I’ve been interested in the original God’s of the Hebrews for a while now and I’m wonder exactly what the current thought about them are. It’s my understanding that Jehovah wasn’t the only God worshipped in ancient Hebrew life. I seem to remember Asherah, Ba’al, and a God of fertility. I haven’t done a lot of digging yet, so I could be totally off-base with this, but I’m looking for several places to start.
I would put this in GQ, but I think that there might be some dispute regarding the multiplicity of Hebrew Gods.
Very simply put, Judaism has only one God. Always has, always will.
That doesn’t mean, however, that the Jewish people from time to time haven’t had elements within it that worshipped foreign gods, just as there are Jews today who convert to other religions. In Biblical times, certain elements of the Jewish population were known to “backslide” into the worship of the gods of the Canaanites and other indigenous persons to the area. But that doesn’t make said worship or said “gods” a part of Judaism.
I guess it depends on how you define “Judaism.” Archaeologically speaking, the Yahweh cult did not really become exclusively monotheistic until the reign of Josiah. Before that, the people who can be culturally identified as “Israelites” worshipped Canaanite deities like Baal and his consort Astoreth right alongside of Yahweh. Temples to Canaanite fertility gods are commonplace in rural areas outside of Jerusalem as late as the 8th century BCE. The Yahweh cult was henotheist for centuries before it was monotheist. Josiah established Yahweh as the exclusive God of worship for the Israelites and also established the temple in Jerusalem as the exlusive temple for sacrifices. Doing so cemented Jersalem’s political power in Judea and was really the beginning of “Judaism” as a discreet religion from Canaanite henotheism.
No, zev. Baal was a foreign, non-Hebrew god. Dagon was a foreign, non-Hebrew god. Astarte was a foreign, non-Hebrew goddess. Asherah was not; she was Yahweh’s wife, before he divorced her. In fact, Yahweh might have had two or even three wives in the beginning. From Chapter 1 of the novel King Jesus, by Robert Graves (London: Cassell & Company, 1946):
King Jesus is a novel, and not a scholarly work.QUOTE]
Of course it was a novel, but it was obviously based on scholarship and Graves was one heck of scholar. Check out The White Goddess. He wasn’t just making this stuff up, it all had support in the history and lore of the ancient Mediterranean world. Which doesn’t necessarily mean he was right about everything, only that he was no crank and there was some solid basis for his highly controversial theories.
I’ve read a little about Kiersey Graves, about his work ‘sixteen crucified saviors’, and it seems as though some of his critics harshly condemn his work; I can’t comment because I haven’t read the book, yet, but I was wondering what the scholarly opinion of that book was.
The OP is about ancient Hebrew dieties, but later posters seem to be talking about Judaism. I thought that the Hebrews were the people and Judaism the religion. And while the two groups had an extremely large overlap, there was not necessarily a complete correspondence. (The context here is ancient peoples and religions, not extant ones.)
So, I interpret the original question as “What religions did non-Judaic Hebrews have?”
Just so you don’t get confused…Kersey Graves was a 19th century American atheist. Robert Graves, who wrote King Jesus, The White Goddess, and I, Claudius was an 20th century Anglo-Irish poet, novelist, and literary critic.
Meatros – I know a Canaanite reconstructionist peripherally; she at least used to have a few webpages on the subject, but I’m having a hard time tracking them down. I’ve dropped her a line asking her where her English-language pages are and whether she has any other URLs she’d recommend. (What relationship the Canaanites had to the Hebrews is a separate debate – but it’s Canaanite divinity-names one sees sometimes in the texts.)
BrainGlutton – The White Goddess is . . . not historically accurate. (There are a couple of reviews on Amazon’s front page that cover some of the big issues.) This is a big deal, because it was such potent mythmaking material that a lot of studies and attitudes have been warped by it after the fact. (Have a look at mainstream modern paganism and count the triple goddess worshippers and drivel. Then have a look at the reconstructionists and count the rants about people misinterpreting their divinities as triple goddesses or as aligning to ‘maiden’, ‘mother’, or ‘crone’. Don’t get me started on the one I saw recently – Bast-Isis-Sekhmet. :smack: Er, unless you want to know.)
. . . whoa, that was fast. Meatros, this is the English-language site link for the Canaanite recon: http://www.witchcraft.co.il/english/canaan.htm It’s a little limited at the moment, but her sidebar has a lot of links to other sites.
You know, I felt I should include something to the effect of “is this the same ‘Graves’?”, but in a moment of haste I figured ‘ah whatever, how many Graves could there really be?’
That’ll show me…
In any event, what is the reputation of 16 crucified saviors? I’ve just read a few online reviews and haven’t had a chance to read it myself.
Incidentally, what exactly is the difference between Ancient Hebrews and Judaism? I’m kinda fuzzy on the distinction, which could be part of the reason why my OP needs some interpretation.
I was googling for the content of the Elephantine manuscripts, who refer to other gods worshipped along with YHWH in a jewish community installed in EGypt, including YHWH’s ashera (probably his spouse) , and found this page which seems to include many informations directly related to the OP’s question. I didn’t read it thoroughly, but here’s some quotes :
I would note that other people believe that YHWH and El were different gods, YHWH being a tribal god (according to some a moutain god) which was conflated with El when the nomadic hebrews mixed with the city dwellers worshipping El as a main god of a polytheistic system which was close to henotheism.
Still from the same page, some comments about YHWH’ “asherah”
The page’s author then go on discussing the transition from polytheism (YHWH is the main god) to henotheism (HYWH is the only god which should be worshipped by the Hebrews) to monotheism (YHWH is the only god, period.) first during the seventh century BC when altars and temples to other gods are destroyed, then during the exile in Babylone when a major theological switch takes place.
The following information is based on the Old Testament and on Jewish teachings.
The Hebews were the predecessors to the Jews, ie the Jews before they became Jews in the codifying moment of Judaism, which was the giving of the Torah in 1313 BCE.
The Canaanites were the inhabitants of the land of Israel before it was connquered by Joshua and his armies in the sixth book of the Old Testament. This was begun in 1273 BCE and mostly finished by 1259 BCE.
Asheirah was a Canaanite goddess, worshipped in idol form, and in Jewish tradition she is NOT a consort of YHWH, though an attempt may have been made to excuse the Jews’ worship of her by glossing over the sin with such a statement.
There were many Canaanite or similarly non-Hebrew gods worshipped by Jews during dark periods in Jewish history. That’s esentially what the Old Testament is about for a large section starting in the book of Judges.
All the calculations I just made were done in an effort to translate the Hebrew years to the calendar we use, taking into account the fact that there was never a year zero. I may have made a mistake, but I think that it’s all correct.
All of the above is based on Jewish tradition and faith but very little of it is supported by archaeology or objective scholarly research. The OT is not a factual history of Israel. There was no conquest of Canaan by Joshua, for instance and the Torah did not exist in its current form until around the 8th century BCE. The archaeolgy of the area is pretty conclusive in showing that Judaism did not become strictly monotheistic until the reign of Josiah. The “history” in the Torah was backwritten to provide a unified narrative and identity for the Israelite people but the events described therein are by no means what actually happened. It’s essentially political and religious propaganda.
As I recall, the worshippers of Yahweh came to be known as “Jews” from the tribe of Judah. After the death of Solomon, the northern kingdom of Israel (home to ten of the 12 tribes of Israel), with its capital at Samaria, broke away from the southern kingdom of Judah (home to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin), with its capital at Jerusalem. (Actually, there is some question as to whether there ever really was a united empire of Judah and Israel – see The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts (Free Press, 2001), by two Israeli scholars, Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman; reviewed at FindArticles.com | CBSi In 722 B.C. the Assyrians conquered Israel and deported its upper classes to what is now northern Syria; there they almost certainly merged with the local population, but there were a lot of legends and speculations about the “10 lost tribes of Israel” surviving in some remote place. (Those Yahweh-worshippers who remained in the old territory of Israel evolved into the Samaritans, a sect whom later Jews regarded as heretical). But a lot of Israelite priests fled south to Judah, where they probably inspired King Josiah to reform the Judahite religion – centralizing all worship in Jerusalem and shutting down all other centers of worship. The Assyrian Empire fell to the Babylonians in 612 B.C. In 597 B.C., the Babylonians conquered Judah and deported its ruling classes to the area around Babylon – but in that case they survived as a distinct cultural and religious group, probably because their exile lasted only 40 years. When the Persians, under Cyrus, conquered Babylon, the Judahites (and Benjaminites, one presumes) were allowed to go back to Jerusalem. They build a new state there they called “Yehudi,” which, transmitted through various languages, produced the English words “Jews” and “Judaism.” What we now think of as the Jewish religion had its beginnings in the reign of Josiah, and evolved under the pressure of the Babylonian exile, but we can’t really speak of “Judaism” until the period after the Judahites were allowed to return to Jerusalem.
So you mean to ask, not “What religion did non-Judaic Hebrews have?” but “What religion did the **pre-**Judaic Hebrews have?”
I see that clairobscur has posted several cites concerning the fact that Yahweh and El were two distinct gods, that preceded the “one and only” God of the Hebrews.
I’ve been looking into this, too, and having a hard time finding good sources of info. I’m working my way through Canaanite myth and Hebrew epic; essays in the history of the religion of Israel. ; it’s certainly scholarly, but it’s pretty hard going as it assumes a lot of prior knowledge. It’s also somewhat dated (1975).
It seems fair to say that there are differences of opinion on how the Jewish religion developed from earlier stages. It’s pretty clear that it involved joining the worship of El to that of Yahweh.
Exodus 6:2
So the author of Exodus is explicitly claiming that the God formerly known as El Shaddai should now be called “Yahweh”.
Acording to Cross, “Yahweh” comes from the verb yahwe, “to create”. It’s original form was probably yahwe sabaoth, “Creates-the Heavenly-Hosts”.
This form evolved into “Yahweh Sabaoth”, “Lord of the Heavenly Hosts”, which is one form used often for God in the OT.
The page that Diogenes linked has some errors. For instance, Asherah was the consort of El, not of Yahweh. The page clairobscur linked seems pretty accurate.
At any rate, it is clear from the archeological evidence that El, El Elyon, and other forms used in the OT were members of the Canaanite pantheon from way back. A lot of evidence comes from the Ugaritic texts of Ras Shamra - some googling should turn up good stuff on them.
Good hunting, and if you find any good references, let me know!
Actually, current scholarship and understanding is that he was, in fact, just making all that stuff up. He had highly speculative theories that were extremely loosely based upon a limited number of facts as he knew them back then, but more modern research shows lots of evidence that he was completely off base on almost everything.