion of a god who had been known by a variety of names, into one supreme God, Yahweh (whose real name must not be spoken), and that they adopted for this purpose, not the supreme God of the Pantheons, El, but his son - ISH.KUR, Baal, Hadad, El-Shaddai, an entity who was in open revolt against his father El, and ultimately aided in this revolt by his mother and consort, Asherah, (also known as Baalat, Ashteroth, Elat).
This female entity was later merged by Greek and Roman traditions into Aphrodite and Venus, and known earlier to the Egyptians as Isis.
Once we understand this, the etymology of the name Israel - Is (either Isis or tomb) Ra (Head of the Egyptian Pantheon) El (Lord - Baal) - makes far more obvious sense than the convoluted "Yisrael" yarn from the Hebrew faith.
But what does all this do to the validity of the "Title Deeds" from God that Ariel Sharon refers to? Quite apart from the obvious conclusion that the god assumed to have given the "promised land" to his chosen people was just one god from a pantheon and not the alleged monotheistic only God of the cosmos, Herzog's findings corroborate theories that have been "out there" for some time.
The Hyksos
Like Herzog, the historian Josephus (c. 37CE - c. 100CE) denied the account of the Hebrews being held in captivity in Egypt, but he went a drastic step further about the racial origins of the Jews, whom he identified with the Hyksos. He further claimed they did not flee from Egypt but were evicted due to them being leprous.
It must be said that Josephus has been vilified over the ages as a Roman collaborator by both Jewish and Christian scholars who have argued that the dating of the exodus of the "Hebrews" from Egypt in the Bible positively rules out their identification as Hyksos.
However, Jan Assmann, a prominent Egyptologist at Heidelberg University, is quite positive in his writings that the Exodus story is an inversion of the Hyksos expulsion and furthermore that Moses was an Egyptian.
Likewise, Donald P. Redford, of Toronto University, presents striking evidence that the Expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt was inverted to construct the exodus of the Hebrew slaves story in the Torah and Old Testament. His book, which argued this theory, "Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times" was Winner of the 1993 Best Scholarly Book in Archaeology Award of the Biblical Archaeological Society.
There is irrefutable evidence that the Hyksos, a mixed Semitic-Asiatic group who infiltrated the Nile valley, seized power in Lower Egypt in the 17th Century BCE. They ruled there from c. 1674 BCE until expelled when their capital, Avaris, fell to Ahmose around 1567 BCE.
The Hyksos in Egypt worshipped Set, who like ISH.KUR they identified as a storm deity.
Under the "inversion theory", Jewish scholars in the 7th Century BCE changed the story from "expelled" to "escaped" and as a further insult to their enemy, Ahmose, changed and miss-spelt his name to Moses, presenting him as leader of a Hebrew revolt. But there is also a strong possibility of two separate origins to the "Moses" character being merged into one, which I will come to later.
Ahmose's success in 1567 BCE led to the establishment of the 18th Dynasty in Egypt. ThotMoses III overthrew the transvestite Pharaoh Atchepsut, and under ThotMoses IV Egyptian conquests extended beyond the Sinai into Palestine, Syria, reaching Babylonia and included Canaan.
By the end of this expansion, Amenophis III (1380BCE) ruled an Egyptian empire whose provinces and colonies bordered what is now known as Turkey. This empire would have included the regions in which most of the expelled Hyksos now lived.
Amenophis IV succeeded the throne in 1353BCE. He established a new monotheism cult establishing "Aten" as the one supreme god and he changed his name to Akhenaton. Married to the mysterious Nefertiti, Akhenaton declared himself a god on earth, intermediary between the one-god Aten (Ra) and humanity, with his spouse as partner, effectively displacing Isis and Osiris in the Egyptian Enead.
Declaring all men to be the children of Aten, historians suspect Akhenaton planned an empire-wide religion. He banned all idolatry, the use of images to represent god, and banned the idea that there was more than one supreme god.
It is alongside Akhenaten and his father Amenophis III that we find the second Moses.
An important figure during this period was confusingly called Amenophis son of Hapu. He was First Minister (Vizier) to both kings. He is generally depicted as a scribe, crouching and holding on his knees a roll of papyrus. He more than anyone was responsible for authoring the religion in which the old gods were merged into one living god, Aten, who had been responsible for the creation of the Earth and of humanity.
The symbol of this god, the sun disk, represented Ra, Horus and the other gods in one. The sun disk, in symbolism, was supported between the horns of a bull. The Son of Hapu says this about creation: "I have come to you who reigns over the gods oh Amon, Lord of the Two Lands, for you are Re who appears in the sky, who illuminates the earth with a brilliantly shining eye, who came out of the Nou, who appeared above the primitive water, who created everything, who generated the great Enneade of the gods, who created his own flesh and gave birth to his own form."
The king's overseer of the land of Nubia was a certain Mermose (spelled both Mermose and Merymose on his sarcophagus in the British Museum). According to modern historians, in Amenhotep's third year as king, Mermose took his army far up the Nile, supposedly to quell a minor rebellion, but actually to secure gold mining territories which would supply his king with the greatest wealth of any ruler of Egypt.
Recent scholarship has indicated Mermose took his army to the neighbourhood of the confluence of the Nile and Atbara Rivers and beyond.
But who was this Mermose? According to historian Dawn Breasted, the Greek translation of this name was Moses. Does Jewish tradition support this identification?
According to Jewish history not included in the Bible, Moses led the army of Pharaoh to the South, into the land of Kush, and reached the vicinity of the Atbara River. There he attracted the love of the princess of the fortress city of Saba, later Meroe. She gave up the city in exchange for marriage. Biblical confirmation of such a marriage is to be found in Numbers 12:1. "And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman."
The end of Akhenaten's reign is shrouded in mystery, scholarship about which is beyond the scope of an article of this length. In summary, however, theories span from the death of Nefertiti from plague - Akhenaten's own death from plague or murder - to exile.
On clear record, in contrast, is the return of Egypt to the Enead of the gods and a systematic attempt to erase all vestiges of Akhenaton and his cult in Egypt.
Meanwhile, the expelled Hyksos, according to various historians, have been living in Canaan.
It is here that a solution to the Biblical dating problem of linking the Israelites to the Hyksos appears.
Using the dating of the Biblical Exodus and comparing it to the Egyptian dating of the Hyksos expulsion throws up a gap of about 400 years. Using the dating systems of the books of Judges and Samuel, this gap can extend to between 554 and 612 years.
However, there is clear historical record of post Hyksos Egypt extending its empire into Canaan, the land into which the Hebrews entered and lived, according to Biblical sources, for 400 years before establishing the kingdom of Solomon.
The Hebrews living in Canaan were therefore under Egyptian rule. It is also here in Canaan that we can make a comparison between Yahweh and the Canaanite Moloch (Baal) and extrapolate a polemic inversion of the story of Pharaoh ordering the death of all the "first born" in Exodus.
The worshippers of Moloch sacrificed their first born children to their deity through immolation. Worshippers of Yahweh in Canaan were also known to carry out child sacrifice on occasion, especially in times of hardship, although immolation (holocaust) was supposedly frowned upon. Slitting the child's throat, however, was acceptable.
The sacrifices were carried out and the remains interred at sacred sites known at Topheth. Sometimes - although rarely, judging by the vast predominance of infant human bones found at Topheth sites by archaeologists - animals were sacrificed as substitutes.
The Unification
Modern historical disciplines studying the biblical era uniformly conclude that Exodus could not have been written earlier than the 7th century BCE, and certainly not by the Biblical Moses who at best is a fictional combination of Egyptian personalities.
In Israel itself, 7th Century BCE is the period in which the archaeological evidence presented by Herzog suggests the emergence of Jerusalem as a cultural centre occurs.
By all accounts, it is a cultural centre struggling to find an identity and nationality for itself and, given the discovery of the Jewish texts displaying Yahweh having a consort in the form of Asherah, it is not difficult to piece this jigsaw together.
In 639BCE, Josiah, king of Judah, is known to have introduced wide-ranging religious reforms and brought additional areas of "Israel" under his control.
It is during this period that "polemics" against and "inversion" of a wide variety of religious and cultural sources are brought together to form a religious and political unity.
For Josiah's "inquisitors", where history is unheroic, such as the expulsion from Egypt in the form of the Hyksos, history is inverted. Where religion is bereft of moral unity, the cult of Aten is interweaved, satisfying existing belief systems within the region and bestowing upon the king, Josiah, the position of divine right through a lineage to Solomon and David - both replacements for Aten's ancestors and his temple-building reputation. Josiah also destroys the Topheth Temple said to have been built by Solomon in the Hinnon valley just outside Jerusalem, to the south.
Within this unifying mechanism, there are obfuscations to mitigate existing belief systems, which require the true name of God to be kept secret, and for which there is precedence in the cults of Baal and ISH-KUR, all part of the mish-mash of the region, and all designed to plaster over the holes in the new Yahweh-based system. An important separation of the identities of Baal-Moloch-Yahweh is implemented, although the evolution of ISH-KUR to Hadad to Baal to Yahweh does not remain disguised owing to the later polemic against Babylon written up as Genesis.
Well known in Egypt, including at the time of the Aten cult was the following passage from the Book of the Dead:
I have not robbed.
I have not coveted.
I have not killed people.
I have not told lies.
I have not trespassed.
I have not committed adultery.
I have not cursed a god.
Josiah's unification process takes Moses, an Ideogram combining the Ahmose who expelled the Hyksos, and the Mermose who led the Egyptian army to great victories, and credits him with receiving the Ten Commandments in tablets of stone. In reality these laws are an elaboration of the above declaration.
Add to this the fact that the obscure Egyptian king's "Hymn to Aten" is almost "word for word" Psalm 104 in the Bible and we have another compelling "coincidence".
These and other "coincidences" apparently convinced the renowned Psychologist Sigmund Freud, writing in his 1939 book "Moses and Monotheism", that the Jewish monotheistic faith had its roots in the Akhenaton cult religion.
Josiah's unification should of course be applauded. It outlawed the Moloch cult and emphasised the spiritual morality of the Ten Commandments. The polemics and inversions adding a heroic slant to the history of his people are understandable and politically astute.
But beginning c. 200CE, somewhere along the line, and unlike the Aten cult, supremacy of race is added to the Jewish faith.
In summary, however, it is Herzog's discovery of Yahweh's consort Asherah in Jewish texts and his declaration of an archaeological absence of Solomon or David that is the scalpel with which to slice through all the fictions of the biblical Exodus and its suggestion of divine right and supremacy. For that reason, Herzog must not be forgotten.
Even though his scholarship is ignored by the politics of modern day Israel, it contains a lesson for the rest of the world, and in particular for those nations who support Israel's supremacist doctrines.
Israel, modern, needs to face up to the fact that it has no "divine right" to the land it occupies. Israel must rely instead upon an equitable settlement in light of its undeniable modern day colonisation and conquest - a reality its opponents must accept but without straying outside the boundaries defined by international law - i.e. the 1967 borders.
It is a realist position, which most modern day western civilisations have come to terms with without claiming divine right or racial supremacy. They have accomplished this by recognition of human rights and an international standard of law limiting their behaviour (in most cases), reserving instead to a faith in the democratic institutions upon which their modernity and equitability is based.
Given the religious and cultural battleground upon which Israel is placed, its absence of recognition of modern reality, and in a world armed with nuclear weapons, until Israel - armed with those weapons - separates itself from doctrines of "divine right" and "racial supremacy", it will continue to be the breeding ground for a fight against racial and political injustice - at the centre of the modern-day world's geo-political processes - which could bring our entire global civilisation to destruction.
That surely, in the name of humanity, is reason enough to bring to an end such "biblical" fixations and dogmatism. It does not require us to abandon faith in God in order to do that. Our intuition of The Creator is as old as humanity and is not dependent upon a dusty old tome written by men and in the words of men.
The use of Yahweh as the name of God has always fuelled speculation and philosophical argument. YHWH, sometimes pronounced Jehovah, is taken to mean "I AM" or "I AM WHO I AM". There is also the puzzle of the rule that his mysterious real name is not to be spoken.
The identification of the goddess Asherah (Asherat) as His consort somewhere within the original Jewish faith leads to some explosive conclusions about the identity of the Jewish/Christian God of the Cosmos, the one Monotheistic God with whom we are so familiar from western religion.
But before looking at Asherah, and what she means to the identity of Yahweh, it is worth taking a look at another goddess, Ashteroth. Her significance will become evident a little later. Referred to as an "abomination" in 2 Kings, Ashteroth was an important deity in the Near East pantheons.
To the Sumerians she was IN.ANNA (Anu's beloved) and is an important character in the Sumerian Epics. To the Assyrians and Babylonians she was Ishtar; Ashtoreth was her name for the Canaanites; to the Greeks - Aphrodite; the Romans - Venus. The most important equivalent however is the Egyptian goddess Hathor, who the Greeks identified with Aphrodite. Hathor was the wife of Horus, the God of War. Hathor is identified with the symbol of the cow, and statues of her in the 26th Dynasty (572 - 525 BC) in Egypt actually depict her as a cow.
Asherah, (whose name means "she who walks in the sea") supposedly consort of the supreme god El, was also referred to as Elath (the goddess). According to the Ugarit tradition, whose clay tablets contain the earliest known alphabet, she was consort of El, and mother of seventy gods. She is also associated with Baal and is supposed to have interceded to her husband, the supreme god, on Baal's behalf, for the building of a palace - in order to grant him equal status with other gods.
In the cuniform tablets of Ras Shamrah (Circa 1400 BCE) the head of the Pantheon was El; his wife was Asherat-of-the-sea (Asherah). After El, the greatest god was Baal, son of El and Asherah. Curiously, Baal's consort is his mother, Asherah. In the Lebanon traditions Baal is equated with Jupiter.
Carvings of Asherah in Syria show her wearing Egyptian head-dress. She was also referred to later as "the cow" - a reference to her great age.
Significantly, Baalat (an important Goddess at Byblos) is depicted in carvings as having cow's horns, between which is a halo. Baalat is in fact the form of Asherah when she appears alongside Baal.
But what does this say about the identity of Yahweh? The Bible has always presented a confusing picture of Yahweh. In the light of Herzog's discoveries and conclusions that Yahweh's consort was Asherah, it deserves a closer examination.
Exodus 6:3 states "And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by [the name of] God Almighty (El Shaddai), but by my name "I AM" was I not known to them." In the King James Version, "I AM" is translated as Jehovah (Yahweh) but means the same: "I AM". The use of "God Almighty" is a traditional translation of Shaddai, thought to have meant "Omnipotent", but arguably it could be linked to the Akkadian root word Shadu, meaning literally "mountains".
And El Shaddai is only one of the versions of God described in Genesis. El Shaddai literally translated means, "God the one of the mountains", but there was also El Olam (God the everlasting one) El Elyon (God most high) El Ro'i (God of vision).
The obvious question is, why did YHWH reveal himself to the patriarchs as El Shaddai? The answer lies in the religious traditions of Canaan, where Abraham is said to have lived for a time, and which were brought to Canaan by the Phoenicians. (In turn, the root of Phoenician religious tradition is Sumer).
God-the-one-of-the-mountains has a Sumerian equivalent. ISH.KUR, the youngest son of Enlil, means God the one of the far mountains. Ishkur was also known as Adad or Hadad in Hebrew, brother of Nannar/Sin, and was the pre-eminent God of Canaan - El-Shaddai.
According to biblical scholars who focus on the "P Source" for the old testament, Yahweh as a name is first used with Moses in Exodus, and is indicative of monolatory (exclusive worship of one of many Gods) rather than monotheism. The name Yahweh can also be translated as "I am who I am", literally a way of saying "mind your own business", a way of disguising his true identity. Yahweh does not appear until Exodus and, strangely, the god Baal is entirely absent in Genesis.
(El Shaddai is still venerated in the Jewish faith in the form of the Teffilin, one of two small leather cube-shaped cases containing Torah Texts, traditionally to be worn by males from the age of 13. The Teffilin are worn in a manner to represent the letters shin, daleth, and yod, which together form the name Shaddai.)
In Exodus 33:2 it states "And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:
33:3 Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou [art] a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee on the way."
This Yahweh is prone to violence and seems to despise his chosen people. He is a perfect match for ISH.KUR (Hadad), whose land is occupied by the Amorites and Hittites, and is a known demonstrator of violence and contempt for his worshipers.
ISH.KUR's image, traits, and symbols match those of Baal. He is also anti-Babylon and anti-Egypt, as is Yahweh. And like Yahweh's, the real name of the Canaanite Baal (Hadad) must not be spoken.
On the basis of Herzog's discovery, the evidence within the Bible itself, the Sumerian, Phoenician and Canaanite traditions, the following is a logical conclusion and solution to the identity of the Jewish God of the Old Testament: ISH.KUR = Hadad = El Shaddai = Baal = Yahweh. (The Canaanite's Baal was also known as Moloch, who we will examine later.)
This indicates, as does Herzog's work, that the Jewish people evolved from polytheism to monotheism with the promotion of a god who had been known by a variety of names, into one supreme God, Yahweh (whose real name must not be spoken), and that they adopted for this purpose, not the supreme God of the Pantheons, El, but his son - ISH.KUR, Baal, Hadad, El-Shaddai, an entity who was in open revolt against his father El, and ultimately aided in this revolt by his mother and consort, Asherah, (also known as Baalat, Ashteroth, Elat).
This female entity was later merged by Greek and Roman traditions into Aphrodite and Venus, and known earlier to the Egyptians as Isis.
Once we understand this, the etymology of the name Israel - Is (either Isis or tomb) Ra (Head of the Egyptian Pantheon) El (Lord - Baal) - makes far more obvious sense than the convoluted "Yisrael" yarn from the Hebrew faith.
But what does all this do to the validity of the "Title Deeds" from God that Ariel Sharon refers to? Quite apart from the obvious conclusion that the god assumed to have given the "promised land" to his chosen people was just one god from a pantheon and not the alleged monotheistic only God of the cosmos, Herzog's findings corroborate theories that have been "out there" for some time.
The Hyksos
Like Herzog, the historian Josephus (c. 37CE - c. 100CE) denied the account of the Hebrews being held in captivity in Egypt, but he went a drastic step further about the racial origins of the Jews, whom he identified with the Hyksos. He further claimed they did not flee from Egypt but were evicted due to them being leprous.
It must be said that Josephus has been vilified over the ages as a Roman collaborator by both Jewish and Christian scholars who have argued that the dating of the exodus of the "Hebrews" from Egypt in the Bible positively rules out their identification as Hyksos.
However, Jan Assmann, a prominent Egyptologist at Heidelberg University, is quite positive in his writings that the Exodus story is an inversion of the Hyksos expulsion and furthermore that Moses was an Egyptian.
Likewise, Donald P. Redford, of Toronto University, presents striking evidence that the Expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt was inverted to construct the exodus of the Hebrew slaves story in the Torah and Old Testament. His book, which argued this theory, "Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times" was Winner of the 1993 Best Scholarly Book in Archaeology Award of the Biblical Archaeological Society.
There is irrefutable evidence that the Hyksos, a mixed Semitic-Asiatic group who infiltrated the Nile valley, seized power in Lower Egypt in the 17th Century BCE. They ruled there from c. 1674 BCE until expelled when their capital, Avaris, fell to Ahmose around 1567 BCE.
The Hyksos in Egypt worshipped Set, who like ISH.KUR they identified as a storm deity.
Under the "inversion theory", Jewish scholars in the 7th Century BCE changed the story from "expelled" to "escaped" and as a further insult to their enemy, Ahmose, changed and miss-spelt his name to Moses, presenting him as leader of a Hebrew revolt. But there is also a strong possibility of two separate origins to the "Moses" character being merged into one, which I will come to later.
Ahmose's success in 1567 BCE led to the establishment of the 18th Dynasty in Egypt. ThotMoses III overthrew the transvestite Pharaoh Atchepsut, and under ThotMoses IV Egyptian conquests extended beyond the Sinai into Palestine, Syria, reaching Babylonia and included Canaan.
By the end of this expansion, Amenophis III (1380BCE) ruled an Egyptian empire whose provinces and colonies bordered what is now known as Turkey. This empire would have included the regions in which most of the expelled Hyksos now lived.
Amenophis IV succeeded the throne in 1353BCE. He established a new monotheism cult establishing "Aten" as the one supreme god and he changed his name to Akhenaton. Married to the mysterious Nefertiti, Akhenaton declared himself a god on earth, intermediary between the one-god Aten (Ra) and humanity, with his spouse as partner, effectively displacing Isis and Osiris in the Egyptian Enead.
Declaring all men to be the children of Aten, historians suspect Akhenaton planned an empire-wide religion. He banned all idolatry, the use of images to represent god, and banned the idea that there was more than one supreme god.
It is alongside Akhenaten and his father Amenophis III that we find the second Moses.
An important figure during this period was confusingly called Amenophis son of Hapu. He was First Minister (Vizier) to both kings. He is generally depicted as a scribe, crouching and holding on his knees a roll of papyrus. He more than anyone was responsible for authoring the religion in which the old gods were merged into one living god, Aten, who had been responsible for the creation of the Earth and of humanity.
The symbol of this god, the sun disk, represented Ra, Horus and the other gods in one. The sun disk, in symbolism, was supported between the horns of a bull. The Son of Hapu says this about creation: "I have come to you who reigns over the gods oh Amon, Lord of the Two Lands, for you are Re who appears in the sky, who illuminates the earth with a brilliantly shining eye, who came out of the Nou, who appeared above the primitive water, who created everything, who generated the great Enneade of the gods, who created his own flesh and gave birth to his own form."
The king's overseer of the land of Nubia was a certain Mermose (spelled both Mermose and Merymose on his sarcophagus in the British Museum). According to modern historians, in Amenhotep's third year as king, Mermose took his army far up the Nile, supposedly to quell a minor rebellion, but actually to secure gold mining territories which would supply his king with the greatest wealth of any ruler of Egypt.
Recent scholarship has indicated Mermose took his army to the neighbourhood of the confluence of the Nile and Atbara Rivers and beyond.
But who was this Mermose? According to historian Dawn Breasted, the Greek translation of this name was Moses. Does Jewish tradition support this identification?
According to Jewish history not included in the Bible, Moses led the army of Pharaoh to the South, into the land of Kush, and reached the vicinity of the Atbara River. There he attracted the love of the princess of the fortress city of Saba, later Meroe. She gave up the city in exchange for marriage. Biblical confirmation of such a marriage is to be found in Numbers 12:1. "And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman."
The end of Akhenaten's reign is shrouded in mystery, scholarship about which is beyond the scope of an article of this length. In summary, however, theories span from the death of Nefertiti from plague - Akhenaten's own death from plague or murder - to exile.
On clear record, in contrast, is the return of Egypt to the Enead of the gods and a systematic attempt to erase all vestiges of Akhenaton and his cult in Egypt.
Meanwhile, the expelled Hyksos, according to various historians, have been living in Canaan.
It is here that a solution to the Biblical dating problem of linking the Israelites to the Hyksos appears.
Using the dating of the Biblical Exodus and comparing it to the Egyptian dating of the Hyksos expulsion throws up a gap of about 400 years. Using the dating systems of the books of Judges and Samuel, this gap can extend to between 554 and 612 years.
However, there is clear historical record of post Hyksos Egypt extending its empire into Canaan, the land into which the Hebrews entered and lived, according to Biblical sources, for 400 years before establishing the kingdom of Solomon.
The Hebrews living in Canaan were therefore under Egyptian rule. It is also here in Canaan that we can make a comparison between Yahweh and the Canaanite Moloch (Baal) and extrapolate a polemic inversion of the story of Pharaoh ordering the death of all the "first born" in Exodus.
The worshippers of Moloch sacrificed their first born children to their deity through immolation. Worshippers of Yahweh in Canaan were also known to carry out child sacrifice on occasion, especially in times of hardship, although immolation (holocaust) was supposedly frowned upon. Slitting the child's throat, however, was acceptable.
The sacrifices were carried out and the remains interred at sacred sites known at Topheth. Sometimes - although rarely, judging by the vast predominance of infant human bones found at Topheth sites by archaeologists - animals were sacrificed as substitutes.
The Unification
Modern historical disciplines studying the biblical era uniformly conclude that Exodus could not have been written earlier than the 7th century BCE, and certainly not by the Biblical Moses who at best is a fictional combination of Egyptian personalities.
In Israel itself, 7th Century BCE is the period in which the archaeological evidence presented by Herzog suggests the emergence of Jerusalem as a cultural centre occurs.
By all accounts, it is a cultural centre struggling to find an identity and nationality for itself and, given the discovery of the Jewish texts displaying Yahweh having a consort in the form of Asherah, it is not difficult to piece this jigsaw together.
In 639BCE, Josiah, king of Judah, is known to have introduced wide-ranging religious reforms and brought additional areas of "Israel" under his control.
It is during this period that "polemics" against and "inversion" of a wide variety of religious and cultural sources are brought together to form a religious and political unity.
For Josiah's "inquisitors", where history is unheroic, such as the expulsion from Egypt in the form of the Hyksos, history is inverted. Where religion is bereft of moral unity, the cult of Aten is interweaved, satisfying existing belief systems within the region and bestowing upon the king, Josiah, the position of divine right through a lineage to Solomon and David - both replacements for Aten's ancestors and his temple-building reputation. Josiah also destroys the Topheth Temple said to have been built by Solomon in the Hinnon valley just outside Jerusalem, to the south.
Within this unifying mechanism, there are obfuscations to mitigate existing belief systems, which require the true name of God to be kept secret, and for which there is precedence in the cults of Baal and ISH-KUR, all part of the mish-mash of the region, and all designed to plaster over the holes in the new Yahweh-based system. An important separation of the identities of Baal-Moloch-Yahweh is implemented, although the evolution of ISH-KUR to Hadad to Baal to Yahweh does not remain disguised owing to the later polemic against Babylon written up as Genesis.
Well known in Egypt, including at the time of the Aten cult was the following passage from the Book of the Dead:
I have not robbed.
I have not coveted.
I have not killed people.
I have not told lies.
I have not trespassed.
I have not committed adultery.
I have not cursed a god.
Josiah's unification process takes Moses, an Ideogram combining the Ahmose who expelled the Hyksos, and the Mermose who led the Egyptian army to great victories, and credits him with receiving the Ten Commandments in tablets of stone. In reality these laws are an elaboration of the above declaration.
Add to this the fact that the obscure Egyptian king's "Hymn to Aten" is almost "word for word" Psalm 104 in the Bible and we have another compelling "coincidence".
These and other "coincidences" apparently convinced the renowned Psychologist Sigmund Freud, writing in his 1939 book "Moses and Monotheism", that the Jewish monotheistic faith had its roots in the Akhenaton cult religion.
Josiah's unification should of course be applauded. It outlawed the Moloch cult and emphasised the spiritual morality of the Ten Commandments. The polemics and inversions adding a heroic slant to the history of his people are understandable and politically astute.
But beginning c. 200CE, somewhere along the line, and unlike the Aten cult, supremacy of race is added to the Jewish faith.
In summary, however, it is Herzog's discovery of Yahweh's consort Asherah in Jewish texts and his declaration of an archaeological absence of Solomon or David that is the scalpel with which to slice through all the fictions of the biblical Exodus and its suggestion of divine right and supremacy. For that reason, Herzog must not be forgotten.
Even though his scholarship is ignored by the politics of modern day Israel, it contains a lesson for the rest of the world, and in particular for those nations who support Israel's supremacist doctrines.
Israel, modern, needs to face up to the fact that it has no "divine right" to the land it occupies. Israel must rely instead upon an equitable settlement in light of its undeniable modern day colonisation and conquest - a reality its opponents must accept but without straying outside the boundaries defined by international law - i.e. the 1967 borders.
It is a realist position, which most modern day western civilisations have come to terms with without claiming divine right or racial supremacy. They have accomplished this by recognition of human rights and an international standard of law limiting their behaviour (in most cases), reserving instead to a faith in the democratic institutions upon which their modernity and equitability is based.
Given the religious and cultural battleground upon which Israel is placed, its absence of recognition of modern reality, and in a world armed with nuclear weapons, until Israel - armed with those weapons - separates itself from doctrines of "divine right" and "racial supremacy", it will continue to be the breeding ground for a fight against racial and political injustice - at the centre of the modern-day world's geo-political processes - which could bring our entire global civilisation to destruction.
That surely, in the name of humanity, is reason enough to bring to an end such "biblical" fixations and dogmatism. It does not require us to abandon faith in God in order to do that. Our intuition of The Creator is as old as humanity and is not dependent upon a dusty old tome written by men and in the words of men.
Monday, October 20, 2014
Why Jesus' sacrifice is deception?
Churches‘ teachings of Jesus as a sacrifice to his father God free human from sins is completely a drama and deception! It does not work nor is logic.
1) From bible script itself stated human sacrifice is sin, forbidden by God, and from legal aspects of modern day civilizations it is unlawful, human sacrifice is not accepted for any moral and legal sense.
So the major foundation of Jesus' sacrifice could not be accepted for any sense as a normal human being with common sense. So Jesus' sacrifice is not valid, it is only valid toward the crowd who believe in and practice human sacrifice, who is a group should be hated by a moral God.
Christianity has a false belief foundation from moral and legal aspect.
2) From the historic aspect, whether it is a true history that Jesus did sacrifice himself to save sinful human? When I questioned Christians what is the moral base of this Jesus' human sacrifice?
Their answer is We(christians) did not sacrifice Jesus by murdering him, Jesus sacrificed himself on his own will for our sin, that is why we honor him and believe he is our savior.
Sounds pretty cool with an answer like this.
But christians do not want to confront this obviously illogical truth: they also agreed that Jesus was arrested and prosecuted and was nailed on cross by jews and romans. He was executed along with 2 other criminals. So a big question arise: how can you call an execution of criminals a self sacrifice on Jesus' own will? He is not the one who wanted to devote his life for anybody's sin but his own sin! It does not matter this sin that was charged by the court was in fact a legal charge in the eyes of christians, it is a historic fact Jesus was executed not for his own self give-up will but he was murdered by the jewish/roman court. With this fact, christians' answer of Jesus' willingly give up his life for whoever is not a valid! It is really a weasel answer.
My conception of Christians' preach is they are a group of people who do whatever they could to twist and lie to make their belief and statement sound valid, although it is obviously not valid nor logical at all. They are a group of weasels for sure.
1) From bible script itself stated human sacrifice is sin, forbidden by God, and from legal aspects of modern day civilizations it is unlawful, human sacrifice is not accepted for any moral and legal sense.
So the major foundation of Jesus' sacrifice could not be accepted for any sense as a normal human being with common sense. So Jesus' sacrifice is not valid, it is only valid toward the crowd who believe in and practice human sacrifice, who is a group should be hated by a moral God.
Christianity has a false belief foundation from moral and legal aspect.
2) From the historic aspect, whether it is a true history that Jesus did sacrifice himself to save sinful human? When I questioned Christians what is the moral base of this Jesus' human sacrifice?
Their answer is We(christians) did not sacrifice Jesus by murdering him, Jesus sacrificed himself on his own will for our sin, that is why we honor him and believe he is our savior.
Sounds pretty cool with an answer like this.
But christians do not want to confront this obviously illogical truth: they also agreed that Jesus was arrested and prosecuted and was nailed on cross by jews and romans. He was executed along with 2 other criminals. So a big question arise: how can you call an execution of criminals a self sacrifice on Jesus' own will? He is not the one who wanted to devote his life for anybody's sin but his own sin! It does not matter this sin that was charged by the court was in fact a legal charge in the eyes of christians, it is a historic fact Jesus was executed not for his own self give-up will but he was murdered by the jewish/roman court. With this fact, christians' answer of Jesus' willingly give up his life for whoever is not a valid! It is really a weasel answer.
My conception of Christians' preach is they are a group of people who do whatever they could to twist and lie to make their belief and statement sound valid, although it is obviously not valid nor logical at all. They are a group of weasels for sure.
Christianity and Human Sacrifice
http://jakiitheatheist.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/christianity-and-human-sacrifice/
From a very young age I was taught the following:
Jesus Christ is the son of God and he died for my sins. He was crucified and nailed to the cross. He payed the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, and his death ensures that we can all be reborn to eternal life.
Jesus Christ is the son of God and he died for my sins. He was crucified and nailed to the cross. He payed the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, and his death ensures that we can all be reborn to eternal life.
At first this sounded all fine and dandy to me. I thought, really? Even though I’m a horrible retched sinner, Jesus payed the price for me and all i have to do is except his sacrifice and I get to live forever and ever? Well sure sign me up!
But of course as I got a bit older I began to really think about what this meant.
Is it ethical for god to base a religion on a scapegoat method? If i do something wrong, if i sin, I can take that sin and throw that responsibility onto an innocent person. And by what means? Human sacrifice of course. Yes this sounds completely sane and moral. I’ve done something wrong so you get to die for it now. Sounds like something only a perfect god could muster up doesn’t it?
But of course as I got a bit older I began to really think about what this meant.
Is it ethical for god to base a religion on a scapegoat method? If i do something wrong, if i sin, I can take that sin and throw that responsibility onto an innocent person. And by what means? Human sacrifice of course. Yes this sounds completely sane and moral. I’ve done something wrong so you get to die for it now. Sounds like something only a perfect god could muster up doesn’t it?
No. This idea is evil, disgusting, and barbaric. You may argue that God did this out of love.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son..” (john 3:16)
But if he is an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God, and he is indeed perfect and good and just in every way, then why would he stoop to such a low? No matter which way you cut it, human sacrifice is evil. Did it take evil to save the world then? Why could god not find a way to save the world using the forces of light, not dark? I see a HUGE contradiction here.
And then so what if God did give his only begotten son! He’s GOD. He can have as many sons as he wants! Just because he chose to only have the one it makes it a sacrifice? Thats ridiculous. And aren’t we all taught that God is our personal heavenly father?
But if he is an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God, and he is indeed perfect and good and just in every way, then why would he stoop to such a low? No matter which way you cut it, human sacrifice is evil. Did it take evil to save the world then? Why could god not find a way to save the world using the forces of light, not dark? I see a HUGE contradiction here.
And then so what if God did give his only begotten son! He’s GOD. He can have as many sons as he wants! Just because he chose to only have the one it makes it a sacrifice? Thats ridiculous. And aren’t we all taught that God is our personal heavenly father?
In the Old Testament In Deuteronomy 18:10, the bible says: “There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering…”
The bible clearly talks about human sacrifice as evil, this is only one example of many. Yet we are to believe that god himself took part in it?
This is a major contradiction in christianity. If you are a normal, moral bound person, then you agree that human sacrifice is evil. Yet the sacrifice of Jesus is somehow divine?
And then you’ve got to ask yourself, if Gods intentions were to save all of mankind through sending his son, the human sacrifice to die, why wouldn’t he make it more effective? Why do so in such a ridiculous, unsuccessful manor?
My favorite quote from the late Christopher Hitchens explains it best:
The bible clearly talks about human sacrifice as evil, this is only one example of many. Yet we are to believe that god himself took part in it?
This is a major contradiction in christianity. If you are a normal, moral bound person, then you agree that human sacrifice is evil. Yet the sacrifice of Jesus is somehow divine?
And then you’ve got to ask yourself, if Gods intentions were to save all of mankind through sending his son, the human sacrifice to die, why wouldn’t he make it more effective? Why do so in such a ridiculous, unsuccessful manor?
My favorite quote from the late Christopher Hitchens explains it best:
” Let’s say that the consensus is that our species, being the higher primates, Homo Sapiens, has been on the planet for at least 100,000 years, maybe more. Francis Collins says maybe 100,000. Richard Dawkins thinks maybe a quarter-of-a-million. I’ll take 100,000. In order to be a Christian, you have to believe that for 98,000 years, our species suffered and died, most of its children dying in childbirth, most other people having a life expectancy of about 25 years, dying of their teeth.
Famine, struggle, bitterness, war, suffering, misery, all of that for 98,000 years. Heaven watches this with complete indifference. And then 2,000 years ago, thinks “That’s enough of that. It’s time to intervene,” and the best way to do this would be by condemning someone to a human sacrifice somewhere in the less literate parts of the Middle East.
Don’t let’s appeal to the Chinese, for example, where people can read and study evidence and have a civilization. Let’s go to the desert and have another revelation there. This is nonsense. It can’t be believed by a thinking person.”
If God, being perfect as he is, wanted to forgive us for our sins, I’m positive that he could of come up with a trillion better ideas. Im merely an average human and i can think of a hundred better ways off the top of my head! Why not just forgive people then? After all he did create you to be the way you are, so why condemn you for it? Why not simply write words of fire in the sky saying “hey morons, stop being all evil and whatnot and repent and I’ll let you come to heaven.”
Either this God, along with all of the others, is man-made, or he is simply uncaring, unintelligent, evil, and malevolent.
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