Old Testament Scholarship (Yahweh and El as Canaanite gods)

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Bobby_Ray said:
Sorry to bump an old thread, but this is a question I have been looking at. You have provided a good answer. Thanks!
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That is a good reason to bump an old thread.
Sometimes people like to think that their knowledge and understanding is considered valuable to someone other than themselves.đź‘Ť
 
I hope it isn’t out of place to suggest John Day’s “Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan,” a detailed academic, but readable study of the relationship of Yahweh and El, as well as the Canaanite Yahweh’s relationship with other Canaanite deities. I wouldn’t worry too much about names and changes. If we discovered that some ancient civilization used the word “God” to refer to a rock, would that “rock” “God” weaken our faith in our “God” “God”? It should not. Names change. Names are shared. Let every false god in all of world history be called “Yahweh” or even “God”; True God is not extinguished by that, nor should our faith in God be weakened.
 
Trinity of gods were also known to the pre Christian world.

And that’s exactly what you could expect about something real.

If something exists by its own a lot of people will at least scratch it and get to know about it.

That’s why it’s not wise to use the name YHVH as synonymous to the God, the Father.
 
Actually, it’s not wise because the Vatican has asked us not to use the Name “YHWH” or “Yahweh” in common speech or in hymns, out of respect for its holiness. (And since “Jehovah” isn’t how it’s even pronounced, there’s no point using that, either.)

We are supposed to call Him “Our Father,” and we got that direct from Jesus the Highest Authority; so obviously that’s wise to do!
 
Mintaka said:
Actually, it’s not wise because the Vatican has asked us not to use the Name “YHWH” or “Yahweh” in common speech or in hymns, out of respect for its holiness. (And since “Jehovah” isn’t how it’s even pronounced, there’s no point using that, either.)

We are supposed to call Him “Our Father,” and we got that direct from Jesus the Highest Authority; so obviously that’s wise to do!
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We actually call him LORD in place of the divine Name, not Father. We call God Father when we want to address him as Father, but not as a substitute for the Name. In print, we can use all-caps or small-caps in the word LORD as commonly used in English Bibles.

For this thread though, we are talking about ancient religions in an archaeological context, so the use of both the names Yahweh and El insofar as they are gods in the Canaanite pantheon is legit.
 
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