Polytheism: the God of the Jews

[Pathway2]

There has been claim of God as originally water based deity, a storm God and that he was a Canaanite deity, a Neptune like character with some descriptions of the psalms like psalm 18. or even that he was claimed to be a war deity in the middle east with King Joshua doing religious reformed to deal with the polytheism of the folk religion of Judea.

 

[angel12]

There has been claim of God as originally water based deity, a storm God and that he was a Canaanite deity, a Neptune like character with some descriptions of the psalms like psalm 18. or even that he was claimed to be a war deity in the middle east with King Joshua doing religious reformed to deal with the polytheism of the folk religion of Judea.

Anybody can claim anything. Is there a question here?

 

[Zaccheus]

With regard to God many people claim many things.
Do you believe these claims about the Christian God being originally a Canaanite god or a war god?

If so, what is your source for the claims?

 

[meltzerboy2]

The history of ethical monotheism is complex. Before Judaism was fully developed, and even after, there were no doubt tribal customs that involved worshiping pagan deities. In other words, Judaism was not fully grown as a monotheistic religion at the outset. There were about 20 to 30 sects of Judaism in ancient times, each one vying for dominance. Some of these sects may have been polytheistic. Not until the Covenant of Moses, way past Abraham, was Judaism firmly established as monotheistic. But even then up until the time of Jesus, the Pharisees had competition regarding the doctrines that Judaism were to practice, some of those doctrines being influenced by the Greeks, as well as the influence of Zoroastrianism.

 

[DebCWil]

Polytheism was common in the nations surrounding Israel. I listened to Bishop Barron’s talk on Genesis. Whether we speak of the sun or the moon, each of the natural elements that God created were worshiped by the nations surrounding Israel. Creation was very violent.
God is greater than any of these physical elements worshiped by the nations surrounding Israel. Creation was not violent. God spoke Creation into being. As He created each part, He proclaimed it good.
On the sixth day, God created man in His image and likeness.
God said, “You shall be my people and I shall be your God.” There is a relational development between the God of Israel that does not occur between the petty gods worshiped by other nations.

 

[John_Martin]

The LORD was originally known by all (Adam and Eve were “all” at one time, and then Noah, his wife, Shem, Ham, and Japheth and their wives were “all” who knew the LORD at one time).
From these people all the peoples came and over time were trading the knowledge of ‘HE WHO IS’ for other self-defined gods and philosophies, forgetting ‘HE WHO IS’, or at least lowering his shem to an equality with the other created gods.
That is why the name of ‘HE WHO IS’ was known in many cultures around Jacob (Israel) and they invented many superstitions around his power.
But Abraham and his descendants were the only people whom this God picked, from all the peoples who knew of his name, to interface with humanity and the world. They were his chosen servants, chosen to manifest his actuality in the world. This God did not choose people who invented superstition around his name - re-read the story of Balaam to see how non-servants of God thought they could manipulate him, but could not. They knew his name but did not know Him.
So, it should come as no surprise that other peoples were cognizant of the being of the LORD prior to the full manifestation of his chosen servant Israel.
Even now it is the same - many know of the name of Jesus, yet few know he is ‘I AM SAVING’, few know he is LORD, few know they are servants of the LORD.
John Martin

https://softvocation.org/2017/10/03/the-name/

 

[Pathway2]

I do not. thank you I was asking for help with a problem with Judaism’s origins as I am question my faith to learn and grow.

 

[Roseeurekacross]

A false god. There are lots of false god claims

 

[Gorgias]

There has been claim of God as originally water based deity, a storm God and that he was a Canaanite deity, a Neptune like character with some descriptions of the psalms like psalm 18. or even that he was claimed to be a war deity in the middle east

There’s a big difference between “God is this” and “the human understanding of who God is, is this.”

So, even if we were to say, “the early Semites thought God was a water deity” or “the early Semites thought God was a war deity”, that doesn’t mean that He actually was that thing.

 

[mrsdizzyd]

Don’t confuse yourself. All early Fertile Crescent civilizations had a conception of religion. They are all polytheistic except Judaism. Judaism has always been monotheistic. There is only one God in Judaism who has power and dominion over all.

 

[Gorgias]

Judaism has always been monotheistic.

Erm… that’s debatable. Do you mean the faith that’s taught in the Bible? Yeah – that’s monotheistic. Do you mean the faith that the early Semites believed in (or even, the Jews who first entered into the Promised Land)? Not monotheistic.

 

[mrsdizzyd]

mrsdizzyd:

Judaism has always been monotheistic.

Erm… that’s debatable. Do you mean the faith that’s taught in the Bible? Yeah – that’s monotheistic. Do you mean the faith that the early Semites believed in (or even, the Jews who first entered into the Promised Land)? Not monotheistic.

As taught in the Bible. At some point everyone was polytheistic.

 

[Gorgias]

As taught in the Bible. At some point everyone was polytheistic.

Here’s the problem, though: even though, from the time of Abraham onward, the teaching was “one God”… the people still worshipped many gods. That’s why there were such problems with “high places” and “asherah”, etc, etc, etc.

 

[mrsdizzyd]

mrsdizzyd:

As taught in the Bible. At some point everyone was polytheistic.

Here’s the problem, though: even though, from the time of Abraham onward, the teaching was “one God”… the people still worshipped many gods. That’s why there were such problems with “high places” and “asherah”, etc, etc, etc.

I believe that polytheistic worship was the reason for many of their problems. It is often difficult to surplant polytheism.