poului

I wander if any of you are acquainted with the theory surrounding the formation of the kingdom of Israel and its primitive roots.

To paraphrase Acharya S

"The word Israel itself, far from being a Jewish appelation, probably comes from the combination of three different reigning deities: Isis, the Earth Mother Goddess revered throughout the ancient world; Ra, the Egyptian sungod; and El, the Semitic deity passed down in form as Saturn. El was one of the earliest names for the god of the ancient Hebrews (whence Emmanu-El, Micha-El, Gabri-El, Samue-El etc.), and his worship is reflected in the fact that the Jews still consider Saturday as 'God's Day'"


Any thoughts?

Bobzammel

Actually, apart from the last part(About "El" being a canaanite god) this is incorrect. "Israel" means "Wrestles(or struggles") with 'El'." This is because in Genesis Jacob wrestles with God(who has assumed the form of a man) and like many biblical heroes is renamed based on this. This is a problem for people who say God was not incarnated in an earthly form until Jesus....

Achyra S. has a tendency to "jump the gun" on myth theories, unfortunately. Presenting her arguments will not convince many Christians, since she's sort of a little too biased and not very 'scholarly'...

Sarpedon

I once read a theory that had the "Is" in "Israel" meaning "tomb" or, more properly in egyptian, "eternal House". The theory went that Akhnaten set up the kingdom of Israel as a place where his Aten god would be worshipped forever, as he saw little hope of getting the egyptians to go along with it. This explains why he didn't send any help to the vassal kingdoms in Canaan when they were invaded (some say by the Hebrews) I guess I should look that up in my hieroglyphic dictionary. Doesn't Isis mean eternal house or something? Or is that Hathor?