archaeologist wrote:As i have argued earlier, i think the most probable pharaoh at the time of the exodus was the great ramses II...
Save that the evidence you have refused to read demonstrates that is wrong.
Where is this sunken Egyptian army? Where, for that matter, is the "sea of reeds/destruction?"
Do you also believe El is a greater god than YHWH? For one cannot ignore a passage which shows YHWH as subordinate to El.
Deuteronomy 32:8-9 describes how when
El Elyon--"El the Most High," parceled out the nations between his sons, YHWH received Israel as his portion. Do notice that "Israel" is an El theophoric and not a YHWH theophoric such as "Netanyahu." Later scribes tried to change this meaning. Day, Smith, and Schmidt note the textual evidence establishes the preferred reading of "sons of God"--more properly "gods":
bene elohim rather than the Massoretic text's "sons of Israel"--
bene yisra' el. Curiously, Friedman tries to preserve the now discredited reading. Thus:
When El the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
When he separated humanity,
He fixed the boundaries of the peoples
According to the number of sons of gods.
For YHWH's portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.
As, Schmidt notes:
The relevant Septuagint and Qumran readings of Deut 32:8-9 describe how the Most High or the Canaanite high god, El . . . had allotted to each of the nations one of the members of his pantheon or "sons of El" (la ynb). . . . Deut 32:9 also reveals that YHWH was once viewed as an independent, but subordinate, deity to El and was assigned by El to Jacob/Israel. In other words, the tradition suggests that YHWH was once viewed as a deity possessing equal or lower rank and power to that of the astral gods.
Did YHWH create the divine pantheon, or, particularly El to whom he was subordinate? No biblical, or extra-biblical, source supports such a belief. An sherd found in excavations of the Jewish Quarter dated in the 7th century BCE demonstrates the importance of an El deity in Jerusalem:
l qn 'rs "El, creator of the earth," (Keel).
So whom should we worship?
What about "Mrs. YHWH?"
Edelman notes:
During the period when Judah existed as a state, from ca. 960-586 BCE, it seems to have had a national pantheon headed by the divine couple, Yahweh and Asherah. As the title Yahweh Sebaot would suggest, Yahweh was king of a whole heavenly host that included lesser deities who did his bidding, having various degrees of autonomy depending upon their status within the larger hierarchy (Edelman).
Excavations of a caravanserai at Kuntillet ‘Ajrud dated to the first half of the eighth century, revealed paintings and inscriptions on two large storage jars or pithoi (Keel). Controversy persists on whether or not the depictions represent YHWH and the goddess Asherah (Keel, Laughlin, Schmidt), however the inscription reads: “lyhwh smron wl’srth,” translated: “To Yahweh of Samaria and His a/Asherah,” (Laughlin). Laughlin notes that while debate continues as to whether or not the inscription intends a cultic symbol, “asherah,” or a consort goddess akin to the Canaanite Asherah, consort of the god and probable equivalent to YHWH, Baal (Cross), “. . . these inscriptions and other material remains . . . all point to the fact that in popular religion, at least, many Israelites associated Yahweh with a female consort,” (Laughlin).
So, should we set up our poles . . . heh . . . heh . . . "poles" [Get on with it!--Ed.] for Asherah? Far be it we should ignore her, she might tell her husband and we all know what he did to the SomethingOrOtherAKites even if actual evidence indicates otherwise.
And indeed history records this to be the case.
It records quite the opposite, which you would know, if you bothered to read the history.
--J.D.
References:
Cross FM.
Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973.
Day J.
Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan. London: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002.
Edelman DV. “Introduction,”
The Triumph of Elohim: From Yahwisms to Judaisms. Edelman DV, ed. Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995.
Friedman RE.
Who Wrote the Bible?. 2nd Ed. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1997.
Friedman RE.
The Bible with Sources Revealed. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2003.
Keel O, Uehlinger C.
Gods, Goddesses and Images of God in Ancient Israel. Thomas H. Trapp trans. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998.
Laughlin JCH.
Archaeology and the Bible. London: Routledge, 2000.
Schmidt BB. "The Aniconic Tradition,"
The Triumph of Elohim: From Yahwisms to Judaisms. Edelman DV, ed. Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995.
Smith MS.
The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel, 2nd Ed. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002.
