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Miqra -- Gods of the Hebrews


Jeanne dArc

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Much as my actual fields are evolutionary biology and zoology, I was trained in Classical Hebrew (and to a lesser extent Koine Greek) as a child, having been between fundamentalist Presbytarian, Catholic, and Jewish parts of my family. I am no longer religious, however I still find myself greatly interested in the Bible: the Miqra ("Old Testament") in particular. Not for any "spiritual" reasons, I don't believe the Bible to be true: it intrigues me greatly however as a window into the ancient Hebrew culture, a civilization which has been effectively extinct for more than 2000 years. I have, in my spare time, been working on a secular (i.e., unbiased) translation and commentary on the Miqra, for a number of years.

Job has interested me quite a lot, as it presents a form of Judaism that was all but dead by the time of its composition: a Judaic religion and cosmography that was quite markedly outside of the orthodoxy which developed during the Babylonian Exile of the Hebrew people (an orthodoxy under which nearly all of the other books of the Bible were written or compiled, with few exceptions).

I take particular interest in the mention of numerous gods, including:

  • בניהאלהים (ḇənê-hā’ĕlōhîm, “sons of the ’Ĕlōhîm”, “sons of the gods”), derived implicitly from the pantheon of earlier Canaanite religion, also called the "Elohim".
  • השטן (haśŚāṭān, “the Śāṭān”, “the adversary”, “the opponent”, “the accuser”), the divine prosecutor.
  • יהוה (Yahweh) and אל (’Ĕl), the (at times contrary) father gods.
  • שדי (Šadday), a Semitic goddess associated with sacred mountains.
  • מות (Mōwṯ, "Death”), the god of death and the underworld.
  • שחר (Šāḥar, “dawn”, “morning star”) and שלם (Šālêm, “dusk”, “evening star”), the twin gods of the morning and evening stars.
  • An unnamed group of אשאלהים (’êš ’ĕlōhîm, “fiery gods”, “gods of fire”), fire gods that acted under the direct order of the higher deities (presumably the same as the שרפים (Śərāp̄îm, "Seraphim", "burning ones", "fiery ones")).

Pseudo-divine monsters also appear, such as the בהמות (Ḇəhêmōwṯ, "Behemoth"), and the two sea dragons of chaos: לויתן (Liwyāṯān, "Leviathan", “coiling serpent”, “entwined serpent”) and רהב (Rāhaḇ, "Rahab", “maelstrom”, “blusterer”, “tempestuous one”). I could go on.

Job presents a definite polytheistic theology, much more akin to the sister Levantine cultures which the Hebrews evolved from: Job also gives an attitude towards divinity and fate in which even gods are not truly omniscient or omnipotent.

The book of Genesis is likewise interesting for its cosmographical content, and its extensive mythology dealing with etiology and superstition.

I have thus far placed most of my interest on Job and Genesis, however I plan to eventually complete a translation and commentary on the entire Miqra, and likely the New Testament as well.

Any thoughts on this? It seems to me that most modern Abrahamists don't exactly like to acknowledge the polytheistic roots of their religion, and the extinct Hebraic culture from whence it came.

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