Prester John

I've read a couple of articles that state that Yahweh was one of El's children and originally a warrior god. The bible would appear to show some evidence for this. Is it generally accepted that this is the case and what is the primary evidence for Els pantheon?

Thanks

PJ

Celsus

Hi Prester John,

I wrote some stuff on that here.

Joel

Prester John

Hi Joel,

I've read your article - all 5 of that series actually and found them very good. Is there any serious disagreement to the points made especially El and Yahwehs relationship?

regards

PJ

Celsus

Thanks, it's always nice to hear. I think among Ugaritic scholars, there is very little disagreement that what we have in the Ugaritic corpus is a precursor to that which is found in the Hebrew Bible. There's plenty of evidence of direct borrowing of myths, for example the cosmic battles between Leviathan and Yahweh/Lotan and Baal. I don't know what conservative (Jewish or Christian) scholarship has to say about this--mostly they don't even know about it or acknowledge it. Certain orthodox Jewish quarters do in fact accept syncretism and that borrowing or development from one to another was present, so it would be unproblematic in such an interpretation.

However, the sticking point is demonstrating a connection between the use of these myths and what it means to be "monotheistic". For instance, there is a great deal of monotheistic rhetoric in the Bible, but even these have a different degrees. One is when an author claims the other supernatural entities are less than Yahweh, or else subservient to/defeated by him. Another is outright denial that these exist (which tends to be extremely late). A third possibility is that Yahweh alone is supreme. Each of these finds plenty of mention in the Bible, and Smith's thesis is that it follows along a progression from polytheistic (where El is prominent, Yahweh is one of the lesser deities) to monotheistic (Yahweh is ascendent). I would anticipate an objection along the lines that this progression need not be chronological, but that the varying views represent different aspects of the spectrum of ancient Jewish thought, with some of the texts having a fully monotheistic view and others being more equivocal. Thus in this view, it may be that El was interpreted distinctly from Yahweh in specific quarters (while connected in others), but it's hard to escape the idea that such a theory is not influenced by later theology.

Joel

Boro Nut

I'm not convinced. If Yahwey is supposed to be the belligerent one and not El, how come we don't say Bloody Yahwey?

Boro Nut

Chrestomathy

:rolling: