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I wonder if it is possible to find copies of the Old Testament from 1213 BC or earlier. As I know the oldest known script used for the Bible is Phoenician and occurs in The Tetragrammaton. It's possible there were older written copies in other, maybe older scripts. The tradition is that most of it was written down by St. Moses, who maybe contemporary with Ramesses II, who supposedly died 1213 BC. The earliest alphabet was made for Semitic languages, maybe Hebrew, impossible to know, and it's from 1900 to 1800 BC. Search for the Wadi El-Hol Script. If there are digs in Israel it's possible we could find the Old Testament in Hebrew using the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugaritic writings (hill's and in ruins north of Israel) sound like they're imitations of the Bible and are all from about 1300s to 1180 BC. So there are older copies of a few Ugaritic Bible writings than copies of the Bible, however a copy of the original bible, no one has that.
Which leads me to the beginning of my debate, Bronze Age translatability. The observations in history as the Egyptians had identified foreign gods with their own deities, so that the goddess of Byblos was a Hat–Hor to them and various Asiatic gods which were Seth to them. There were also two cosmopolitan forces at work a worship of Asiatic gods as to the shrines in Asia and the domestication of Asiatic gods in Egypt. The identifications of Egyptian and Western Semitic deities that resulted from the Egyptian counter with religious culture of Western Asia. And indicates such identifications were based on a perception of function and gender shared by the deities in question. Another thing is to acknowledge attendant conditions, which signal at this early point in the study the fact that translatability, was oft related to larger culture and religious factors.
Here's an example of translatability, the substitution of divine names in the poem describing ramsesses II battle of Kadesh known from the Luxor text. The Egyptian king brags "I was like seth in his time". The same poem as recorded at Abydos, has the name of the God Montu instead of Seth; and a third copy known from a papyri has baal. The substitutions show the names of three warrior gods, to them Egyptian, Seth and Montu, and third Baal who would have been a West Semitic import. Just as I have seen other texts the function of each God relates to the culture of each God, but more so each is a figure of divine might. Certain observations seen by many other Near East researchers have discussed cross-cultural recognition of deities. Concerning the subject of "intercultural translation", of deities. The characterization or quality of intercultural translation is that the conviction that God or the Gods are international was characteristic of polytheistic religions of the ancient near East.
Concerning this the deities of these polytheistic cultures are clearly differentiated and personalized by name, shape, and function. The great achievement of polytheism is an articulation of a common semantic universe. The gods are given a semantic dimension, by means of mythical narratives and Theo-cosmological speculations. Because tribal religions are ethnocentric, the powers worshiped by one tribe are different from the powers worshiped by another tribe; in contrast the highly differentiated members of polytheistic pantheons lend themselves easily to cross-cultural translation. For example, the end interpretatio Latina of Greek divinities and the interpretatio Graeca of Egyptian ones. Translation functions because the names have not only a reference, but also a meaning. The meaning of a deity is his or her specific character as it is in hymns, myths, rites, and so on.
We can see this with isker and later on hadad and then Baal, all three are storm Gods.
The Bible itself ignores a great deal of how other culture's functioned and what other culture's wrote, how other culture's had influence on other culture's, unless it specifically is pointing out a specified event, at the same time Biblical symbolism is manifested in Biblical scripture. The Bible does this very well and often the reader has a biased viewpoint of the Bible.
We can begin with structure's of divinity to build a basis for biblical aforethought. So anthropomorphic deities and divine monsters, would be a good place to start.
Benevolent deities are often rendered anthropomorphically, whereas destructive divinities appear as monstrous in character. Moreover, theriomorphic representations reflect the dichotomy between deities and cosmic enemies. Whereas cosmic enemies are monstrous or undomesticated, the animals associated with benevolent deities (“attribute animals”) lie within the orbit of cultural domestication.
Here is a Biblical example, El often bears the title, “Bull” (CAT 1.1 III 26, IV 12, V 22; 1.2 I 16, 33, 36, III 16, 17, 19, 21; 1.3 IV 54, V 10, 35; 1.4 I 4, II 10, III 31, IV 39, 47; 1.6 IV 10, VI 26, 26; cf. 1.128.7). In this connection, the personal name ’iltr, “El is Bull,” may be noted (4.607.32).37 Baal is presented as a bull-calf (1.5 V 17–21; 1.10 II–III, esp. III 33–37; cf. 1.11), and here we may note P. The characterization of the bull as the storm-god’s “attribute animal” in Syrian glyptic.
In this connection, the bull or bull-calf mentioned in the Bible may reflect the iconography associated with El and Baal. El’s iconographic representation may underlie the image of the divine as having horns “like the horns of the wild ox” in Numbers 24:8, for this passage shows other marks of language associated with El. Many scholars are inclined to see El’s rather than Baal’s iconography behind the famous “golden calf” of Exodus 32 and the bull images erected by Jeroboam I at Bethel and Dan (1 Kings 12), but this iconography has been traced back to Baal as well. Here we might include not only the depiction of Baal in the Ugaritic texts but also the “fierce young bull” (symbol) of the storm-god, Adad. Nonetheless, the tradition in ancient Israel favors Bethel originally as an old cult-site of the god El (secondarily overlaid—if not identified—with the cult of Yahweh), perhaps as the place-name Bethel (literally, “house of El”) would suggest (Genesis 28:10–22).
The biblical hymn of Psalm 148:7 calls on the cosmic sea creature Tannin to join in praising Yahweh. Mesopotamian culture, too, regarded monstrous creatures as subservient to deities, so the kindly attitude toward cosmic monsters may not be an Israelite innovation. Indeed, this view of the monstrous enemies recalls El’s special relationship with these foes, expressed through various “terms of endearment” and other nomenclature. The Ugaritic material is especially rich in terms of endearment between El and the cosmic enemies. The locus classicus for this phenomenon is Anat’s speech to Gpn w-Ugr in CAT 1.3 III 36–1.3 IV 1, which you can search for online.
Different images are used for the monstrous cosmic forces’ relationship to El. Here Yamm and Arsh are called his “beloved” (ydd ’il/mdd ’il). Like these cosmic monsters, Mot is cast with the same title elsewhere. This title bears a particular cultural freight and association. Commonly taken as an expression of El’s preferred feeling for Yamm, the word may more precisely denote El’s legal selection of Yamm over the other gods in his family.
This is just a small example of relation between how "monsters" and "demons" are categorized in both ancient near eastern texts and biblical text.
Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan by author John Day
Another Near East comparison is Ezekiel 30:10-13 Thus saith the Lord God; I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon. 11 He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought to destroy the land: and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain. 12 And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked: and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I the Lord have spoken it. 13 Thus saith the Lord God; I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt. The poetic imagery in those verses reflects Nabopolassar (Nabopolassar | king of Chaldea) when he engaged in a campaign of death and literal apocalyptic destruction against Assyria and its allies, which was continued by his son Nebuchadnezzar. In short, much of the biblical prophecy you see reflects earlier events and behaviors of earlier kings.
As far as an "end times" prophecy is concerned, there is a Sumer tablet that talks about animals becoming extinct, which has happened wherein animals have become extinct, 11 Animals That Are Now Extinct... Thanks To Humans this is not to say that all animals will become extinct but some have and some will or might become extinct. But, this does not point to an "end times" prophecy.
Of course a Christian can argue that this is much different than the "prophetic" visions of John on Patmos. However, in the book of revelation we see a running theme and throughout much of the Bible with Horses being used for war scenarios, divination concerning Horses is called Hippomancy. From (The King and I: Exiled To Patmos, Part 2) we can see that researchers found a Hippodrome (ancient Grecian stadium for horse racing and chariot racing) on the Island of Patmos. The rest of the article asserts that "the book of Revelation seems to reflect life on the island. Weather phenomena like white clouds (14:14), thunder and lightning (11:19; 14:2), great hail (8:7; 11:19; 16:21) and rainbows (4:3; 10:1) are common. From the peak of Mt. Elias, 269 m (883 ft) above sea level, one has a spectacular view of the Aegean Sea islands to the west and the mountains of Asia Minor (Turkey) to the east. There are at least 22 references to the “sea” in Revelation (4:6; 5:13; 7:1, 2, 3; 8:8, 9; 10:2, 5, 8; 12:12; 13:1; 14:2, 7; 15:2; 16:3; 18:17, 19, 21; 19:6; 20:13; 21:1). J.C. Fitzpatrick, visiting the island in the 1880’s, observed:
The islands to the west stand out darkly against the brightness of the horizon; and the others are lighted up with the glory of the setting sun, whilst the track of its last rays is a “sea of glass, mingled with fire” (Rv. 15:2; 1887: 16).
In Revelation 6:14 and 16:20 John describes the islands of the Aegean and the mountains of western Turkey disappearing."
Of course I am not debating this issue, but can at a later time; we should stick to the argument of the polytheistic past of monotheistic belief systems.
Even in the flood of Noah, we find issues with the relation of usage of wording by the Bible.
Make yourself an ark (tēvāh) of gopher wood [came the instruction]; make rooms
(qinnīm) in the ark, and cover it (kāpar) inside and out with pitch (kopher). This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. Genesis 6:14–16
The biblical word Tēvāh, which is used for the arks of Noah concerning gopher wood in the Hebrew Bible. The flood is thus deliberately associated and linked in Hebrew just as the Atrahasis and Sargon Arks are linked associatively in Babylonia.
Problem is no one knows what language Tēvāh is or what it means. The word for the wood, gopher, is likewise used nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible and no one knows what language or what kind of wood it is. This is a peculiar state of affairs for one of the most famous and influential paragraphs in all of the
world’s writing.
The associated words kopher, ‘bitumen’, and kāphar, ‘to smear on’, are also to be
found nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible, but, significantly, they came from
Babylonia with the narrative itself, deriving from Akkadian kupru, ‘bitumen’, and
kapāru, ‘to smear on’. In view of this it is logical to expect that tēvāh and gopher are similarly loanwords from Babylonian Akkadian into Hebrew, but there has been no convincing candidate for either word. Suggestions have been made for gopher-wood, but the identification, or the non-Hebrew word that lies behind it, remains open.
Ideas have also been put forward over the centuries concerning the word tēvāh, some linking it – because Moses was in Egypt – with the ancient Egyptian word thebet, meaning ‘box’ or ‘coffin’, but these have ended nowhere. The most likely explanation is that tēvāh, like other ark words, reflects a Babylonian word.
Even if you were to reference Strong's concordance, you will not find that Tevah means gopher wood, so my question is if the Biblical texts misenterprets the word Tevah for gopher wood, what were the intentions of the Biblical God by misinterpreting that specific word?
The Ark before Noah by author: Irving Finkel
Lastly the talk of storm Gods, the original epithet Baalu as personal name of the Semitic storm-god, Haddu, as primarily attested in texts from Ugarit for the Late Bronze Age, continued without interruption in the Iron Age cultures of Syro-Palestine and South Anatolia. The storm-god is always called Baaal in Phoenician texts; the ‘Canaanite’ storm-god is also called Baaal in the Old Testament.36 By contrast the inherited Semitic name of the storm-god lived on in the form Hadad
(Hadda) in the Aramaean dominated interior of Syria and in Upper Mesopotamia (see 4.3.4). Of course the name Baaal did not always stand for a storm-god, for, as in earlier periods, particularly in connection with a place-name it could serve as an independent epithet of a local leading deity of any kind. In those regions which
were in contact with Babylonia, Bèl(-Marduk) was then appropriated and fused with the Syrian Baaal (cf. the god Bel [< Bol] in Palmyra).
Storm Gods of the Ancient Near East by author: Daniel Schwemer
Similarly we find in Biblical verses the myth hero Jesus as similar to the functions of Ba'al in Canaanite literature, Mark 4:39 "And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm." Matthew 8: 23-27 In these verses we see Jesus and specifically verse 26 "And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm." A clear indication of the attributes of a Storm God who would also be considered a Sky God. One of important manifestation of the Hittite Tarhun(t) was regularly called “storm-god of heaven” (from the Old Hittite period; similarly to be assumed for Hattic Taru). An epitath refers to the main manifestation of the individual deity (residing in heaven) by contrast to the diverse local manifestations, which were associated with particular earthly places. But this may be a weak point, so I offer this instead.
"Some of the older Israelite poems juxtapose imagery associated with El and Baal in the Ugaritic texts and apply this juxtaposition of attributes to Yahweh. It was noted that Genesis 49:25-26, for example, exhibits language deriving from El and Asherah. According to F. M. Cross, 256 Deuteronomy 33:26-27 mixes El and Baal epithets. Verse 26 describes Yahweh in storm language traditional to Baal while verse 27 applies to Yahweh the phrase, ‘ĕlōhê qedem, “the ancient god,” a description reflecting El’s great age:
There is none like God, O Jeshurun,
who rides (rōkēb) through the heavens (šāmayim) to your help,
and in his majesty through the skies.
The eternal God (’ĕlōhê qedem) is your dwelling place ...
Psalm 18 (2 Sam. 22):14-16 (E 13-15) likewise juxtaposes El and Baal imagery or titles for Yahweh:
Yahweh also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High (‘elyôn) uttered his voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
And he sent out his arrows,
and scattered them;
he flashed forth lightnings,
and routed them.
Then the channels of the sea (’ăpîqê mayim) were seen ...
This passage bears two explicit hallmarks of El language within a passage primarily describing a storm theophany of the type predicated of Baal in Ugaritic literature. The title ‘elyôn is an old epithet of El.
In Genesis 14:19 it occurs as a title of the god of the patriarchs, and it appears in the older poetic compositions for the god of Israel (see also Num. 24:4; cf. Deut. 32:8). It is a common divine title in the Psalter (Pss. 93; 21:8; 46:5; 50:14; 57:3; 73:11; 77:11; 78:17, 35, 56; 83:19; 91:1, 9; 92:2;
107:11). In Psalm 82:6 it appears in the phrase bĕnê ‘elyôn. There it refers to other deities and reflects El’s role as father of the gods. The “channels of the sea” (ăpîqê mayim) perhaps echo the description of the waters of El’s abode, called mbk nhrm//’apq thmtm, “springs of the two rivers//the channels of the double-deeps” (KTU 1.2 III 4; 1.3 V 14; 1.4IV 21-22; 1.5 VI 1*;
1.6 1 34; 1.17 VI 48; cf. 1. 100.2-3). Besides the features associated with El in Canaanite tradition, Psalm 18:14-16 describes Yahweh as a divine warrior, manifesting his divine weaponry in the storm like Baal in the Ugaritic texts.
In these passages, Deuteronomy 33:26-27, Psalm 18 (2 Sam. 22):14-16, as well as Genesis 49:25-26, imagery regularly applied to El and Baal in Northwest Semitic literature was attributed to Yahweh at a relatively early point in Israel’s religious history. Moreover, in applying this imagery to Yahweh, these passages combine or conflate the imagery of more than one Canaanite deity. Other poetic passages treated in subsequent chapters, such as Psalm 68 and Deuteronomy 32, offer further examples of conflation or convergence of divine language associated with a variety of deities in Canaanite literature. Such convergence in Israel’s earliest history occurs in other forms. The modes and content of revelation appropriate to El and Baal appear in conflated form in the earliest levels of biblical tradition.263 Likewise, Psalm 27 describes the divine dwelling in terms
used of El’s and Baal’s homes in Canaanite tradition. Psalm 27:6 calls Yahweh’s home a tent (*‘ōhel) like El’s dwelling in the Elkunirsa myth. Psalm 27:4 calls Yahweh’s home a “house” (bêt), language more characteristic of Baal’s abode (KTU 1.4 VII 42) than El’s dwelling (cf. KTU 1.114). As J. C. Greenfield has noted,264 other terms in Psalm 27 evoking language of Baal’s home include nō‘am in verse 4 and yiṣpĕnēnî (*ṣpn) in verse 5."
The Early History of God by author: Mark S Smith
I'd like to possibly see some meaningful responses.
Which leads me to the beginning of my debate, Bronze Age translatability. The observations in history as the Egyptians had identified foreign gods with their own deities, so that the goddess of Byblos was a Hat–Hor to them and various Asiatic gods which were Seth to them. There were also two cosmopolitan forces at work a worship of Asiatic gods as to the shrines in Asia and the domestication of Asiatic gods in Egypt. The identifications of Egyptian and Western Semitic deities that resulted from the Egyptian counter with religious culture of Western Asia. And indicates such identifications were based on a perception of function and gender shared by the deities in question. Another thing is to acknowledge attendant conditions, which signal at this early point in the study the fact that translatability, was oft related to larger culture and religious factors.
Here's an example of translatability, the substitution of divine names in the poem describing ramsesses II battle of Kadesh known from the Luxor text. The Egyptian king brags "I was like seth in his time". The same poem as recorded at Abydos, has the name of the God Montu instead of Seth; and a third copy known from a papyri has baal. The substitutions show the names of three warrior gods, to them Egyptian, Seth and Montu, and third Baal who would have been a West Semitic import. Just as I have seen other texts the function of each God relates to the culture of each God, but more so each is a figure of divine might. Certain observations seen by many other Near East researchers have discussed cross-cultural recognition of deities. Concerning the subject of "intercultural translation", of deities. The characterization or quality of intercultural translation is that the conviction that God or the Gods are international was characteristic of polytheistic religions of the ancient near East.
Concerning this the deities of these polytheistic cultures are clearly differentiated and personalized by name, shape, and function. The great achievement of polytheism is an articulation of a common semantic universe. The gods are given a semantic dimension, by means of mythical narratives and Theo-cosmological speculations. Because tribal religions are ethnocentric, the powers worshiped by one tribe are different from the powers worshiped by another tribe; in contrast the highly differentiated members of polytheistic pantheons lend themselves easily to cross-cultural translation. For example, the end interpretatio Latina of Greek divinities and the interpretatio Graeca of Egyptian ones. Translation functions because the names have not only a reference, but also a meaning. The meaning of a deity is his or her specific character as it is in hymns, myths, rites, and so on.
We can see this with isker and later on hadad and then Baal, all three are storm Gods.
The Bible itself ignores a great deal of how other culture's functioned and what other culture's wrote, how other culture's had influence on other culture's, unless it specifically is pointing out a specified event, at the same time Biblical symbolism is manifested in Biblical scripture. The Bible does this very well and often the reader has a biased viewpoint of the Bible.
We can begin with structure's of divinity to build a basis for biblical aforethought. So anthropomorphic deities and divine monsters, would be a good place to start.
Benevolent deities are often rendered anthropomorphically, whereas destructive divinities appear as monstrous in character. Moreover, theriomorphic representations reflect the dichotomy between deities and cosmic enemies. Whereas cosmic enemies are monstrous or undomesticated, the animals associated with benevolent deities (“attribute animals”) lie within the orbit of cultural domestication.
Here is a Biblical example, El often bears the title, “Bull” (CAT 1.1 III 26, IV 12, V 22; 1.2 I 16, 33, 36, III 16, 17, 19, 21; 1.3 IV 54, V 10, 35; 1.4 I 4, II 10, III 31, IV 39, 47; 1.6 IV 10, VI 26, 26; cf. 1.128.7). In this connection, the personal name ’iltr, “El is Bull,” may be noted (4.607.32).37 Baal is presented as a bull-calf (1.5 V 17–21; 1.10 II–III, esp. III 33–37; cf. 1.11), and here we may note P. The characterization of the bull as the storm-god’s “attribute animal” in Syrian glyptic.
In this connection, the bull or bull-calf mentioned in the Bible may reflect the iconography associated with El and Baal. El’s iconographic representation may underlie the image of the divine as having horns “like the horns of the wild ox” in Numbers 24:8, for this passage shows other marks of language associated with El. Many scholars are inclined to see El’s rather than Baal’s iconography behind the famous “golden calf” of Exodus 32 and the bull images erected by Jeroboam I at Bethel and Dan (1 Kings 12), but this iconography has been traced back to Baal as well. Here we might include not only the depiction of Baal in the Ugaritic texts but also the “fierce young bull” (symbol) of the storm-god, Adad. Nonetheless, the tradition in ancient Israel favors Bethel originally as an old cult-site of the god El (secondarily overlaid—if not identified—with the cult of Yahweh), perhaps as the place-name Bethel (literally, “house of El”) would suggest (Genesis 28:10–22).
The biblical hymn of Psalm 148:7 calls on the cosmic sea creature Tannin to join in praising Yahweh. Mesopotamian culture, too, regarded monstrous creatures as subservient to deities, so the kindly attitude toward cosmic monsters may not be an Israelite innovation. Indeed, this view of the monstrous enemies recalls El’s special relationship with these foes, expressed through various “terms of endearment” and other nomenclature. The Ugaritic material is especially rich in terms of endearment between El and the cosmic enemies. The locus classicus for this phenomenon is Anat’s speech to Gpn w-Ugr in CAT 1.3 III 36–1.3 IV 1, which you can search for online.
Different images are used for the monstrous cosmic forces’ relationship to El. Here Yamm and Arsh are called his “beloved” (ydd ’il/mdd ’il). Like these cosmic monsters, Mot is cast with the same title elsewhere. This title bears a particular cultural freight and association. Commonly taken as an expression of El’s preferred feeling for Yamm, the word may more precisely denote El’s legal selection of Yamm over the other gods in his family.
This is just a small example of relation between how "monsters" and "demons" are categorized in both ancient near eastern texts and biblical text.
Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan by author John Day
Another Near East comparison is Ezekiel 30:10-13 Thus saith the Lord God; I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon. 11 He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought to destroy the land: and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain. 12 And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked: and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I the Lord have spoken it. 13 Thus saith the Lord God; I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt. The poetic imagery in those verses reflects Nabopolassar (Nabopolassar | king of Chaldea) when he engaged in a campaign of death and literal apocalyptic destruction against Assyria and its allies, which was continued by his son Nebuchadnezzar. In short, much of the biblical prophecy you see reflects earlier events and behaviors of earlier kings.
As far as an "end times" prophecy is concerned, there is a Sumer tablet that talks about animals becoming extinct, which has happened wherein animals have become extinct, 11 Animals That Are Now Extinct... Thanks To Humans this is not to say that all animals will become extinct but some have and some will or might become extinct. But, this does not point to an "end times" prophecy.
Of course a Christian can argue that this is much different than the "prophetic" visions of John on Patmos. However, in the book of revelation we see a running theme and throughout much of the Bible with Horses being used for war scenarios, divination concerning Horses is called Hippomancy. From (The King and I: Exiled To Patmos, Part 2) we can see that researchers found a Hippodrome (ancient Grecian stadium for horse racing and chariot racing) on the Island of Patmos. The rest of the article asserts that "the book of Revelation seems to reflect life on the island. Weather phenomena like white clouds (14:14), thunder and lightning (11:19; 14:2), great hail (8:7; 11:19; 16:21) and rainbows (4:3; 10:1) are common. From the peak of Mt. Elias, 269 m (883 ft) above sea level, one has a spectacular view of the Aegean Sea islands to the west and the mountains of Asia Minor (Turkey) to the east. There are at least 22 references to the “sea” in Revelation (4:6; 5:13; 7:1, 2, 3; 8:8, 9; 10:2, 5, 8; 12:12; 13:1; 14:2, 7; 15:2; 16:3; 18:17, 19, 21; 19:6; 20:13; 21:1). J.C. Fitzpatrick, visiting the island in the 1880’s, observed:
The islands to the west stand out darkly against the brightness of the horizon; and the others are lighted up with the glory of the setting sun, whilst the track of its last rays is a “sea of glass, mingled with fire” (Rv. 15:2; 1887: 16).
In Revelation 6:14 and 16:20 John describes the islands of the Aegean and the mountains of western Turkey disappearing."
Of course I am not debating this issue, but can at a later time; we should stick to the argument of the polytheistic past of monotheistic belief systems.
Even in the flood of Noah, we find issues with the relation of usage of wording by the Bible.
Make yourself an ark (tēvāh) of gopher wood [came the instruction]; make rooms
(qinnīm) in the ark, and cover it (kāpar) inside and out with pitch (kopher). This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. Genesis 6:14–16
The biblical word Tēvāh, which is used for the arks of Noah concerning gopher wood in the Hebrew Bible. The flood is thus deliberately associated and linked in Hebrew just as the Atrahasis and Sargon Arks are linked associatively in Babylonia.
Problem is no one knows what language Tēvāh is or what it means. The word for the wood, gopher, is likewise used nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible and no one knows what language or what kind of wood it is. This is a peculiar state of affairs for one of the most famous and influential paragraphs in all of the
world’s writing.
The associated words kopher, ‘bitumen’, and kāphar, ‘to smear on’, are also to be
found nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible, but, significantly, they came from
Babylonia with the narrative itself, deriving from Akkadian kupru, ‘bitumen’, and
kapāru, ‘to smear on’. In view of this it is logical to expect that tēvāh and gopher are similarly loanwords from Babylonian Akkadian into Hebrew, but there has been no convincing candidate for either word. Suggestions have been made for gopher-wood, but the identification, or the non-Hebrew word that lies behind it, remains open.
Ideas have also been put forward over the centuries concerning the word tēvāh, some linking it – because Moses was in Egypt – with the ancient Egyptian word thebet, meaning ‘box’ or ‘coffin’, but these have ended nowhere. The most likely explanation is that tēvāh, like other ark words, reflects a Babylonian word.
Even if you were to reference Strong's concordance, you will not find that Tevah means gopher wood, so my question is if the Biblical texts misenterprets the word Tevah for gopher wood, what were the intentions of the Biblical God by misinterpreting that specific word?
The Ark before Noah by author: Irving Finkel
Lastly the talk of storm Gods, the original epithet Baalu as personal name of the Semitic storm-god, Haddu, as primarily attested in texts from Ugarit for the Late Bronze Age, continued without interruption in the Iron Age cultures of Syro-Palestine and South Anatolia. The storm-god is always called Baaal in Phoenician texts; the ‘Canaanite’ storm-god is also called Baaal in the Old Testament.36 By contrast the inherited Semitic name of the storm-god lived on in the form Hadad
(Hadda) in the Aramaean dominated interior of Syria and in Upper Mesopotamia (see 4.3.4). Of course the name Baaal did not always stand for a storm-god, for, as in earlier periods, particularly in connection with a place-name it could serve as an independent epithet of a local leading deity of any kind. In those regions which
were in contact with Babylonia, Bèl(-Marduk) was then appropriated and fused with the Syrian Baaal (cf. the god Bel [< Bol] in Palmyra).
Storm Gods of the Ancient Near East by author: Daniel Schwemer
Similarly we find in Biblical verses the myth hero Jesus as similar to the functions of Ba'al in Canaanite literature, Mark 4:39 "And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm." Matthew 8: 23-27 In these verses we see Jesus and specifically verse 26 "And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm." A clear indication of the attributes of a Storm God who would also be considered a Sky God. One of important manifestation of the Hittite Tarhun(t) was regularly called “storm-god of heaven” (from the Old Hittite period; similarly to be assumed for Hattic Taru). An epitath refers to the main manifestation of the individual deity (residing in heaven) by contrast to the diverse local manifestations, which were associated with particular earthly places. But this may be a weak point, so I offer this instead.
"Some of the older Israelite poems juxtapose imagery associated with El and Baal in the Ugaritic texts and apply this juxtaposition of attributes to Yahweh. It was noted that Genesis 49:25-26, for example, exhibits language deriving from El and Asherah. According to F. M. Cross, 256 Deuteronomy 33:26-27 mixes El and Baal epithets. Verse 26 describes Yahweh in storm language traditional to Baal while verse 27 applies to Yahweh the phrase, ‘ĕlōhê qedem, “the ancient god,” a description reflecting El’s great age:
There is none like God, O Jeshurun,
who rides (rōkēb) through the heavens (šāmayim) to your help,
and in his majesty through the skies.
The eternal God (’ĕlōhê qedem) is your dwelling place ...
Psalm 18 (2 Sam. 22):14-16 (E 13-15) likewise juxtaposes El and Baal imagery or titles for Yahweh:
Yahweh also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High (‘elyôn) uttered his voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
And he sent out his arrows,
and scattered them;
he flashed forth lightnings,
and routed them.
Then the channels of the sea (’ăpîqê mayim) were seen ...
This passage bears two explicit hallmarks of El language within a passage primarily describing a storm theophany of the type predicated of Baal in Ugaritic literature. The title ‘elyôn is an old epithet of El.
In Genesis 14:19 it occurs as a title of the god of the patriarchs, and it appears in the older poetic compositions for the god of Israel (see also Num. 24:4; cf. Deut. 32:8). It is a common divine title in the Psalter (Pss. 93; 21:8; 46:5; 50:14; 57:3; 73:11; 77:11; 78:17, 35, 56; 83:19; 91:1, 9; 92:2;
107:11). In Psalm 82:6 it appears in the phrase bĕnê ‘elyôn. There it refers to other deities and reflects El’s role as father of the gods. The “channels of the sea” (ăpîqê mayim) perhaps echo the description of the waters of El’s abode, called mbk nhrm//’apq thmtm, “springs of the two rivers//the channels of the double-deeps” (KTU 1.2 III 4; 1.3 V 14; 1.4IV 21-22; 1.5 VI 1*;
1.6 1 34; 1.17 VI 48; cf. 1. 100.2-3). Besides the features associated with El in Canaanite tradition, Psalm 18:14-16 describes Yahweh as a divine warrior, manifesting his divine weaponry in the storm like Baal in the Ugaritic texts.
In these passages, Deuteronomy 33:26-27, Psalm 18 (2 Sam. 22):14-16, as well as Genesis 49:25-26, imagery regularly applied to El and Baal in Northwest Semitic literature was attributed to Yahweh at a relatively early point in Israel’s religious history. Moreover, in applying this imagery to Yahweh, these passages combine or conflate the imagery of more than one Canaanite deity. Other poetic passages treated in subsequent chapters, such as Psalm 68 and Deuteronomy 32, offer further examples of conflation or convergence of divine language associated with a variety of deities in Canaanite literature. Such convergence in Israel’s earliest history occurs in other forms. The modes and content of revelation appropriate to El and Baal appear in conflated form in the earliest levels of biblical tradition.263 Likewise, Psalm 27 describes the divine dwelling in terms
used of El’s and Baal’s homes in Canaanite tradition. Psalm 27:6 calls Yahweh’s home a tent (*‘ōhel) like El’s dwelling in the Elkunirsa myth. Psalm 27:4 calls Yahweh’s home a “house” (bêt), language more characteristic of Baal’s abode (KTU 1.4 VII 42) than El’s dwelling (cf. KTU 1.114). As J. C. Greenfield has noted,264 other terms in Psalm 27 evoking language of Baal’s home include nō‘am in verse 4 and yiṣpĕnēnî (*ṣpn) in verse 5."
The Early History of God by author: Mark S Smith
I'd like to possibly see some meaningful responses.