Yahweh Among the Gods

Yahweh Among the Gods PDF Author: Michael B. Hundley
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781108609692
Category : Bible
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
"The divine is seemingly ubiquitous in Mesopotamian society, yet despite its all-pervasiveness, it remains conceptually elusive. The divine sphere is vast and complex, such that it is hard to delimit and to distinguish between its various parts. In fact, there is no simple answer to even the most basic question: what is a god? The divine world is also characterized by a fluidity not found in modern western religions. For example, Ištar-of-Arbela, Ištar-of-Nineveh, and Ištar, the-Planet-Venus are all Ištar, yet in different contexts are treated as different Ištars. In addition, although the divine is present seemingly everywhere, Mesopotamians themselves make little attempt to systematically unravel its complexities"--

Yahweh Among the Gods

Yahweh Among the Gods PDF Author: Michael B. Hundley
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781108609692
Category : Bible
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book

Book Description
"The divine is seemingly ubiquitous in Mesopotamian society, yet despite its all-pervasiveness, it remains conceptually elusive. The divine sphere is vast and complex, such that it is hard to delimit and to distinguish between its various parts. In fact, there is no simple answer to even the most basic question: what is a god? The divine world is also characterized by a fluidity not found in modern western religions. For example, Ištar-of-Arbela, Ištar-of-Nineveh, and Ištar, the-Planet-Venus are all Ištar, yet in different contexts are treated as different Ištars. In addition, although the divine is present seemingly everywhere, Mesopotamians themselves make little attempt to systematically unravel its complexities"--

Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan

Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan PDF Author: John Day
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567537838
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
This masterly book is the climax of over twenty-five years of study of the impact of Canaanite religion and mythology on ancient Israel and the Old Testament. It is John Day's magnum opus in which he sets forth all his main arguments and conclusions on the subject. The work considers in detail the relationship between Yahweh and the various gods and goddesses of Canaan, including the leading gods El and Baal, the great goddesses (Asherah, Astarte and Anat), astral deities (Sun, Moon and Lucifer), and underworld deities (Mot, Resheph, Molech and the Rephaim). Day assesses both what Yahwism assimilated from these deities and what it came to reject. More generally he discusses the impact of Canaanite polytheism on ancient Israel and how monotheism was eventually achieved.

The Early History of God

The Early History of God PDF Author: Mark S. Smith
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 9780802839725
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
There is still much disagreement over the origins and development of Israelite religion. Mark Smith sets himself the task of reconstructing the cult of Yahweh, the most important deity in Israel's early religion, and tracing the transformation of that deity into the sole god - the development of monotheism.

Yahweh among the Gods

Yahweh among the Gods PDF Author: Michael Hundley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108482864
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 421

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Book Description
A redefinition of the ancient conceptions of god, the relationships between them, and the rhetoric used to exalt them.

The Incomparability of Yahweh in the Old Testament

The Incomparability of Yahweh in the Old Testament PDF Author: C. J. Labuschagne
Publisher: Brill Archive
ISBN:
Category : Bible
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description


Yahweh's Council

Yahweh's Council PDF Author: Ellen White
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161532931
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Ellen White explores the depiction of the divine council under the authority of Yahweh in the type-scenes of the Hebrew Bible. She proposes criteria for determining a Council of Yahweh type-scene and membership requirements. Following these criteria the Council of Yahweh texts are Isaiah 6, 1 Kings 22, Job 1-2, Zechariah 3, and Daniel 7. After determining a cast of characters, the author explores the structure of the council and realizes that the structure contains three tiers with two divisions on tiers 2 and 3. The first tier belongs to the chief god, the second tier is called the Councilors and the two divisions are Judicial Officials and Advisors. The third tier is the Agents and the two divisions on this tier are the Court Officers and Commissioned. Characters who play a role relating to the council, but are not themselves members of the council are also analyzed. Finally, Ellen White evaluates the potential for conceptual evolution, especially in relationship to monotheism and the participation of human beings within the Council of Yahweh.

Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan

Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan PDF Author: William Foxwell Albright
Publisher: Eisenbrauns
ISBN: 9780931464010
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Professor Albright speaks to a new generation of scholars through this reprint of his classic work contrasting Israelite and Canaanite religions. The five chapters were originally presented as seven lectures and discuss Poetry and Prose, the Patriarchal Background, Canaanite Religion in the Early Bronze Age, the Struggle between Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan, and the Religious Cultures of Israel and Phoenicia.

Yahweh's Coming of Age

Yahweh's Coming of Age PDF Author: Jason Bembry
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1575066165
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the deity Yahweh is often portrayed as an old man. One of the epithets used of Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible, the Ancient of Days, is a source for this depiction of God as elderly. However, when we look closely at the early traditions of biblical Israel, we see a different picture: God is relatively youthful, a warrior who defends his people. This book is an examination of the question How did God become old? To answer this question, Bembry examines the way that aging and elderly human beings are portrayed in the Hebrew Bible. Then he makes a similar foray into the texts written in Ugaritic (a language quite close to ancient Hebrew), which provide a window into the ancient culture just north of Israel during the Late Bronze Age. He finds that Israel’s God shared attributes with the Ugaritic deities Baal and El. One prominent aspect of the similar attributes was that Yahweh’s depiction as a youthful warrior paralleled the way Baal was portrayed. The transformation from young deity to Ancient of Days took place at the intersection of two trajectories in the traditions of Israel. One trajectory is reflected in the way that apocalyptic traditions found in the book of Daniel recast the old Canaanite mythic imagery seen in the Ugaritic and early biblical texts. This trajectory allows Yahweh to take on qualities, such as old age, that were not associated with him during most of Israel’s history but were associated with El in the Canaanite traditions. The second trajectory, a depiction of Israel’s God as elderly, is connected with the development of the idea of Yahweh as father. The more comfortable the biblical tradents became with portraying Yahweh as a father—a metaphor that was not embraced in the early traditions—the easier it became for the people of Israel to think of Yahweh as occupying a stage of the human life cycle. These two trajectories came together in the 2nd century B.C.E., the chronological backdrop for Daniel 7, and found expression in a new epithet for Yahweh: Ancient of Days.

Twilight of the Gods

Twilight of the Gods PDF Author: David Penchansky
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 9780664228859
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 124

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Book Description
Since the middle of the twentieth century, one of biblical scholarship's chief assumptions has been that ancient Israel evolved out of the polytheism of surrounding cultures into an ethical monotheism. However, this consensus has fallen apart in recent years. Scholars now know that early Israel was surrounded by a very polytheistic culture and that many Israelites thought of Yahweh as the chief God among many gods. Furthermore, archaeology has shown that Yahweh was worshiped along with other gods throughout the period after the exile, when many shrines were in honor of "Yahweh and his Asherah." David Penchansky's Twilight of the Gods is the first accessible book that shows a historical Israel where polytheism and monotheism existed simultaneously in great conflict. He provides a historical introduction, followed by close readings of key Old Testament passages, where he demonstrates how to interpret difficult biblical texts that depict other gods or claim Yahweh is the only God within this new understanding of Israelite religion.

The Origins of Yahwism

The Origins of Yahwism PDF Author: Jürgen van Oorschot
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 311044822X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
This compendium examines the origins of the God Yahweh, his place in the Syrian-Palestinian and Northern Arabian pantheon during the bronze and iron ages, and the beginnings of the cultic veneration of Yahweh. Contributors analyze the epigraphic and archeological evidence, apply fundamental considerations from the cultural and religious sciences, and analyze the relevant Old Testament texts.