demoninho

How many gods are there in the bible(OT and NT)?
I know YHVH, El and Elohim (are these different is Elohim used as plural), are there more? Can these be indentified as different entities? And is Asherah a god too?

robto

In the OT, YHWH, El, and Elohim are usually identical. (Elohim is a more general term and is sometimes used for angelic entities or even in one case for a ghost (Samuel's).) Asherah is NOT a god(dess) in the OT: mentions of "cutting down the Asherah" indicate that it was some form of religious symbol.

I would say there are two:

YHWH/El

and

Jesus

Osbert

I have heard of AHIH (Existence) and IAO (Used by some Masons as Hierogliph of the Great Work)

MortalWombat

Here {Twilight of the Gods: Polytheism in the Hebrew Bible} (or via: amazon.co.uk) is a book about polytheism in the Hebrew Bible.

John Kesler

If you are including pagan deities, have as look at this list.

No Robots

Here's what Spinoza says about the names for God that appear in the Bible:

God, in order to show the singular grace bestowed upon Moses, says to him: "And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of El Sadai (A. V. God Almighty); but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them" - for the better understanding of which passage I may remark that El Sadai, in Hebrew, signifies the God who suffices, in that He gives to every man that which suffices for him; and, although Sadai is often used by itself, to signify God, we cannot doubt that the word El (God) is everywhere understood. Furthermore, we must note that Jehovah is the only word found in Scripture with the meaning of the absolute essence of God, without reference to created things. The Jews maintain, for this reason, that this is, strictly speaking, the only name of God; that the rest of the words used are merely titles; and, in truth, the other names of God, whether they be substantives or adjectives, are merely attributive, and belong to Him, in so far as He is conceived of in relation to created things, or manifested through them. Thus El, or Eloah, signifies powerful, as is well known, and only applies to God in respect to His supremacy, as when we call Paul an apostle; the faculties of his power are set forth in an accompanying adjective, as El, great, awful, just, merciful, &c., or else all are understood at once by the use of El in the plural number, with a singular signification, an expression frequently adopted in Scripture.

--TTP, Chap. 13

For the special meaning of Jahve, see this post.

DNAinaGoodway

Nice list! Thanks.

I counted 26.

Loomis

Yes. But sometimes they can also be identified as the same entities.

Q: Do you know why?

A: Because it’s fiction. They are not real gods at all. There is no correct answer. The various authors who wrote about them didn’t really understand or agree with each other about who or what ‘God’ was. They didn’t really care. They were just borrowing characters and events, and creating new stories, without regard for the previous author’s intentions.

Loomis

What a complete crock. I know Spinoza is famous for inventing pizza, but I think he way off base here.The guy who wrote Psalm 89:6 thought that Yahweh and El were two different gods.

The guy who wrote Psalm 89:6 thought that El had sons.

Yea. Right. What ever you say. After all - you are Spinoza! :notworthy:

Roller

Divine Council in Deut 32:8-9 says: "When the Most High (El Elyon) gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of men, he fixed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.
9: For the LORD's (YHWH) portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage." (RSV)

*I added "El Elyon" and "YHWH" in parentheses*

Looks like author of this verse thought them separate too.