A Short History of God

ekrubtap · Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2004 11:27 am Post subject: A Short History of God

The Old Testament is largely derived from ancient pagan myths of Mesopotamia. The oldest literary work we have, the Epic of Gilgamesh, is from this area (the Fertile Crescent), dated some 7000 years ago. Many of the tales from the Epic were incorporated into the book of Genesis including the creation of man in a garden, the introduction of evil into an innocent world, and the story of a global flood brought on by the depravity of mankind. Reigning over all the gods of the east was El, the king of the gods, ruler of the pantheon. Remember the name, we'll see it later.

Abraham, so the story goes, apparently led members of his tribe from the city of Ur west to the Mediterranean, to the "promised land" of Canaan, circa 19th, 20th century BCE. The archaeological evidence, however, doesn't support this contention. In fact it tends to contradict it (as is true with most of the bible). The southern highlands of Palestine, where Abraham supposedly settled, are very sparce in archaeological evidence from this period. The evidence is clear, however, that the people known as the Philistines didn't enter the area until the 12th century BCE.

The "city of Gerar" in which Isaac, the son of Abraham, had his encounter with Abimelech, the "king of the Philistines" (in Genesis 26:1) was in fact a tiny, insignificant rural village up until the 8th century B.C.E. It couldn't have been the capital of the regional king of a people who didn't yet exist! And camels weren't domesticated until about the late second millennium BCE., and they weren't widely used as beasts of burden until about 1000 BCE. long after the age of the Patriarchs. The cargo carried by the camels, "gum, balm and myrrh," were products of Arabia, and trade with Arabia didn't begin until the era of Assyrian dominance in the region, starting about the 8th century BCE.

Another problem is Jacob's marriage with Leah and Rachel, and his relationship with his uncle, Laban, all of whom are described as being Arameans. This ethnic group does not appear in the archeological record prior to 1100 BCE

Monotheism gradually emerged from polytheism. Thus we have the Hebraic "God" seeming to have multiple personalities, from gentle liberator to raging avenger with a morbid love of war. The Old Testament is an anthology of tales, composed in a period of more than a millennium, by authors living in different countries. God, in Genesis, often appears as two different people, because he was. Many scholars believe that remnants of polytheism were never completely purged from Hebrew scriptures. Thus we have God often referring to himself as "us". There were two divinities with entirely dissimilar and incompatible natures. El or El-Elohim was the ancient High God of the Canaanites and of the northern Israelite tribes of Samaria. Yahweh (Jehovah) was the warrior God or God of Hosts, that is, of armies, the God of Judah to the south.

Young's Concordance gives a detailed account of the different original Hebrew words which our modern bible translations render as 'God' or 'gods'. "EL" - 225 times. E.g. Gen. 14:20, "Blessed be the Most High EL". "Elohim" - 2222 times. Gen. 1:1, "In the beginning Elohim created." Elohim is a plural from the same root as the singular El and Eloah.

So in the end we have Christianity and Islam, derived from Judaism, which in turn is derived from pagan polytheism. It's all mythology. Mythology that, unfortunately, has a long inglorious history of hatred and bloodshed, though interspersed with the odd pearl of wisdom.

Sources
http://www.bidstrup.com/bible.htm
Sacred Origins of Profound Things, Charles Panati
KJV

ZippyZingo · Corporal Joined: Apr 07, 2004 Posts: 71 Location: USA

Ek, I don't think that post helps your cause any. I think that your source is using himself as a source. That site looks a lot like some of the whacky christian sites that you love to point out so much. You need to be careful, this stuff is beginning to sound like doctrine to me. Smile

ekrubtap · Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2004 12:34 am Post subject:

ZippyZingo · Corporal Joined: Apr 07, 2004 Posts: 71 Location: USA

My mistake, Ek, I thought that you actually read the site that you used as your source.

ekrubtap · Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2004 2:28 pm Post subject:

Picking nits are we, El Zippo? I read the information I sought, the rest of the page, and a link or two thereof. I rarely (like most) read an entire site. It would take half a day and a bottle of tylenol, and I'm off drugs, including religion.

ZippyZingo · Corporal Joined: Apr 07, 2004 Posts: 71 Location: USA

AHHHH! The light shines, understanding dawns.

ekrubtap · Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2004 8:45 pm Post subject:

Gen.44... As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their asses.

Smile


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