Occult / New Age Genesis interpretation

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DJHohl

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Hi all,

I know several occultists who say that Genesis passages refer to God and also gods (lower case). An example given is when :

And God said, Let us make man in OUR image

and

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (as opposed to just GOD…it is spirit of God)

They also say that in the ebrew original, they use different words for “big” God, and little god(s).

They also say one of the words for god is a feminine word in Hebrew.

Anyone familiar with these comments and how I can refute them?

Pax,
David:shrug:
 
As a Catholic, I believe in the trinity (God existing as 3 real and distinct persons), so I believe that God the Father was speaking to God the Son and God the Holy Spirit when he said “Let us make man in our image”.

The Holy Spirit (the spirit of God who moved upon the waters) is the third person of the trinity.

The “gods”, I understand, was one way the Hebrews refered to angels and also to ecclesiastical judges in Israel. Valke2, a very well-informed Jew on these forums, could be helpful here. I hope he reads your post.

God bless you,
Paul
 
These are common mistakes and they come about when people get hold of a Bible and start deciding what it means without understanding or context.
DJHohl said:
Hi all,

I know several occultists who say that Genesis passages refer to God and also gods (lower case). An example given is when :

And God said, Let us make man in OUR image

and

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (as opposed to just GOD…it is spirit of God)
Click to expand...
They’re referring to Elohim here I think. It’s a use of the royal we, but you need to understand Jewish culture correctly to have a proper understanding- it’s just people with a little bit of knowledge adding 3 + 3 and getting 1,768. 🙂
 
The word Elohim could grammatically be a plural or an absolute. El is Proto-Hamito-Semitic fro mighty one. Elohim is The Almighty One. The-im ending can be feminine, masculine, or plural of a mixed feminine-masculine group. As an absolute (rather than a plural) it doesn’t imply femininuty. God does, though, have feminine traits. He describes Himself as gathering Jerusalem like a hen with chicks, and other maternal imagery in both Testaments. But God’s main aspect toward us is masculine for reasons God finds important. I wish I knew more.
 
DJHohl said:
Hi all,

I know several occultists who say that Genesis passages refer to God and also gods (lower case). An example given is when :

And God said, Let us make man in OUR image

and

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (as opposed to just GOD…it is spirit of God)
Click to expand...
For Christians, this indicates that God is three in one: God created the world by his Word - Jesus, and his Spirit.

I cannot say for sure, but I think that the plural are read as pluralis maiestatis by Jews. In some languages, royalty are referred to in plural. Example: The king might speak of himself as “we, the king of Norway”.
They also say that in the ebrew original, they use different words for “big” God, and little god(s).
Click to expand...
In Hebrew, God is both called Elohim (God) or by his name YHWH (Yahwe/ Lord). Only YHWH is God’s name, Elohim can refer to any god/gods, including YHWH, much like in English (God-god).
They also say one of the words for god is a feminine word in Hebrew.
Click to expand...
The word elohim is masculin.
 
Some resources on the topic:

class.uidaho.edu/ngier/henotheism.htm
An article from a professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Idaho

jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/premo.html
and
jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Monolatry.html
from the Jewish Virtual Library

books.google.com/books?id=P9sYIRXZZ2MC&pg=PA916&lpg=PA916&dq=monolatry+judaism&source=web&ots=szk1yEnJsv&sig=7tmqINK3XxMdoep4bUzpEm4-5p0
Erdman’s Dictionary of the Bible, p. 916

jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=534&letter=E
Jewish Encyclopedia on the evolution of religion

jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=282&letter=G&search=henotheism
Jewish Encyclopedia on God
 
Better late than never. I’ve responded to that verse in other threads. But I recently read an interesting commentary that has changed my mind somewhat.

Many ascribe the plural usage to “the royal we”. But this doesn’t explain why the plural use of God occurs only in the opening chapters of Genesis. Others say God is addressing a heavenly court of angels or seraphim, etc. Still doesn’t explain the limitation of its use to the opening chapters of Genesis.

What I find to be more likely (but not certain), after reading Richard Friedman’s commentary, is that we are reading an Israelitie, monothesitic reflection of the pagan language of the divine council. In pagan myth, when the chief god speaks to the council of gods, it speaks in the plural. Using this language in the opening chapters of the Torah may be a way of asserting that God has taken over this role. i.e., there’s no chief god and divine council and we’re using the familiar language to let you know there’s a new sheriff in town.

It may be a use of pagan language/expression to express the new concept of One God.
 
There are some who believe the first couple chapters in Genesis is a compilation of various creation stories held. The final form we have was “compiled” after the Exile from Bablylon. Babylonian myth is contrasted with the Hebrew creation story. The “old gods” of Sumeria are shown to be inferior to the One God. Where God moves over the waters of the deep, showing His dominance over Tiamet I believe…I’m going from memory here, there are other contrasts between the One God and the Babylonian myths as well, but at this time they escape me.

It would come as no surprise that different words used for “God” would be used, if this is a compilation of various creation stories over the centuries coming to “final form” after the Captivity…when so much of the Pentatuch was “edited” and put in a cohesive format for the Jewish nation after captivity. Genesis is a “priestly” document.

My post is not intended to “debate” the inspired nature of Genesis or do I seek to deny that the Eternal God created all things, I do believe God is the Maker of All Things, but it is not an “historical document” as much as a theological one.
 
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