Origin of G-d

[JPUSC]

Is it true that the G-d of Abraham was originally one of many from pre-existing beliefs, possibly a storm-god typical of ancient Near Eastern myths? The word “Israel” is based on the name El rather than Y----- [HaShem (lit. “The Name”)].

Also, if humans have been around for about 200,000 years and the earth has existed for billions of years, why did G-d only reveal Himself around 4,000 years ago?

Wikipedia says:

Asherah, formerly the wife of El, was worshipped as [HaShem]'s consort, and various biblical passages indicate that her statues were kept in his temples in Jerusalem, Bethel, and Samaria. [HaShem] may also have appropriated Anat, the wife of Baal, as his consort, as Anat-Yahu (“Anat of Yahu,” i.e., [HaShem]) is mentioned in 5th century records from the Jewish colony at Elephantine in Egypt. A goddess called the Queen of Heaven was also worshipped, probably a fusion of Astarte and the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar. Worship to Baal and [HaShem] coexisted in the early period of Israel’s history, but they were considered irreconcilable after the 9th century, following the efforts of King Ahab and his queen Jezebel to elevate Baal to the status of national god, although the cult of Baal did continue for some time.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh

No consensus has been reached by academics on the origins of monotheism in ancient Israel, but [HaShem] “clearly came out of the world of the gods of the Ancient Near East.”

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_in_Judaism

 

[petra22]

After the Garden and the fall of Adam and Eve when they were banished and had to work for their food, they were fully involved in their search for good and evil. They were swamped with all the forces of nature and simply forgot God in their search and work. Yet offspring knew there was a God and were searching for him also. Thus the gods in trees, wind, sun, stars, oceans, etc… After so many years and so many others being called and worshiped as God, God says it’s “time” and he had a chat with Abraham… MHO

 

[Stephen_says]

CCC 204 God revealed himself progressively and under different names to his people, but the revelation that proved to be the fundamental one for both the Old and the New Covenants was the revelation of the divine name to Moses in the theophany of the burning bush, on the threshold of the Exodus and of the covenant on Sinai.

 

[grannymh]

Also, if humans have been around for about 200,000 years and the earth has existed for billions of years, why did G-d only reveal Himself around 4,000 years ago?

For example. The Homo line consisted of developing decomposing anatomies. Even running feet took time to evolve. The last Homo random breeding population is usually considered the one which developed a reasonable sentient capability due to their larger brain size which took time to evolve.

It would not be common sense for God to reveal Himself to a large indiscriminate crowd which would obviously contain participants who had their own personal preferences or who may be out hunting or possibly choosing permanent gathering in a better location. Consider the preferred “Out of Africa” theory which did result, eventually over time, in multiple marvelous varieties of the human species around the earth and back.

Even today, populations contain people who disapprove their leaders and migrate to more peaceful geographic locations.

The only sure way for God’s message to remain intact was to design a single human nature population, with only two founders, in His image (us). Genesis 1: 27

Why so many years? The human anatomy is material which does take a long time to evolve, gene by gene, into something valuable for the survival of the species. The spiritual soul works immediately.

 

[Brassring]

The word “el” is an ancient semitic word meaning “god”. Any deity would be referred to as El. When ancient Hebrews refer to THE God, they would couple “el” with a descriptor, ie. “El Elyon” (My God Most High), “El Shaddai” (My God Almighty), and “El Olam” (My God Everlasting).

That may be the reason why Moses asked God for His name before returning to Egypt: to differentiate the God of Israel from other ancient semitic deities by providing the name by which God called himself. The name I AM was spoken in ancient Hebrew phonetically with a sound similar to “Hyeh Hweh” It was sort of an onomatopoeia, without a proper spelling, so in early translations it was rendered as “YHWH” which progressed over time to “Jehovah”.

 

[truetofaith]

For example. The Homo line consisted of developing decomposing anatomies. Even running feet took time to evolve. The last Homo random breeding population is usually considered the one which developed a reasonable sentient capability due to their larger brain size which took time to evolve.

It would not be common sense for God to reveal Himself to a large indiscriminate crowd which would obviously contain participants who had their own personal preferences or who may be out hunting or possibly choosing permanent gathering in a better location. Consider the preferred “Out of Africa” theory which did result, eventually over time, in multiple marvelous varieties of the human species around the earth and back.

Even today, populations contain people who disapprove their leaders and migrate to more peaceful geographic locations.

The only sure way for God’s message to remain intact was to design a single human nature population, with only two founders, in His image (us). Genesis 1: 27

Why so many years? The human anatomy is material which does take a long time to evolve, gene by gene, into something valuable for the survival of the species. The spiritual soul works immediately.

The creation by God in the Bible & the theory of evolution do not jive! God created the earth, sky etc. first, then He created the sea creatures, birds, land animals…according to their kind!. Read Genesis Chapter 1…nothing about one life form evolving into another. Then a separate creation for man!

 

[ProdglArchitect]

The creation by God in the Bible & the theory of evolution do not jive! God created the earth, sky etc. first, then He created the sea creatures, birds, land animals…according to their kind!. Read Genesis Chapter 1…nothing about one life form evolving into another. Then a separate creation for man!

The book of Genesis is not a scientific textbook, there’s no reason for it to discuss evolution… not that the people would have understood it if it had. It’s actually more of a poem, intended to explain God’s role in creation in a way that expresses the truth of God’s sovereignty. It’s genre is historical allegory. There’s a great bit of exegesis which covers this fact, and the Church has no issues with a God-driven evolution.

You shouldn’t create a false-dichotomy when discussing these two subjects.

 

[truetofaith]

The book of Genesis is not a scientific textbook, there’s no reason for it to discuss evolution… not that the people would have understood it if it had. It’s actually more of a poem, intended to explain God’s role in creation in a way that expresses the truth of God’s sovereignty. It’s genre is historical allegory. There’s a great bit of exegesis which covers this fact, and the Church has no issues with a God-driven evolution.

You shouldn’t create a false-dichotomy when discussing these two subjects.

I learned that “Genesis is not a scientific textbook” stuff in Catholic H.S.

The bible has harder things to be explained than evolution. Like when Jesus said He would destroy this temple & rebuild it in 3 days( meaning His body).
What about all His miracles including His Resurrection?

I believe Genesis is to be taken literally…to give us an example of how to spend our week…6 days of productive work and then rest on the 7th day & worship God!

 

[Reuben_J]

The word “el” is an ancient semitic word meaning “god”. Any deity would be referred to as El. When ancient Hebrews refer to THE God, they would couple “el” with a descriptor, ie. “El Elyon” (My God Most High), “El Shaddai” (My God Almighty), and “El Olam” (My God Everlasting).

That may be the reason why Moses asked God for His name before returning to Egypt: to differentiate the God of Israel from other ancient semitic deities by providing the name by which God called himself. The name I AM was spoken in ancient Hebrew phonetically with a sound similar to “Hyeh Hweh” It was sort of an onomatopoeia, without a proper spelling, so in early translations it was rendered as “YHWH” which progressed over time to “Jehovah”.

Excellent.

 

[Della]

I learned that “Genesis is not a scientific textbook” stuff in Catholic H.S.

The bible has harder things to be explained than evolution. Like when Jesus said He would destroy this temple & rebuild it in 3 days( meaning His body).
What about all His miracles including His Resurrection?

I believe Genesis is to be taken literally…to give us an example of how to spend our week…6 days of productive work and then rest on the 7th day & worship God!

Well, no, Genesis is not a science book is correct–and it was never meant to be one, either. Moses and the Israelites could have cared less exactly how the universe came into being, in the mere physical sense. They were concerned with the meaning of creation as it relates to God and man. This doesn’t mean the Genesis creation story is merely made-up or not a correct account, rather it’s meant to be seen liturgically, not scientifically, a concept that did not gel, as we know it, for many centuries after them.

This article may be helpful: ocabs.org/journal/index.php/jocabs/article/viewFile/43/18.

 

[grannymh]

The creation by God in the Bible & the theory of evolution do not jive! God created the earth, sky etc. first, then He created the sea creatures, birds, land animals…according to their kind!. Read Genesis Chapter 1…nothing about one life form evolving into another. Then a separate creation for man!

The theory of evolution in the animal, plant, insect, bacteria, all kinds of creeping things of the earth category found in the material world per se normally does not come under the authority of the Catholic Church.

It is when the science of human evolution intersects with Catholic teachings that there is an extreme problem. The key issue of the science of human evolution is that large indiscriminate random breeding very large populations are responsible for the human species. This challenges the Catholic teaching that the human species was founded by a population of two.

The dramatic shift from Genesis 1: 25 to Genesis 1: 26-27 is clear about the difference between the material world and the spiritual world. The model of evolution theory does not need to appear in the material world described in Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 1:25 because for centuries the material world naturally remained in its own realm.

In any case, the evolution model, confined to only the material world, can be rejected or accepted. We need to keep in mind that humans are spiritual beings because of Genesis 1: 27. We do not belong in the material world because we are the only creatures that are called to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life. (CCC 355-56 & CCC 1730)

You are correct in saying: “The creation by God in the Bible & the theory of evolution do not jive!” provided you understand all that “do not jive” refers to. “Do not jive” refers directly to an evolving/originating human population of thousands which contradicts the Catholic position of the originating human species being a population of two founders, Adam and Eve.

 

[JPUSC]

The word “el” is an ancient semitic word meaning “god”. Any deity would be referred to as El. When ancient Hebrews refer to THE God, they would couple “el” with a descriptor, ie. “El Elyon” (My God Most High), “El Shaddai” (My God Almighty), and “El Olam” (My God Everlasting).

That may be the reason why Moses asked God for His name before returning to Egypt: to differentiate the God of Israel from other ancient semitic deities by providing the name by which God called himself. The name I AM was spoken in ancient Hebrew phonetically with a sound similar to “Hyeh Hweh” It was sort of an onomatopoeia, without a proper spelling, so in early translations it was rendered as “YHWH” which progressed over time to “Jehovah”.

Pre-exilic Israel, like its neighbours, was polytheistic, and Israelite monotheism was the culmination of a unique set of historical circumstances. The original god of Israel was El, as the name demonstrates—its probable meaning is “may El rule” or some other sentence-form involving the name of El. [HaShem] and El merged at religious centres such as Shechem, Shiloh and Jerusalem, with El’s name becoming a generic term for “god” and [HaShem], the national god, appropriating many of the older supreme god’s titles such as Shaddai (Almighty) and Elyon (Most High).

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh#Iron_Age_I:_El.2C_Yahweh.2C_and_the_origins_of_Israel

…The divine name was increasingly regarded as too sacred to be uttered; it was thus replaced vocally in the synagogue ritual by the Hebrew word Adonai (“My Lord”), which was translated as Kyrios (“Lord”) in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament.The term Jehovah, is a Erroneous Hybrid form for the divine name which originated in the mistaken idea that the consonants of Tetragrammaton, YHWH, were to be read with the vowel points found with them in the MT, which really gives the vowels which are to be read with the substituted word ‘dny, (Adonai, “Lord”). The proper vowels for the latter word are a-o-a, but since the first consonant in YHWH is not a guttural, the vowel e is placed under it (to be read after it) instead of the vowel a; thus, by combining these vowels with the consonants of the Tetragrammaton, the mongrel form, “Yehowah,” came into being, which with the English consonant j in place of y and with the German pronunciation of w as v, produced in turn the quaint form of “Jehovah.” Even the Jews today such as Saul Lieberman, M.A., D.H.L., Ph.D. Late Distinguished Service Professor of Talmud and Rector of the Rabbinical School, Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Author of Greek in Jewish Palestine and Hellenism in Jewish Palestine. admit The name Jehovah was:

“ERRONEOUSLY TRANSLITERATED from the Masoretic Hebrew text.”

catholicapologetics.info/apologetics/protestantism/jehovah.htm

 

[JPUSC]

CCC 204 God revealed himself progressively and under different names to his people, but the revelation that proved to be the fundamental one for both the Old and the New Covenants was the revelation of the divine name to Moses in the theophany of the burning bush, on the threshold of the Exodus and of the covenant on Sinai.

Thanks, I suppose that makes sense.

 

[arthra]

I believe there have been ancient forms of monotheism in various countries such as China, India, Egypt and the middle east…

I also agree with the statement made above:

God revealed himself progressively and under different names to his people

So the same God has revealed Himself through His Prophets and Messengers from time immemorial.

 

[SalamKhan]

In short, no. Allah was known by Adam (A), the first man, but the descendants of Adam (A) deviated into polytheism. The ancients assumed that Allah was similar to contingent beings, and so it was inconceivable to them that one god could sustain all things; thus, they invented a multiplicity of gods.

Both atheism and polytheism are rationally impossible, as demonstrated by the Creed of Imam Sanusi and his commentators.

 

[KathleenGee]

They did share common myths. And God reveals Himself to those who truly seek Him.

The ancient Sumerians had some of the commandments reflected in their beliefs pertaining to property and stealing.

Confucius, although born later, through the revelation of God in his culture, was able to define all the commandments pertaining to neighbor…but Confucius was unable to define the revelation of God for His sake to mankind.

It is to the Jewish race that the Lord revealed Himself beginning with Abraham, …to Moses, the Covenant of the Land…the Decalogue…never broken but progressed one epoch at a time where Judaism is fulfilled in the Messiah, Christ Who restores us to God, frees us from slavery to sin and death and gives us a new life now.

The ancient peoples had shared myths in regards to the beginning of mankind.

There are variations of ‘Adam and Eve’.

These myths try to answer questions of who made us, why were we made, where are we now, where are we going, and how we will end up.

But the greater reality is that Truth of God can exists in myth.

And He reveals Himself as stated in a post here, progressively…but without contradictions and denials and destruction and war against humanity.

 

[truetofaith]

If you ever watched Ancient Aliens on the History Channel…they say the gods that Egyptians and other ancient people worshipped were aliens from other planets.
They are even saying Elijah was taken up in a spaceship and Moses received the 10 Commandments from aliens.
The worst is they are saying Jesus was taken up in a spacecraft as the apostles looked on.

I believe when God commanded “Let there be no strange gods before Me,” He was referring to the god-like idols or if there are aliens from other planets, these are the “false gods” that are an abomination to the One True God!

 

[arthra]

Is it true that the G-d of Abraham was originally one of many from pre-existing beliefs, possibly a storm-god typical of ancient Near Eastern myths? The word “Israel” is based on the name El rather than Y----- [HaShem (lit. “The Name”)].

Also, if humans have been around for about 200,000 years and the earth has existed for billions of years, why did G-d only reveal Himself around 4,000 years ago?

I believe there is such a thing as ancient monotheism… and Wallis Budge wrote a book describing an ancient monotheism in Egypt…Excerpts from the
“Maxims of Ani.”

1. The God magnifies his name.
   2. The house of God abominates overmuch speaking. Pray with a loving heart, the words of which are hidden. He will do what is needful for thee, he will hear thy petitions and will accept thine oblations.
   3. It is thy God, who gives thee existence.
   4. The God is the judge of the truth.
   5. When thou makest an offering to thy God beware of offering what he abominates.
   The unknown God of the early dynasties has now become a Being who gives men their lives and means of subsistence, who can be approached in a temple, or house, who is pleased with offerings, and with prayers offered up silently to him, and who wishes his name to be magnified. Another extract reads:–
   6. “Observe with thine eye his plans (or dispensation). Devote thyself to singing praises to his name. He gives souls to hundreds of thousands of forms. He magnifies him that magnifies him.”

p. 147

sacred-texts.com/egy/tut/tut12.htm

Also there’s an article in wikipedia on ancient Chinese monotheism…

*The orthodox faith system held by most dynasties of China since at least the Shang Dynasty (1766 BCE) until the modern period centered on the worship of Shangdi (literally “Above Sovereign”, generally translated as “God”) or Heaven as an omnipotent force.[73] This faith system pre-dated the development of Confucianism and Taoism and the introduction of Buddhism and Christianity.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotheism#Chinese_view

Baha’is believe God has revealed Himself in ages pastin various ways through Prophets and Messengers… *unknown to us for the most part and not mentionedin traditional sources.

 

[Peter_J]

Well one thing I certainly agree with is that things are complicated.

Also, if humans have been around for about 200,000 years and the earth has existed for billions of years, why did G-d only reveal Himself around 4,000 years ago?

Who’s to say that he didn’t reveal himself in many other times/generations besides what’s mentioned in the bible?

 

[KathleenGee]

Likewise the ancients seeking truth in the study of eschatology – those great questions of mankind who seeks to understand who he is, why he is made and where he is going…Allah if the one true God, would help man.

Instead Allah has no purpose or meaning.

Another dimension is our dna. We have our genetic memory going back to our ancestors…where they lived, how they survived, the geographical conditions, the relationships they had with their neighbors, politics, peace and war.

We as individuals are a summation of our past.

And another dimension is that of language. I studied 5th year language study at the U of WA. And there was a book done on a person’s mentality, how they thought.

You study in school English outlining of geography, history, other topics. I did. You start with the main idea and back it up with supporting ideas of facts from your reading materials. One paragraph at a time until the topic is basically covered.

Outline form. But that is how we English speaking people think, and our grammar is quite economical compared to the Romance Languages.

I was taken by the thinking of the Arab. It reflected a beautiful tapestry of designs, and that many lines would end in curves, and ends in themselves.

I see the understanding of Allah most reflective in the mindset of Arabic people.