El
by Dr Anthony E. Smith
Leader of the gods. The first Canaanite god, El dwelt on Mount Saphon, and it was under his aegis that Baal married Anat, defeated the sea god Yam and the death lord Mot, and was installed as the divine bestower of life-giving rain. Represented as an aged man, El wore bull's horns, the symbol of strength, and was usually depicted as seated. It is thought that he corresponded to the Hebrew god, Yahweh. He is also known as El 'Elyon, "God Most High."
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Archaeologists are not sure whether the Hebrews were latecomers to Canaan or were themselves Canaanites.
http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/ch04.htm
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If Hebrews were originally Canaanites, That would mean that originally they worshiped the same Gods as the Canaanites. As such when they finally transformed into the Hebrew family of Tribes as we know them from the Bible, they would have transformed their King God El, into their Only God Yahweh. Further, even the Torah makes reference to El in the form of "Elohim", which is the plural of El. Simply put, El does not only correspond to Yahweh, but actually is Yahweh.
Further when the Bible says "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me" it is a further reference to El's status as a King of the Gods, and a reminder to worship El as such, not a commandment to ignore the other Gods of the Canaanites. Also when Yahweh says "I am a Jealous God" we are reminded of Zeus, who was also a King God. Zeus was similarly a Jealous God, and for very similar reasons. If you did not pay your King God the proper respects, but instead payed those respects to a lesser God, you were in for the retribution of that God.
Simply put, I am trying to say that the God of Isreal as we know him, is not the God that would have been recognized by the earliest of the Hebrew Tribe, or the Canaanites for that matter.
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...El was acknowledged as the titular head of the pantheon. As king of the gods, he was both the creator god and a fertility god. He had earlier been more strongly associated with fertility than was true in the fourteenth century, although he was still depicted in the form of a bull. El lived at some distance from Ugarit upon a mountain (Mt. Saphon) located to the north....
...Whereas El was located at some distance from the people, Baal was easily accessible. Baal statues have been recovered. These depict Baal wearing a conical hat with horns that conveys the strength and fertility associated with bull imagery. In his right hand Baal holds a club that represents his military strength as well as thunder. In his left hand he grasps a stylized lightening bolt which symbolizes his role as a storm god. He is sometimes portrayed as seated on a throne, indicating his authority as king of gods....
...As Baal gradually supplanted El, many of the prerogatives earlier associated with El were naturally transferred to Baal. The biblical text derives from the period when this symbolic struggle between the deities had in essence been accomplished. Thus in the Bible Baal is often depicted with Asherah (i.e., Athirat) rather than Anath (i.e., Anat), as in Judges 3:7 (NIV)....
http://www.studylight.org/dic/hbd/view.cgi?number=T1127
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Polytheism in Genesis: Baal and Ashtoreth vs. Yahweh
Sol Abrams
Genesis 1:26-27 says, "And God said, `Let us make man in our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea....' And God created man in his own image in the image of God created he him, male and female he created them."
The word man in this text includes male and female . This is confirmed by the word them whose antecedent is man. So he and his in this sense are both male and female. In fact, the word him is superfluous, and we could omit the superfluity by stating the passage like this: "In the image of God, he created them male and female." This means that male and female were created in the image of God. In other words, man [male and female or mankind] was created in the image of God.
Since man [male and female] was created in the image of God, it logically follows that this god was both male and female. The word our implies more than one, so, in effect, what we have is a god-pair consisting of a male god and a female god.
Chapter one of Genesis is from the Elohist source that used Elohim [gods plural] in referring to "God." Originally, the male god was Baal, and the female god was his consort Ashtoreth. Orthodox clergymen will argue that the us and our in the creation passage are simply examples of the "royal we" used by emperors, but this rationalization is false. The book of Genesis was written before the "royal we" originated. It began with the first Roman emperor, Augustus, and included the emperor and his loyal civil administrators. Afterwards, it was sometimes used in pagan religious ceremonies in the pre-Christian Roman Empire, which at that time was polytheistic.
In Genesis 3:22 , there is further evidence of polytheism as the Hebrew gods are depicted as saying, "Behold the man has become as one of us to know good and evil, and now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever...." Here again the orthodox clergy will claim that the us is really the LORD God and the angels that were with him, but this cannot be for a number of reasons. First, there is no mention of angels in Genesis until Chapter 19 , but even if these angels did exist, they would have been acting upon orders of the god-pair of 1:26-27 . So the us here was again referring to that god-pair. To further show that the our and us in these Genesis passages referred to the god-pair of early Hebrew polytheism, we have only to review the history of the ideological clashes between the proponents of Baal and those of Yahweh that went on in the Caananite-Israelite lands from the time of the judges until the fall of Judah and the Babylonian captivity.
During these times, Baal and his consort Ashtoreth were worshiped by many Israelites both in Samaria (Israel) and Judah even after the captivity, mainly by those who remained in the conquered lands. Yahwists like Ezra finally purged the Israelites (by then known as Jews) of all Baal residuals and even forced them to give up their Baalish wives and families (see Ezra 9-10 ). Ezra's purging of Baal appeared to be complete. It was his wish to erase Baal completely from the Israelite past; however, the residuals in Genesis 1 and 3 continue to remind us not only of Israel's polytheistic past but of the Canaanite origins of Judaism.
Using archaeological evidence on one hand and biblical between-the-line implications on the other, the following conclusions support the premises stated above:
(1) Most of the Israelites at the time of the exodus (about 1250 B.C.) were already located in the Canaanite area, which, incidentally, was at that time a part of Greater Egypt. A relatively small number, probably only one tribe (Levi), were in Egypt. Exodus 1:15 , for example, says that only two midwives were needed to attend the births of Hebrew children. Furthermore, the Israelites needed divine help to defeat a small seminomadic tribe (Ex. 17:8-13 ) in contradiction to the later editor's estimate of an army of 600,000 men (12:37 ) besides children (and women?).
(2) This relatively small group of Israelites from the outside (Egypt proper) formed some type of symbiotic relationship with the much larger inside group (which consisted of Israelites and Canaanites, the so-called mixed multitude) to form the "12 tribes" (when they were not fighting each other).
(3) The outside group was the Yahwist cult, the inside group the Baal cult. The struggle between the two groups went on for well over 500 years.
(4) Apparently it was not until the reign of Josiah that the Yahwist group was able to achieve dominance. The "lost book" of Deuteronomy was discovered in the house of the LORD (2 Kings 22:8 ), and the Passover was reinstituted after a lapse of 500 years (if indeed it even existed before then). The golden calf (symbol of the Kings of Israel) from the reign of Jeroboam was suppressed (2 Kings 23:15 ).
(5) Biblical scholars agree on how the Pentateuch was put together. The sources were (E) Elohist, (J) Yahwist, (P) Priestly, (D) Deuteronomist, and (R) Redactor. The last two were written to dovetail with the first two, and the writers tried to do two things: (1) eliminate all contradictions, and (2) eliminate all vestiges of the Israelite primitive past of pagan polytheisism.
Richard Elliott Friedman noted in Who Wrote the Bible? that after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B. C., some Jews fled to Egypt and formed a colony at Elephantine at the first cataract of the Nile (p. 153). They built a temple there, which was clearly against the law of centralization in Deuteronomy. The extraordinary thing about the Elephantine temple, however, was that this group of expatriated Jews worshiped Yahweh and two other gods, one male and one female. This god-pair apparently was Baal and Ashtoreth. The Yahwist Jews living elsewhere were not happy with this development, for when the Elephantine temple was destroyed in the 5th century, B.C.E., they would not help to rebuild it (p. 154).
The scholarly piecing together of information from archaeological discoveries and overlooked textual implications of a polytheistic past indicate that the editors failed in both endeavors listed above. As a result, we know today that monotheism came to Judaism not by divine revelation but by a process of theistic evolution.
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http://cc.usu.edu/~fath6/bible.htm
http://cc.usu.edu/~fath6/contents-bible.htm
http://cc.usu.edu/~fath6/index.html
http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/paperschapter.php?paperid=8&chapid=66
http://ethicalfreethought.blogspot.com/2005/12/dem...gizing-baal-making-yahweh.html
http://www.hope.edu/bandstra/BIBLE/EXO/EXO15.HTM
http://ethicalfreethought.blogspot.com/2005/12/dem...gizing-baal-making-yahweh.html
Demythologizing Baal: Making Yahweh Real(
http://instituteforfeminismandreligion.org/ThePoliticsofGod.pdf
http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/index/3KY1YKJRUGK8XT3Y.pdf
The upper Egyptian Jewish colony at Elephantine worshiped Yahweh as husband of the Goddess in its temple.' Thus, behind the apparent conquest of Yahweh over Anath-Baal lies a more complex reality. It is not insignificant that most of the polemics against Canaanite religion in the Old Testament are against Baal, not Anath or Asherah. Yahweh does not do warfare primarily against the Goddess. Rather it is Baal, her male consort, who must be replaced. The Goddess is not so much eliminated as she is absorbed and put into a new relationship with Yahweh as her Lord. In addition to this transformation of the Sacred Marriage from a Goddess-king relation into a patriarchal God-servant wife, Yahwism appropriates female images for God at certain points.
http://www.dhushara.com/book/renewal/voices2/sexismg.htm
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And here one wonders if Barker might not be willing to take her thesis a step farther and explain the origin of the myth of Jesus' resurrection as one more piece of polytheistic Yahweh tradition. If Yahweh was in so many ways parallel to Baal the Son of Elyon, why should this not have extended to the death and resur- rection concept? It was by a resurrection victory that Baal became king of the immortals. Why not with Yahweh? Perhaps this aspect of the earlier Yahweh cycle had been successfully expunged by the priestly editors. But, a la Barker, we may surmise that it, too, hung on in the popular and sectarian imaginations, emerging into the light of history again when the mytheme was claimed for Jesus-Yahweh.
http://www.atheistalliance.org/jhc/reviews/RPbarker.htm
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http://www.bibleorigins.net/KuntilletAjrudArticle.html
If we allow that the "full-frontal" of Baal-Adad as a human with a bull's head is a possible "genetic precursor" to Yahweh of Samaria, the so-called "calf of Samaria," then we begin to see "possible relationships" appearing amongst the figures accompanying him on Pithos A...
...Remove the horns from Baal-Adad's head and we have the "high-placed ears" near the top of the head appearing on the rendering of Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah. The arms, extended away from the body and in a downwards position is somewhat similar as well (but the placement of the hands on the hips is a Bes-like feature). The legs, spread apart are another similar rendering. The Baal-Adad stele also shows a connection between the trunk of the body and the bottom of the stela, extending downwards between the legs, somewhat reminescent of the tail or genitals appearing on Asherah and Yahweh. I see here, a possible genetic prototype for Yahweh, the calf of Samaria and Yahweh of Samaria as descendants of Baal-Adad the humanoid Bull ! Bethsaida lies in Samaria and the inscription near the figure's head suggests that is who is being portrayed...
...I am of the persuasion that Yahweh evolved from the cult of Baal-Adad and the cult of the "Queen of Heaven." Baal in Ugaritic myths is presented at times taking on the form of a bull when he mates with his sister, Anat, a warrior goddess, who takes on the form of a cow, she later gives birth to a bull calf. Baal-Adad was associated with storm-clouds that bring the life-giving rains to the land, he is in a sense a god of fertility. Storm-clouds were called Adad's calves. God takes on the form of a storm-cloud at Mount Sinai, shortly thereafter, Israel makes a golden calf to worship. I see a relationship here, God is Baal-Adad. Hosea tells us God was called Baal/Baali. Baal's title, "rider of the clouds" is Yahweh's title. Baal is called `aliyn, meaning "mighty," Yahweh is called elyon, again, Yahweh is pre-empting the Baal cult and taking over the titles
Ugaritic myths mention that shortly before he dies, `aliyn Baal takes on the form of a bull and mates with a she-calf or heifer, who later gives birth to a bull-calf. Then we are told that after his death that Anat seeks after Baal "like the heart of a cow for her calf," an allusion, to my way of thinking, of Baal as being a bull-calf. Baal eventually returns to life and takes up his throne again.
The cow and nursing calf which Yahweh's right foot overlaps, may be an artistic convention whereby the artist is intending to show a close connection between the images, that is, Yahweh-Baali, the "calf of Samaria," is the calf that Anat, the Queen of Heaven sought after and was reunited with. In other words the nursing calf is Baal-Yahweh. The Asherah with her arm interlocked with Yahweh's is really Anat, the cow who loves her calf, Baal. As neither Yahweh nor Asherah appear with horns in the Kuntillet rendering, I suspect they are being portrayed as calves, a bull-calf and a hornless she-calf or heifer. Perhaps there is a garbling of the Ugaritic myth where Baal mounts a heifer shortly before his death, or perhaps Baal comes back to life as a bull-calf, storm-clouds being called Adad's calves ?
Both Yahweh and his Asherah have several vertical lines below their noses which may be indicative of beards (some of the verticals appear to be a collar as in the seated lyre player). Sumerian hymns and art forms portray bulls at times as bearded. Ishtar as the male morning star (Venus) was known as the "bearded Ishtar" while the evening star was the beautiful voluptuous lady of sex. Anat is portrayed as shaving her "beard" in mourning for Baal...
...Egyptian 19th Dynasty texts mention that Anat was called the "Queen of Heaven," and we are told that Israel worshipped Baals and the Queen of Heaven, as late as the Exile (Jer. 44:15-25). In Elephantine (modern Aswan, Egypt) Jewish mercenaries, ca. 410 BCE, make mention of a goddess called Anat-Yahu (Anat-Yahweh). As Anat was the Queen of Heaven in 19th Dynasty Egyptian texts, perhaps Anat-Yahu is a combining of Yahweh and Anat into one god ? In other words, Anat and Yahweh are female and male aspects of each other...
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Note that the name Baal-Saphon, literally "Baal-North," provides a formal parallel to Yahweh-Teman, literally "Yahweh-South."
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-6682(199007%...C207%3AO%22ATCO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W
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Ba`al (Hebrew: בעל).....
http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Baal
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Proof -*Jesus the Messiah Is BAAL*
Posted By: Tommy_Magus
Date: Wednesday, 5 January 2005, 11:20 a.m. Jesus is BAAL
Who was the god of Abraham? The word "God" in the English versions of the Old Testament, in 213 instances is the translation of the Hebrew word "El."
For example, God is called "El" fifty-six times in the book of Job. "God {Heb. El} thunders marvelously with his voice." (Job 37:5 KJV) The proper name of the god of Abraham was El.
In the following verse Jacob (also known as Israel ) built an altar to god El: "There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel {El, god of Israel}." (Genesis 33:20 RSV)
"And God spoke to Israel {Jacob} in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I. And he said, I am God {Heb. El}, the God {Heb. Elohim} of your father." (Genesis 46:2-3 KJV)
Note: Elohim is PLURAL of God(S)
The phrase "El, the god of your father" makes it clear that the proper name of the god of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) was El.
Who was El? El was the highest god of the Canaanite pantheon. He is mentioned in numerous passages of the Ugaritic texts. For example, "Your decree, O El, is wise, Your wisdom is eternal ..."
The Ugaritic texts were written ca. 1400 BCE. They were discovered in modern Syria. Abraham discovered God in Haran, Syria, and then moved to Canaan.
In the English Bibles God is also called "the most high God," which in the Hebrew is "El Elyon." "Elyon" means "most high."
The Canaanite god El was the most high god (the head god of the Canaanite pantheon) this is why his name was "El Elyon."
Melchizedek was a Canaanite king, the king of the city of Salem. He was also the priest of El Elyon.
The following verse shows that Abraham worshipped the god of Melchizedek: "And Melchizedek king of Salem ... was the priest of the most high God {Heb. El Elyon}. And he ... said, Blessed be Abram {the early name of Abraham} of the most high God {Heb. El Elyon}, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God {Heb. El Elyon} ... And Abraham said ... I have lift up mine hand to the LORD, the most high God {Heb. El Elyon}, the possessor of heaven and earth ..." (Genesis 14:18-20, 22 KJV)
The phrase "the most high God" identifies the head god of the Canaanite pantheon. It was customary in the ancient Near Eastern cultures for people to worship the god of their king.
Therefore, the Canaanites of the city of Salem worshipped El Elyon, the god of their king, who was also the priest of this god. Certainly, Abraham did not introduce the god El, to the Canaanites.
He dwelled among them as a stranger. He was not their king to impose his god on them. He learned about El Elyon from those who had been worshipping El before him.
Part of these pre-Mosaic foundations was the worship of the Canaanite god El. The patriarchs worshipped one god, while they believed that other gods existed. They practiced henotheism.
Henotheism continued among the Hebrews until the establishment of monotheism, sometime during the exile (soon after 586 BCE).
Words have meanings relative to time and place. As time goes on, the meanings of words change. Originally "El" was a name: the name of the head god of the Canaanite pantheon.
After worshipping "El" for several centuries, the Canaanites abandoned worshipping him and switched to the worship of Baal. After that, the name El lost its prominence.
It acquired additional meanings: "(a) god," "(a) power," or "mighty." In the Old Testament, as a rule (i.e. 213 times out of 245), the word "El" is the name of God and in a few exceptional instances is used as a generic term: "(a) god," "(a) power," "mighty," etc. Here is an example where after the establishing of monotheism (after 586 BCE) the name El is used as a generic term ("a god"): "For you will worship no other god {Heb. el}: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God {Heb. el}." (Exodus 34:14 KJV)
Understanding the above...more research shows the following:
The below excerpts from the Ugarit tablets describing the characteristics of the Canaanite gods;
Gods of Canaan as Described by the Ugarit Tablets
The Canaanite culture originated at the same time as the Babylonian culture out of the chaos surrounding the Semitic Amorite invasion / infiltration of Sumeria beginning around 2,200 BC. By the time cultural stability was restored around 1800 BC the Babylonians existed in Mesopotamia while the Canaanites (Phoenicians) existed along the Mediterranean. Tablets describing the Canaanite gods including BAAL were found in the ruins of the Canaanite city of Ugarit (also known as Ras Shamra) located on the modern coast of Lebanon. These tablets were dictated by the chief priest of Ugarit to a scribe between 1375 and 1345 BC. The city itself was destroyed around 1200 BC by the Sea Peoples at nearly the same time that the Israelites emerged into history.
Excerpts from the Story of Aqhat
BAAL speaking - "So, my father, EL the bull, won't you bless him? Creator of all, won't you show him your favor?"
An action of the goddess ANAT - "She stamped her feet and left the earth; then she headed toward EL at the source of the two rivers, in the midst of the two seas' pools; she opened EL's tent and entered the shrine of the King, the father of Time."
Excerpts from the Story of Kirta
The dream of patriarch Kirta - "For in his dream EL came down, in his vision the Father of Men. Later EL says - raise your hands to heaven, sacrifice to the bull, your father EL; serve BAAL with your sacrifice, the son of DAGON with your provisions."
The assembly of the gods arrived, and BAAL the conqueror said: "Come now, EL, the kind, the compassionate: bless Kirta the noble,"
EL speaking - She will bear Yassib the Lad, who will drink the milk of ASHERAH, suck the breasts of the virgin ANAT, the two wet nurses of the gods."
The gods pronounced their blessing and went, the gods went to their tents, and the council of EL to their divines homes.
son of Kirta speaking to his dying father- BAAL's mountain, father will weep for you, Zaphon, the holy stronghold, the holy stronghold will lament, the stronghold wide and broad:
. . . BAAL's rain for the earth, and the rain of the Most High for the fields; for BAAL's rain benefits the earth, and the rain of the Most High the fields,
And EL the kind, the compassionate, replied: "who among the gods can expel the sickness, drive out the disease?" . . .But none of the gods answered him. Then EL, the kind, the compassionate, replied: "My sons, sit down upon your thrones, upon your princely seats. I will work magic, I will bring relief: I will expel the sickness, I will drive out the disease."
But Kirta the noble replied: "My son, may HORON smash, may HORON smash your head, ASTARTE, BAAL's other self, your skull."
The BAAL Fertility Story
In the tablets known as the BAAL cycle the god BAAL is temporarily killed in an explanation of the cycle of fertility produced by the changing seasons. For ancient peoples the lack of a god's production was evidence that the god was either dead pr imprisoned. This story (of which only a small part is reproduced below) also roughly parallels Enuma Elish in which the Babylonian god MARDUK is made king of the gods. In this story BAAL is made king of the gods. A significant difference between the stories is that here BAAL battles DEATH (a son of ASHERAH) instead of ASHERAH (the Canaanite goddess of the deep) whereas in the Enuma Elish MARDUK battles TIAMAT (the Babylonian goddess of the deep) directly.
The story begins with some gods complaining to EL that BAAL does not have a great house like themselves. EL then allows BAAL to build a house on the god's mountain Zaphon. BAAL then must send for the builder Kothar-wa-Hasis of Egypt.
ASHERAH and her sons shouted, the goddess and her pride of lions: "But BAAL has not house like the other gods, no court like ASHERAH's sons: EL's home, his son's shelter, lady ASHERAH-OF-THE-SEA's home, the home of the beautiful brides, the home of PIDRAY, maid of light, the shelter of TALLAY, maid of rain, the home of ARSAY, maid of floods." But EL, the kind, the compassionate replied . . "Let a house like the other gods be built for BAAL, a court like ASHERAH's sons." And lady ASHERAH-OF-THE-SEA replied: "You are great EL, you are truly wise; your gray beard truly instructs you . . .Now BAAL will begin the rainy season, the season of wadis in flood; flash his lightning to the earth.
BAAL speaking to his messengers - Cross Byblos, cross Qaal, cross the islands on the far horizon: proceed, ASHERAH's fisherman; advance, holy and most blessed on; then head toward Egypt, . . . Kaphtor is is royal house, Egypt is the land of his inheritance . . .At KOTHAR's feet bow down and adore, prostrate yourself and worship him; and speak to KOTHAR-WA-HASIS, repeat to the clever craftsman: 'Message of BAAL the conqueror . . '"
Then BAAL opened a slit in the clouds, BAAL sounded his holy voice, BAAL thundered from his lips . . . the earth's high places shook. . . . So BAAL was enthroned in his house. "No other king or non-king shall set his power over the earth. I will send no tribute to EL's son DEATH, no homage to EL's darling, the hero. Let DEATH cry to himself, let the darling grumble in his heart; for I alone will rule over the gods; I alone will fatten gods and men; I alone will satisfy earth's masses."
BAAL called to his lads . . .head toward Mount Targuziza and toward Mount Tharumagi, toward the mounds that block the way to the underworld. Raise the mountain with your hands, the hill on top of your palms; then go down to the sanitarium of the underworld; you will be counted among those who go down into the earth. Then head toward the midst of his city, the swamp, muck, his royal house, phlegm, the land of his inheritance. But divine powers, be on your guard: don't approach EL's son, DEATH.
For some reason (part of the tablet is missing) DEATH convinces BAAL to become his vassal and come to the underworld where BAAL is killed.
Unknown god speaking - We arrived at the pleasant place, the desert pasture, at the lovely fields on Death's shore. We came upon BAAL: he had fallen to the ground. BAAL the conqueror has died; the prince, the lord of the earth, has perished.
ANAT speaking - BAAL is dead: what will happen to the peoples? DAGON's son: what will happen to the masses? Let us go down into the earth in BAAL's place. SUN, the god's torch, went down with her. When she had finished weeping, had drunk her tears like wine, she called to SUN, the god's torch: "Lift BAAL the conqueror onto me." SUN, the god's torch obeyed; she lifted up BAAL the conqueror; she put him on ANAT's shoulders. She (ANAT) brought him up to the peaks of Zaphon; she wept for him and buried him. . .
She headed toward EL at the source of the two rivers, in the midst of the two sea's pools. She opened EL's tent and entered the shrine of the king, the father of time. At EL's feet she bowed down and adored, she prostrated herself and worshipped him. She raised her voice and shouted: "Now let ASHERAH and her sons rejoice, the goddess and her pride of lions: for BAAL the conqueror had died, the prince, the lord of the earth, has perished."
EL called to lady ASHERAH -OF-THE-SEA: "Listen lady ASHERAH-OF-THE-SEA give me one of your sons; I'll make him king." . . . and lady ASHERAH-OF-THE-SEA replied: "Can't we make ATHAR the awesome king? Let ATHAR the awesome be king!" Then ATHAR the awesome went up to the peaks of Zaphon; he sat on BAAL the conquerors throne: his feet did not reach the footstool, his head did not reach the headrest. And ATHAR the awesome spoke: "I can't be king on the peaks of Zaphon." ATHAR the awesome descended, he descended from BAAL the conqueror's throne, and he became king of the underworld, the god of it all. . . .
The virgin ANAT left; she headed toward SUN, the gods' torch; she raised her voice and shouted: "Message of the bull, EL, your father, the word of the kind one, your parent: 'SUN, the furrows in the fields have dried, the furrows in EL's fields have dried; BAAL has neglected the furrows of his plowland. Where is BAAL the conqueror? Where is the prince, the lord of the earth?'" And SUN, the god's torch replied: "Pour sparkling wine from its container, bring a garland for your relative; and I will look for BAAL the conqueror." And the virgin ANAT replied: "Wherever you go, may EL protect you."
The SUN apparently using the some magic in the garland revives BAAL who then must fight to leave the underworld.
BAAL seized ASHERAH's sons; he struck RABBIM on the shoulder; he struck the WAVES with his club; he pushed sallow DEATH to the ground. BAAL returned to his royal chair, to his dais, the seat of his dominion.
DEATH finds BAAL and they fight again in Zaphon.
They kicked each other like stallions - DEATH fell, BAAL fell. SUN shouted from above: "Listen, EL's son DEATH: how can you battle with BAAL the conqueror? How can you keep the bull, EL, your father, from hearing you? He will surely undermine the foundations of your throne, he will surely overturn your royal chair; he will surely smash your scepter of judgment." EL's son DEATH became fearful; EL's darling, the hero, was terrified; DEATH was afraid of her voice, . . .
SUN judged the Rephaim, SUN judged the divine ones: "Gods, DEATH is yours; KOTHAR, your friend is yours, and your acquaintance HASIS. In SEA - DESIRE and DRAGON - KOTHAR-WA-HASIS wandered, KOTHAR-WA-HASIS roamed...
...EL and Elohim
EL is the supreme creator god of the Canaanites who lives with the other gods on Mount Zaphon (similar to Mount Olympus of the Greeks but located at the mouth of the Orontes river near the border between Turkey and Syria). He is the father of all the gods and men and is often addressed as such by the Canaanite gods. He is the god of the earth and the air who is represented by a bull. He is derived from the Sumerian god AN. In the Bible EL is translated as God. Elohim is the plural form of EL yet in most places in the Bible it is used in the singular sense so it is also translated as God instead of gods. Strict monotheism was not fully developed in Israelite thought until their exile to Babylon. Before then Yahweh (translated as Lord in the Bible) was the god of Israel and Judah (officially their only god) whose principle power and characteristic was that of justice and righteousness. Because he judged other peoples and gods he soon came to be seen as the supreme God (the equivalent of EL), and finally as the only God for all people. Echoes of Israel's earlier stages of understanding are found in some old psalms as follows:.
Psalm 82:1: Elohim has taken his place in the assembly of EL, in the midst of the elohim He holds judgment.
Psalm 29:1: Ascribe to Yahweh, O sons of EL, ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength.
Psalm 89:6: For who in the skies can be compared to Yahweh, who among the sons of EL is like Yahweh,
The Semitic concept of sonship meaning "belonging to" or "having the characteristics of" as in the phrase "son of Judah" or "son of man" means that the "sons of EL" could be viewed either as individual gods or as differing characteristics of the god EL. The differing characteristics view is reflected in the following passages.
1 - One characteristic is that of location or tribe identification as exemplified by the passage where Jacob erects an alter to EL - the God (elohe) of Israel at Shechem:
Genesis 33:20: There he erected an alter and called it EL-Elohe-Israel.
2 - Another characteristic is the one of the covenant (berith in Hebrew) as exemplified by EL-Berith
Judges 9:46: they entered the stronghold of the temple of EL-berith
Judges 8:33: As soon as Gideon died, the Israelites relapsed and prostituted themselves with the BAALs, making BAAL-berith their god.
Judges 9:4: They gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the temple of BAAL-berith . . .
3 - Elyon is the divine characteristic of the heavenly location and is thus translated as "Most High" in the following passages.
Genesis 14:18-20: And King Melchizedek of Salam brought out bread and wine; he was priest of El-Elyon. He blessed him and said, "Blessed by Abram by El-Elyon, maker of heaven and earth; and blessed be El-elyon who has delivered your enemies into your hand!" (Salam is Zion according to Psalm 76:2)
Psalm 73:11: And they say, "How can EL know? Is there knowledge in Elyon?" Such are the wicked;
Psalm 107:11: for they had rebelled against the words of EL, and spurned the counsel of Elyon.
Deuteronomy 32:8-9: When Elyon apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of EL (LXX and Qumran texts); Yahweh's own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share.
Psalm 18:13: Yahweh also thundered in the heavens, and Elyon uttered his voice. (same as 2 Samuel 22:14)
Psalm 21:7: For the king trusts in Yahweh, and through the steadfast love of Elyon he shall not be moved.
Psalm 47:2: For Yahweh, the Elyon, is awesome, a great king over all the earth.
4 - Shaddai is the divine characteristic of unconquerable power and is thus translated as "Almighty".
The oracle of Balaam in Numbers 24:16: the oracle of one who hears the words of Elohim, and knows the knowledge of Elyon, who sees the vision of Shaddai, who falls down, but with his eyes uncovered:
Psalm 91:1: You who live in the shelter of Elyon, who abide in the shadow of Shaddai, The blessing of Jacob in Genesis 49:25: by the hands of the Mighty One (Abir) of Jacob, by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, by EL, your father, who will help you, by Shaddai who will bless you
5 - Olam is the divine characteristic of immortality thus EL-Olam is translated as God Everlasting.
Genesis 21:33: Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Berr-sheba, and called there on the name of Yahweh, El-Olam.
Psalm 75:9: I will praise olem (forever): I will sing praises to the Elohim of Jacob.
1 Kings 1:31: May my lord King David live olam (forever).
6 - Finally EL is part of several important names in the Bible such as IsraEL - meaning "may EL persevere", and BethEL - meaning "house of EL", a city located 10 miles north of Jerusalem.
The plural form EL, "Elohim", originated when the sons of EL were considered separate beings yet it was still used after the functions of the various gods were seen to be simply differing characteristics of the same one God. This development is similar to the transition in usage of the phrase "United States" . Today we say the United States "is" (singular) instead of "are" (plural) despite its plural form and its original meaning as a combination of states.
Now sifting through the rubble, we discover these gems of truth:
IHVH/YHWH identified as Canaanite El Elyon (El Shaddai). His principal son was Baal. El Elyon's Canaanite presence imported from Mesopotamia. El Elyon's consort was Ashtoreth (Asherah)
Before Babylonian invasion, YHWH was seen as a family of divinities:
Y - El, the father
H - Ashtoreth, wife
W - son Baal (Jesus)
H - daughter Anath
Ashtoreth said to have seventy offspring. Her daughter Anath was Queen of Heaven to early Hebrews-also known as Astarte (womb) or Ishtar/Inanna
Messeh, crocodile fat used to annoint Egyptian pharaohs, same root as 'messiah.' so annointed kings of the line were messiahs
'The brain's pineal gland in particular was directly associated with the Tree of Life, for this tiny gland was said to secrete the "nectar of supreme intelligence"-the very substance of active longevity, called soma, or ambrosia by the ancient Greeks.
Conclusion:
Jesus =IHSHVH is the IHVH/YHWH with the female fire descending SH/SHin=Holy Spirit)...thus:
Yahweh with the Shekinah/Metrona/Levanna/ASHTORETH(wife)=Holy Spirit
http://www.bringemon.org/cgi-bin/bringemon.cgi?noframes;read=346
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Baal-Adad, god of the Storm Cloud, storm clouds being called "Adad's Calves" (Yahweh manifested himself at Mt. Sinai as a storm cloud, shortly after a "Golden Calf" was made). From a stela found at Bethsaida, Samaria. Note the f"ull-frontal view" reminescent of "Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah" found at Kuntillet`Ajrud. This maybe the genetic prototype behind the Kuntillet rendering ? Baal-Hadad transformed himself into a Bull in order to mate with his lover-sister, Anat who transformed herself into a Heifer. A potsherd found in Samaria was inscribed egeliah, "bull-calf of yah" suggesting Israel understood the calf was associated with the worship of Yah or Yahweh, not some Egyptian god like the Apis bull. As Yahweh was also called Baal (cf. Hosea 2:16), perhaps Yah/Yahweh, like Baal, could assume the form bull or bull calf (Anat's search for her dead lover, Baal was portrayed as "like a cow seeking after its calf" suggesting Baal in death could be likened to a calf ? In other words, I am suggesting that the Golden Calf WAS Yah/Yahweh and he was a type of Baal, and assimilated bull-calf aspects of Baal (p.55, figure1.28, Ephraim Stern. Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, The Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods, 732-332 BCE. New York. Doubleday. 2001).
One of the Hebrew words for "God" is EL. Below is the word EL in Proto-Sinatic pictographic form. The letter E (Hebrew: eleph) is the drawing of a long-horned ox's head; the letter L (Hebrew lambdeh) in Proto-Sinatic is an ox-goad to the right of the ox's head. To the left of the ox-head is an Egyptian inscription of Pharaoh Amenemhat III (ca. 1929-1895 BCE, 12th Dynasty). This phenomenon led Sir Alan H. Gardiner to suggest that the Proto-Sinatic inscriptions were of the time period of Amenemhet III (cf. photo on p. 142. Raphael Giveon. The Stones of Sinai Speak. Tokyo. Gakuseisha. 1978). So, God's name (EL) does appear in the southern Sinai where Israel is understood to have worshipped him.
(the rising Sun at dawn, honored by the Egyptians) :
Below, a Bronze Bull covered in Gold Leaf, from a Phoenician Temple at Byblos, Phoenicia. The Bull was associated with the Syrian (Ugaritic) gods El, called Bull-El, and Baal, also called Baal-Hadad. Thunderclouds which brought rain, lighting and thunder, were called "Hadad's CALVES". Yahweh- Elohim's manifestation at Mt. Sinai was as a Thundercloud, shortly thereafter Aaron makes a Golden Calf for Israel to adore.
http://www.bibleorigins.net/YahwehsBovineFormsImages.html
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/luc/tsg/tsg04.htm
http://www.sacred-texts.com/
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Ba`al
Common epithets of Ba`al
Most High Prince/Master - ´al´iyn. b`l, ´al´iyanu ba`lu
Conqueror of Warriors - ´al´iy. qrdm, ´al´iyu qarradima
Mightiest, Most High, Supreme, Powerful, Puissant - ´al´iyn, ´al´iyanu, aleyin, eleyin, aliyin, eliyan, elioun
Warrior - dmrn, damaron, Demarous (Greek)
Hadd, Haddad, Hadad, Hadu, Adad, Addu - hdd
Prince, Master of the Earth - zebul ba`al ´aretz or zubulu ba`lu ´aretsi
Pidar, uncertain meaning, possibly Bright, Flash - pdr, Pidar
Rider on the Clouds - rkb `rpt, rakab arpat or rakibu `arpati
Thunderer - r`mn, rimmon or re`amin
Gapen & Ugar, Vineyard and Field, Baal's pages or messengers - gepanu wa ugaru
Ba`al is the god most actively worshipped in Canaan and Phoenicia, the Storm God, source of the winter rain storms, spring mist, and summer dew which nourish the crops. Therefore He is considered responsible for fecundity, particularly of the Earth, for the growth of vegetation, and for the maintenance of life. None the less, He is NOT a god of vegetation. While the word "ba`al" means simply "master" or "owner," He is considered a prince. Among His other epithets are Rider of the Clouds, Prince, Master of the Earth ( c.f. the Qabalistic phrase Melek ha´Aretz, King of the Earth). Ba`al is an executive force, dynamic, and able to accomplish what He sets out to do. Ba`al is often depicted striding forward, wearing a horned helmet and short wrap kilt, carrying a mace and spear or lightning-bolt staff. Another of His names is Re`ammin, meaning Thunderer. He is also called ´Aleyin, meaning "Most High," "Mightiest," "Most Powerful," or "Supreme," which some scholars have misinterpreted as the name of a son of Ba`al. As a weather god, His home is in the Heights of Tsaphon, Mount of the North. Remnants of His worship survive in the Jewish prayerbook in late spring prayers for dew and late fall prayers for rain.
In fact Ba`al is the son of Dagan/Dagnu, Himself a god of agriculture and storms, and not actually a son of ´El. Through a series of conflicts and competitions with other gods, Ba`al achieves a position subordinate only to ´El among gods. However, He defers to ´Asherah and often enlists Her favors when He must approach ´El. He also relies upon His sister `Anat, who is may be His mate, although not His wife. At times He transforms into a bull and She into a heifer, to stress their fertility, and together they "bring forth seventy, even eighty calves," i.e., many progeny. He is never called "The Bull," however, which title is limited to ´El. Ba`al's assistants are Gapen and Ugar, whose names mean, respectively, "Vineyard" and "Grain Field," again stressing Ba`al's relationship with the fertile, life-giving earth.
While embodying royal power and authority, Ba`al is not aloof nor beyond the menace of evil. He is continually threatened yet triumphant, as in the story of His continual conflict to sustain Order against Chaos with the god Yahm and to sustain Life against Death with Mot (Mawet/ Mavet in Hebrew), the god of drought, blight, sterility, and decay.
Ba`al is also identified as Hadad, an Akkadian and Babylonian god of the sky, clouds, and rain, both creative, gentle showers and destructive, devastating storms and floods. Like the Canaanite Ba`al, Hadad holds and hurls thunder-bolts. Haddad rides a bull.
His home, the Mountain Divine Tsapan, is known in Hittite as Mount Hazzi dkhursân khazi, in Akkadian as ba`litsapûna, in Greek as Kasios and in Latin as mons Casius, in modern Arabic as Jebel ´el-Aqra` and in Modern Turkish as Keldag. It stands 5660 feet (1780 meters) in height, the peak lying about 25 miles to the north of Ugarit and 2.5 miles from the coast. Tsapan is well-suited as home of the great storm-god, as this mountain receives the heaviest annual rainfall on the Levantine coast at over 57 inches. Being close to the holy mountain was so important that there were other Mount Tsaphons near distant Phoenician settlements in Egypt and in Spain.
Because, as with ´El, the name Ba`al is a title more than a name, there are numerous "Ba`al's." Among them are:
Ba`al Lebanon, Master of the Cedars
Ba`al Tsaphon, Master of the North or northern districts
Ba`al Adir, Master-of-Help
Ba`al Kaneph, Winged Ba`al
Ba`al Moganim, Master of the Shields
Ba`al Marpah´a, Master of Healing
Ba`al Shamim, Master of the Heavens.
During the long period of trade and exchange between the Canaanites/ Phoenicians with the Egyptians, Ba`al was associated with several Egyptian gods. One is Amon, the ram headed god of fertility, agriculture, air or breath of life, whose name means "hidden," just as Ba`al is sometimes hidden among the clouds. There may also be a relationship between Amon and Ba`al Hammon. As Ba`al Hammon/Khamon, He is the chief Carthaginian god of sky and vegetation, depicted as a bearded older man with curling ram's horns, perhaps a merging of ´El and Ba`al. As Ba`al Qarnaim/ Karnayin, Master of the Horns or the Two-Horned Ba`al, He is a ram-horned god of twilight and the setting sun.
Some scholars related Ba`al to the Egyptian Osiris, considering both as dying-resurrecting gods. While Osiris has an effect on this world with the annual fertilizing floods of the Nile, He is never quite resurrected, rather going to the Netherworld where He reigns. More importantly, while Osiris was known to the Canaanites - the head of Osiris after His dismemberment was said to have floated to the Phoenician city of Byblos - there is no evidence that the Egyptians or Canaanite-Phoenicians ever equated the two.
Another Egyptian god scholars sometimes associate with Ba`al is Ra/ Re, solar god, creator, and sovereign lord of the sky; as Ra-Horakte He is chief god of the Ennead, the nine most high deities. Reborn each dawn in the East, He dies at dusk after sailing westward across the sky in His boat. However, Ba`al was NEVER a solar god, even though faulty attributions of the Victorian and Edwardian eras have assigned Him this association, perpetuated by some Neopagans. Some of the confusion is attributable to a late Hellenistic syncretic deity worshipped as Heliogabalus, a blending of Ba`al with the Greek sun god Helios and some Persian deities.
In fact, the deity with whom the Egyptians themselves particularly identified Ba`al was Seth/ Set, whose position varied during Egypt1s long history. Most of the time He was not evil personified, but a turbulent desert storm god, and there were pharaohs who bore His name. The Greeks on the other hand, called Ba`al Zeus Demarous kai Adodos, while ´El was equated instead with Kronos.
The name Ba`al is cognate with Bel, a Babylon and Assyrian deity. The Sumerian god Enlil became incorporated with Bel, which eventually became a title of Marduk, defeater of Tiamat whose name is possibly cognate with Yam, the Sea Serpent who Ba`al defeats.
Early in Canaanite studies, some scholars believed that ´El and Ba`al were in conflict for control of the pantheon. A careful reading of the myth shows that this is not true, which is current scholarly thought. There is conflict, as Ba`al must vanquish those in competition with Him for the important executive position. But ´El remains throughout the ultimate authority, whom Ba`al must petition for permission to build His palace. ´El has dominion over all Creation, while Ba`al controls the fertility of the Earthly realm.
Yea, also Ba`al will make fertile with His rain,
with water He will indeed make fertile harrowed land;
and He will put His voice in the clouds,
He will flash His lightning to the earth.
http://www.geocities.com/soho/lofts/...jdei.html#Baal
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Baal
In Biblical Canaan "on the hillsides are grown vines and lives, which, with natural pine and cedar forests in the Lebanon and Amanus, were the main products of the land. Moreover, soil which is eroded builds up fertile pockets of earth and even considerable plains. Such cultivable land was regarded as 'Baal's land', that is to say, land where cultivation depends on the activity of the god manifest in the autumn and winter rains. These rains are heralded by thunder, and 'the lord' (Baal) was known to the Canaanites by his proper name Hadad, 'the Thunderer', or Rimmon, which means the same. The term 'Baal-land' as distinct from irrigated land has survived down to the present day in Muslim law when making tax assessment for poor relief."
- John Gray, Near Eastern Mythology
"Baal, one of the sons of El [the chief god of the Canaanites], was the executive god of the pantheon, the god of thunder and winter storms, the dynamic warrior god who champions the divine order against the menacing forces of chaos. He is also identified with vegetation and the seasonal fertility cycle. There is little evidence in the Ras Shamra texts of the sexual license, the sympathetic magic aspects of the cult to secure the productivity of Nature, that the Bible writers found so abhorrent. On the contrary there is ample evidence that some of the aspects of Yahweh reflected aspects of Baal as the Divine King, in the destruction of the sea-serpent Leviathan and the concept of everlasting kingly dominion; even some of the liturgical language is strikingly similar, like the wording of Psalm 68: 'To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, 'his strength in the clouds', and so on.
"Baal is sometimes called the 'son of Dagon'. Dagon was also a god of vegetation, specifically corn, which is what his name means....As the summer drew to an end and the rains were due, the peasants would suffer a crisis of anxiety - would the rains come? By calling upon Baal, the rain god, and encouraging his intervention by rituals of imitative magic involving sexual union, their tensions were released and purged."
- Magnus Magnusson, BC - The Archaeology of the Bible Lands
"The goddess peculiarly associated with Baal is Anat, like Ishtar a goddess of love and war. She complements Baal, abetting him in his conflict and vindicating him when he succumbs, possibly reflecting the role of women at the critical seasons of transition in popular religion or when the order of the gods is temporarily in eclipse. Related to such phases is certainly the weeping of the women in Jerusalem for Tammuz (Ezekiel 8:14) and possibly the annual lamentation of the maidens of Israel, which may be only secondarily related to the mourning for Jephthah's daughter (Judges 11-39-40)."
"The actual death of Baal and his descent to the underworld are not described, but they may well be visualized as occurring at the coming of the sirocco in early summer, when the annual vegetation wilts and the long summer drought sets in."
- John Gray, Near Eastern Mythology
"Verily Baal has fallen to the earth,
Dead is Baal the Might!
Perished is the Prince, lord of the earth!
Then the Kindly One, El the Merciful
Comes down from his throne, he sits on the footstool,
And (coming) off the footstool, he sits on the ground
He sprinkles dirt signifying grief on his head,
On his pate the dust in which he wallows;
For clothing he covers himself with a loincloth;
He scrapes his skin with a stone,
With a chipped flint as a razor
He cuts off side-whiskers and beard;
He rends his shoulder (with his finger-nails);
He scores his chest as a garden plot,
Even as a valley-bottom his trunk he lacerates.
He raises his voice and cries:
Baal is dead! What will become of the people?
The Son of Dagan (is dead)! What of the multitudes (of men)?
After Baal I shall go down to the underworld!"
- Ras Shamra texts
"Here we have the mourning rites, familiar among the ancient Semites and in Israel. generally at death, which is a crisis in society when the community is especially open to the influences of the supernatural, normal activities were suspended to thwart those forces. Thus the normal resorts were avoided, one forsook one's usual seat to sit on the ground, like Job on the village midden (Job 2:8), or begrimed the personal or the clothes with dust and scored the face or the body. that last practice was specifically banned in Israel (Deuteronomy 14:1) in protest against what was seen as a barbarous Canaanite rite."
- John Gray, Near Eastern Mythology
http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~reffland/anthropology/anthro2003/legacy/ur/ugs/baal.html
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http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~reffland/anthropology/...2003/legacy/ur/ugs/ishtar.html Ishtar
http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~reffland/anthropology/...03/legacy/ur/ugs/dionysos.html The Cult of Dionysos
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Yahweh vs. Baal
Baal worship was prolific throughout much of the ancient Middle East. In the land of Canaan, the worship of Baal was found among the Moabites and their allies Midinites during Moses's time and was also introduced to the Israelites. The Phoenicians became the greatest seafaring culture of the time, thereby spreading the cult of Baal throughout the Mediterranean.
The Baal cult venerated Israel, and at times led to a syncretism -- a combination of different forms of belief or practice. The cult of Baal was initially widely accepted by the ancient Jews. Baal was once worshipped by the royalty of the ten Biblical tribes of Israel and by all who depended upon the sun god for the prosperity of their crops and livestock. Within the religion there appeared to be numerous priests and various classes of devotees. Ceremonies of tribute often included the burning of incense, burnt sacrificial offerings, and human sacrifice.
The practices of holy prostitution and child sacrifice were especially abhorrent to the Hebrew prophets, who denounced the cult and its temples as described in the Bible. This abhorrence probably explains the substitution of Ish-bosheth for Esh-baal, of Jerubbesheth for Jerubbaal (a name of Gideon), and of Mephibosheth for Merib-baal with the substituted term probably meaning "shame". Although heavy-handed censorship was enforced, Baal worship was never permanently stamped out.
There is some uncertainty as to the derivation of the name "Beelzebub". Note that Beelzebub is the patron god of the Philistines in ancient Palestine and is also identified with the god of Ekron, Baal-Zebub.
Some believe that the term is a deliberate mocking perversion by the Jewish religious leaders of the Canaanite Baal-Zebul ("Prince Baal"), one of the standard titles of the god Baal. In the Bible (which was derived from the Jewish Torah -- writings that were obviously aligned with Jewish interests), Beelzebub is debased as the prince of evil spirits. He is also called "Lord of the Flies", derived from the Hebrew "Baal-Zevuv".
Since Judaism became the basis for monotheistic worship in much of the world, "Beelzebub" is now synonymous with evil. In early English literature, Beelzebub becomes Satan's chief lieutenant in Milton's Paradise Lost.
http://www.baal.com/baal/about/divine_overview.shtml
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