# Yahweh and El before Hebrew religion?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yahweh-and-el-before-hebrew-religion/275970>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 21, 2004, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yahweh-and-el-before-hebrew-religion/275970 "2004-11-21T18:45:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2004, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yahweh-and-el-before-hebrew-religion/275970/1 "2004-11-21T18:45:19Z")

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Is there a good source on the 'net for information about references to deities with the names Yahweh and El from before, or at least from a source independent of, whatever we might standardly think of as either Israelite, Hebrew, or Jewish religious practice?

Charity in the interpretation of the question is requested. I am vaugely aware there can be problems determining just what sources “belong” to any religious grouping esp. when such groupings are defined in terms of contemporary religions.

-FrL-

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**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yahweh-and-el-before-hebrew-religion/275970/2 "2004-11-22T22:56:14Z")

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You could check [this page](http://cc.usu.edu/~fath6/bible.htm)

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yahweh-and-el-before-hebrew-religion/275970/3 "2004-11-22T23:04:39Z")

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You might start with the [documentary hypothesis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_hypothesis).

The above post was actually added by **mks57** yesterday at 6:18 pm.

I was trying to help out Spectre of Pithecanthropus by moving his mis-post to that thread into a new thead. I accidently moved mks57’s post. Sorry about that.

**samclem** GQ moderator

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**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yahweh-and-el-before-hebrew-religion/275970/4 "2004-11-22T23:49:37Z")

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I just got an email saying there is a response to this thread w/ the following text:

"The old joke–was it from Elaine Boosler’s standup routine?–is that  
the Israelites spent forty years wandering the desert because the men  
wouldn’t stop and ask for directions.

But I have a different theory: that they were too ignorant of  
astronomy to know that the Sun rises in the East and that the stars at night  
slowly revolve around a point in the northern sky.

Apart from the Star of Bethlehem, is there any mention of any star or  
other celestial object, anywhere in the Bible? In the Talmud? I’m  
curious that the records of a pastoral people would not show any  
awareness at all of constellations, bright individual stars, and planets.

Why do I think the answer might be obvious? I’m thinking that it’s  
because such knowledge had pagan, polytheistic overtones, and were  
prohibited from public discourse long before the books that went into the  
Bible were written down. But I don’t know, I’m just guessing."

That text looks at least tangentially relevant to the thread. But I don’t see it here on the actual thread. So what spawned that email?

-FrL-

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2004, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yahweh-and-el-before-hebrew-religion/275970/5 "2004-11-23T00:07:09Z")

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**Frylock**.

Ignore the _jerk_ behind the curtain(me)!!

**Spectre of Pithecanthropus** posted to your thread this evening, although he/she meant to start a new thread. In trying to split off the mis-posts, I screwed up. So, I guess you got a notification. Carry on.

**samclem** GQ moderator(and newbie at this machinery, I guess).