Yahweh: The Evolution

Yahweh was the national god of the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah.His exact origins are disputed, although they reach back to the early Iron Age and even the Late Bronze. Yahweh is the God of Jews, Christians and Muslims. All gods have their evolution stages and roots as we are going to explore Yahweh's evolution as different phases in the reverse manner. Starting from the modern and most latest form to the most ancient form.

Over the years, Yahweh a less God merged with many higher Gods, accumulating all their stories, attributes and characters, emerging as the ONE GOD of Abrahamic religions. 

Evolution 

PHASE 1

Location : Roman Chatholic Church 

For the first 280 years of Christian history, Christianity was banned by the Roman Empire, and Christians were terribly persecuted. This changed after the “conversion” of the Roman Emperor Constantine. Constantine provided religious toleration with the Edict of Milan in AD 313, effectively lifting the ban on Christianity. Later, in AD 325, Constantine called the Council of Nicea in an attempt to unify Christianity. Constantine envisioned Christianity as a religion that could unite the Roman Empire, which at that time was beginning to fragment and divide. While this may have seemed to be a positive development for the Christian church, the results were anything but positive. Just as Constantine refused to fully embrace the Christian faith but continued many of his pagan beliefs and practices, so the Christian church that Constantine and his successors promoted progressively became a mixture of true Christianity and Roman paganism.

From here Yahweh was provided with the attributes of Lord Saturn/ Kronus, who was worshipped by the Romans as their supreme God. Similarly, Jesus was seen not as The Son of GOD but the SUN GOD. So, his birthday was shifted to 25th of DECEMBER, a date when the sun gods of many cultures where born. 

Christianity in Rome, raised just before the coming of Mithrism, the worship of the virgin born , Sun god,Mitras. Mitras have his roots in ancient hindu Vedas where Mitra was one among the sons of Goddess Adithi, which makes him a solar deity. The followers of the vedic Mitra, migrated and mixed with Romans introducing and mixing their God, Mitra in the roman pantheon of Gods, making him, Mithras. 

Most Roman Catholic beliefs and practices regarding Mary are completely absent from the Bible. Where did those beliefs come from? The Roman Catholic view of Mary has far more in common with the Isis mother-goddess religion of Egypt than it does with anything taught in the New Testament. Interestingly, the first hints of Catholic Mariology occur in the writings of Origen, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, which happened to be the focal point of Isis worship.

The Lord’s Supper being a consumption of the literal body and blood of Jesus is not taught in the Bible. The idea that bread and wine are miraculously transformed into the literal body and blood of Jesus (transubstantiation) is not biblical. However, several ancient pagan religions, including Mithraism, which was very popular in the Roman Empire, had some form of “theophagy” (the eating of one’s god) as a ritualistic practice.

Roman Catholicism has “saints” one can pray to in order to gain a particular blessing. For example, Saint Gianna Beretta Molla is the patron saint of fertility. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of animals. There are multiple patron saints of healing and comfort. Nowhere is even a hint of this taught in Scripture. Just as the Roman pantheon of gods had a god of love, a god of peace, a god of war, a god of strength, a god of wisdom, etc., so the Catholic Church has a saint who is “in charge” over each of these and many other categories. Many Roman cities had a god specific to the city, and the Catholic Church provided “patron saints” for cities as well.

The idea that the Roman bishop is the vicar of Christ, the supreme leader of the Christian Church, is utterly foreign to the Word of God. The supremacy of the Roman bishop (the papacy) was created with the support of the Roman emperors. While most other bishops (and Christians) resisted the idea of the Roman bishop being supreme, the Roman bishop eventually rose to supremacy, again, due to the power and influence of the Roman emperors. After the western half of the Roman Empire collapsed, the popes took on the title that had previously belonged to the Roman emperors—Pontifex Maximus.

"It has often been charged .. that Catholicism is overlaid with many pagan incrustations. Catholicism is ready to accept that accusation and even to make it her boast .. the great god Pan is not really dead, he is baptized." (The Story of Catholicism, p. 37)

"The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holydays and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the Kyrie Eleison are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church." (An Essay on The Development of the Christian Doctrine John Henry 'Cardinal Newman' p.373)

PHASE 2

Location :  Timna

Around 3,200 years ago, the great empires around the Mediterranean and the Middle East suddenly imploded. The Egyptians retreated from Canaan and the copper mines of Timna in the Negev, skulking back to the banks of the Nile and in the arid wastes of southern Canaan, a new power arose.

The Timna mines were taken over by semi-nomadic tribes, which set up a mining operation that dwarfed the previous Egyptian industry. This new desert kingdom would leave its mark on the main building at Timna: the Egyptian temple of Hathor, protector of miners. 

The new masters smashed the effigy of the Egyptian deity – leaving the fragments to be found by archaeologists more than 3,000 years later – and set up over the ruins of the temple a tent sanctuary, judging by the remains of heavy red and yellow fabric found in the 1970s.

There they worshipped a new GOD, one that had no apparent name or face.

That miners' god was none other than the deity known by the four Hebrew letters YHWH, who would become the God of the Jews and, by extension, of Christians and Muslims.

Most scholars already believe that the cult of Yahweh first emerged somewhere in the southern Levant, partly based on Egyptian texts from the late second millennium B.C.E. These documents describe groups of Canaanite nomads collectively known as Shasu, including one tribe named Shasu Yhw(h) – perhaps the first recorded Yahweh worshippers in history.

The Bible itself may contain a memory of this southern origin of Yahweh, as it tells us explicitly that God “came from Teman” (Habbakuk 3:3) or that he “went out of Seir” and “marched out of Edom” (Judges 5:4-5) – all toponyms associated with the area ranging from Sinai to the Negev and northern Arabia.

" Was Hathor's temple converted to a temple for Yahweh the metal god? At the Timna copper mine "

“Everybody recognizes these southern origins of Yahweh, but most scholars stop there,” Amzallag says. “This forms the basis of my theory as well, but I take it a step forward.”

However, Romer disagrees with Amzallag’s interpretation of the supposed volcanic phenomena described in the Bible. He thinks they are more indicative of a god of storms and fertility, similar to the Canaanite God Baal.

In this PHASE we see Yahweh as a Egyptain God of unknown origin.

" BUT WHERE DID HE ORIGINATE ?

LETS GO FOR THE ROOTS OF YAHWEH "

PHASE 3

As the Israelites settled in the land of Canaan, clashes over religious beliefs and practices developed with other inhabitants of the land. Baalism, the belief in the Canaanite god
of water and storm, became a threat to the belief in Yahweh (Jehovah). 

It has been suggested by modern scholars that  Yahweh,Lord of the Hebrews and the Baal of the Canaanites may not always have been so distinct. Many commentators believe this verse harkens back to a time when the Hebrew religion was not yet monotheistic. Some suggest that Yahweh and Baal were originally both thought of as sons of El, while others claim that the worship of Yahweh and Baal may once have been nearly indistinguishable.

The worship of Baal and Yahweh resembled each other more closely in the early days of IsraEL's history but came to be more distinct through later prophetic teaching and priestly legislation.

"ISis - RA- EL"

After Gideon's death, according to Judges 8:33, the Israelites started to worship a Baal Berith ("Lord of the Covenant"), and the citizens of Shechem supported Abimelech's attempt to become king by giving him 70 shekels from the temple of Baal Berith (Judges 9:4). The scene involving this "Lord of the Covenant" appears eerily similar one described in Joshua 24:25 as involving a covenant with Yahweh. Judges 9:46 goes on to say that these supporters of Abimelech enter "the House of El Berith"—apparently the same temple earlier referred to as belonging to Baal. Thus, all three names—Baal, El, and Yahweh—refer to a Covenant Deity at Shechem; and possibly to one deity referred to by three different names. The fact that altars devoted to Yahweh, even in the Temple of Jerusalem itself, were characterized by horned altars could also indicate a carryover from more primitive days with El and Baal (both of whom were sometimes portrayed as bulls) were not worshiped on common hilltop altars with Yahweh.

It's also seen that the tribes of Yahweh and that of Baal had constant fights and in passage of time, there was a merging and also in some cases Baal was made a demon.

PHASE 4

Location : Mesopotamia

Content : Ancient Sumerian

The origin of “Gods name” YHWH is found in the worlds most ancient writings – the Sumerian Epics of Gilgamesh. In one of five epics, the hero-king Gilgamesh travels to God’s Mountain to slay the Beast. The name of the Beast in original Sumerian is “Huwawa” 

HWH = HUWAWA = THE BEAST HAWWÂH

H+W+H  =  HU+WAW+A  [hu:aoa’]   (Same as HAWWÂH /AVA/AVE/EVA/EVE)

The single “V” was originally pronounced as [vav] and the double letter of “W” is pronounced as [:uao], as in “WOW”.

The letter “H” placed at the end of a word is adding a short [a:] to the letter “Vav”. The letter “H” placed at the beginning of a word though, is pronounced as such .

Hebrew pronunciation: YA – HUWAH

Ancient pronunciation: YE-HUWAWA

The name Yahweh comes from Huwawa, who is a personification of the age of Taurus. Gilgamesh killing The Beast – the Bull of Heaven – marking the end of time and the beginning of a new world order, the age of Aries ,the Ram. 

Let us go deep into the roots of HUWAWA 

Huwawa and The Moon Goddess Ninhursaga

Ninhursaga was the origin of the beastly figure Huwawa. In the oldest Sumerian religion, Ninhursaga was one of the three divine entities (The Trinity), who descended on Earth through the almighty God “AN/ ANU, EL”.


Ninhursaga was called by many names: Nintu, Mami, Inanna,ISHTAR “Mother of all the living” and “Great mother goddess”. She was also called “The lady (mistress) of the mountain”, as she actually lived on “God’s mountain”, and so did the figure “Huwawa”. Now again, God’s mountain is precisely where Gilgamesh traveled to slay the Beast.

In Ancient Mesopotamian religion, Huwawa and surnamed the Terrible, was a monstrous giant of immemorial age raised by Utu, the Sun. Humbaba was the guardian of the Cedar Forest ( GARDENER), where the gods lived, by the will of the god Enlil, who "assigned Huwawa as a terror to human beings. 

The psalmist of Psalm 104 uses the images of an ancient garden and also those reflected in the Garden of Eden to portray creation as a garden and YHWH as the cosmic Gardener who creates and also sustains it.

Gods firstborn son, Enki, was once cursed by Ninhursaga for having eaten “forbidden plants” in her garden. Now, Enki is of course the forerunner of Adam in this story. The forbidden fruit however, is of another kind, of flesh and bone.


According to Abrahamic religions, and the Sumerian belief, the gods found the daughters of men beautiful, and they had sex with them (or raped them), and thereby the “Son of Man” was born, as a demigod. This is the origin of the “forbidden fruit” concept, not something you eat.

In this phase we see Yahweh as Huwawa, a gardener or protector of the Garden of Gods.


PHASE 5

NOW STORY OF ADAM AND EVE : Genesis explains how man in the form of Adam, came to lose out on a chance to obtain immortality. His God denies him access to the Tree of Life, whose fruit, if consumed, confers   immortality. This is apparently a later Hebrew reworking of the "Adapa and the South Wind myth." Adapa, symbolizing man, has an opportunity to obtain immortality. All he has to do is eat and drink the food of the gods offered him by Tammuz and Nin-gish-zida on behalf of Anu. Adapa refuses both on the prior advice of his god Ea (Akkadian for "house of water," Sumerian: En-ki, en meaning "lord" and ki meaning "earth"), who forewarned him he would surely die if he consumed anything.

The Adapa and the Southwind Myth, but the story have been altered and transformed by the Hebrews.

 Adapa obtained "forbidden knowledge" reserved to the gods, specifically he knew how to cast a spell over the southwind god breaking his wing and preventing breezes or winds from blowing over Lower Mesopotamia. The god Anu who lived in heaven is _upset_ to hear of this and summons Adapa to his heavenly abode to find out where and how he has acquired this "forbidden knowledge." He learns in disbelief that the man (Adapa/ Later Adam) was taught by the "trickster-god" Ea/Sumerian Enki these spells. However, Anu does _not_ decide to deny man immortality as punishment for acquiring "forbidden knowledge" (the power to control the forces of nature in the form of winds), instead he concludes that if this man has a god's "forbidden knowledge" he might as well be made a full-fledged god with immortality! So he summons "bread and water of life" to be given to Adapa to make him and mankind immortal. 

Adapa however refuses to consume these items because his god (Ea/Enki) forewarned him these items were the "bread and water of death" and he would _die_ if he consumed them. Ea/Enki did not want man to have immortality.

What the Hebrews have done is recast these motifs into a series of inversions or reversals. Adam acquired "forbidden knowledge" illegally by disobeying and eating whereas Adapa did not acquire forbidden knowledge against Ea's wishes and he _obeyed_ his god's command and did _not_ eat and therefore lost at a chance to obtain immortality for himself and mankind. 

Another Hebrew reversal or inversion is that instead of immortality being offered man because he has obtained forbidden knowledge by Anu, he is _denied_ immortality by Yahweh-Elohim. 

In other words behind Yahweh-Elohim's actions lurk two gods who's intents and actions were in opposition to each other in regards to man: Anu who was _upset_ that man had obtained "forbidden knowledge" and Enki who _denied man immortality_ by tricking him into not eating the food which would give mankind immortality. The Hebrews via a series of brilliantly orchestrated inversions are challenging the Mesopotamian account of how man lost out on a chance to obtain immortality by an act of eating and obtainment of forbidden knowledge. 

Why did Enki the "trickster-god" _not_ want man to obtain immortality and lie to him? Enki was responsible for creating man at Eridu in Sumer (Lower Mesopotamia, modern Iraq) to be his agricultural slave to work his garden and provide it with water by digging and dredging irrigation canals, replacing the Igigi gods who protested their grievous toil in Enki's Eridu garden in edin. The gods obtained their Shabbat or Sabbath Rest from toil with man's creation. Who would toil on their behalf providing life's neccesities: food, shelter, and clothing if man was allowed to be a god and achieve immortality. The gods would _loose_ their Shabbat or Sabbath Rest from toil and have to return to the grievous agricultural toil in edin's gardens of the gods to raise food to feed themselves. 


In other words, man was denied immortality because the gods would loose their Sabbath Rest, the gods would have to bear _again_ the grievous agricultural toil in the edin's gardens in order to obtain their daily food if man was allowed to become an immortal god and freed of agricultural toil in edin's gardens.

FLOOD MYTH : In Sumerian myths Enki is associated with warning the Babylonian Noah, called variously Ziusudra, Atrahasis or Utnapishtim of an impending Flood which will destroy the world and all mankind, telling him to save himself and animals by building a boat. In the Hebrew re-working En-ki becomes Yahweh-Elohim and Utnapishtim becomes Noah.

In this phase, we see Yahweh as Enki, the son of El/ ANU.

Conclusion :

Ideas do not necessarily die when the civilization that nurtured them expires. Eridu declined, and Sumerian, like Latin in the West many centuries later, was maintained only by an educated, literate elite. The great empires of Akkad, Assyria, and even Babylon were brought down- Assyria in the late seventh century B.C., Babylon less than a century later. Persians, Macedonians, Seleucids, Arsacids, Sassanians, Ummayyad and Abbasid caliphs and later dynasties excercised lordship in Mesopotamia, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were deeply rooted in the Near East, and as often as not challenged their predeccessors. Enki survived, if at all, in new guises, under different names...If Enki and his city-state had all but disappeared, literary traditions and religious syncretism kept something of them alive. The two traditions that formed the basis of Western civilization, Greek and Biblical, appear to know stories of Enki, in much disguised form.

PHASE 6

According to the Canaanite texts, El presided over the divine assembly along with his son Baal, but he always maintained his status as the highest god. The Cult of Yahweh in Judaism has its roots in the Cult of El of the polytheistic semitic peoples such as the Canaanites and the Phoenicians.  

We have seen EL/ ANU in early paasages. Anu briefly appears in the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh, in which his daughter Ishtar/  Ninhursaga persuades him to give her the Bull of Heaven ( Huwawa) so that she can make him stan d as the garden of her garden.

Contrary to the biblical traditions that suggest an assimilation between Yahweh and El, there are other passages that seem to indicate that Yahweh was a separate and independent deity within El’s council. 

 During the Great Age of Leo, ANU/ EL was the Elohiym god who ruled over that golden Age. The Great Age of Cancer was an Age of fertility,ruled by the Goddess,  the Great Age of Gemini saw Enlil and his twin brother, Enki, as the ‘gods’ who ruled that Age of the twins. The Age of Taurus had the goddess of love and beauty and the bull; while the ‘god’ of Aries was Yahweh, or Marduk. 


Summing up... Different ages saw the rise and fall of many gods and goddesses. Yahweh, in his stories have absorbed or emerged with many ancient gods to grow from a god with a small g to a god with a capital G. 

THE GREAT AGE - THE RULING ‘GOD’ 

 Age of LEO - ANU/ El
Age of CANCER - GODDESS 
Age of GEMINI - ENLIL & ENKI - 
Age of TAURUS - ISHTAR AND BULL
Age of ARIES - YHWH or MARDUK
Age of PISCES - JESUS - 
Age of AQUARIUS - MESSIAH -
Age of CAPRICORN - Survivors -

Deuteronomy 32:8-9 is one of those rare biblical passages that seemingly preserves a vestige of an earlier period in proto-Israelite religion where El and Yahweh were still depicted as separate deities: Yahweh was merely one of the gods of El’s council! This tradition undeniably comes from older Canaanite lore.

Other biblical passages reaffirm this archaic view of Yahweh as a god in El’s council. Psalm 82:1 speaks of the “assembly of El,” Psalm 29:1 enjoins “the sons of El” to worship Yahweh, and Psalm 89:6-7 lists Yahweh among El’s divine council.

Thus there seems to be ample evidence in the biblical record to support the claim that as Yahweh become the supreme national deity of the Israelites, he began to usurp the imagery, epithets, and old cultic centers of the god El. This process of assimilation even morphed the linguistic meaning of the name El, which later came to mean simply “god,” so that Yahweh was then directly identified as ’EL—thus Joshua 22:22: “the god of gods is Yahweh” (’el ’elohim yhwh).

Noteworthy also is the fact that unlike the god Baal, there is no polemic in the Bible against El, and all the old cultic centers of El, those in Jerusalem, Shechem, and Beersheba, were later accredited to Yahweh. Since the large majority of patriarchal narratives that speak of shrines and altars to El are found in the northern kingdom, such as Bethel and Shechem, and, on the other hand, many biblical texts seem to accredit Yahweh’s origin to the southern Negeb, the current scholarly hypothesis is that the worship of El in the north and of Yahweh in the south eventually merged.