Ulan wrote: ↑Sun Sep 23, 2018 3:01 am
For what it's worth, Thomas Römer would probably go with the answer that Yahweh was both. While he, like you, sees him mostly as a typical Ba'al, which all had their local names, the connection to the sun god comes with Jerusalem, going with the idea that the etymology of the city name may not necessarily be connected to "peace", but rather to the sun god Shamash. He sees the temple in Jerusalem as an original Shamash temple that housed both gods (among others) at the same time during the early era after the Israelite conquest of the city, with Yahweh absorbing both, the sun god and much of the connected imagery, later on.
I agree with this view of Yahweh. I think he picked up aspects of other gods as time went on. I also think the Israelites believed in a divine council or other gods that accompanied Yahweh but over time their roles were given to Yahweh.
In ancient Egyptian religion the creator god creates the world through the "Word". The Egyptians deified this "Word" or had a god that represented this "Word" named Hu.
Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt by Geraldine Pinch:
Hu was the power of authoritative speech, which enabled the creator to bring things into being by naming them.
So the Israelites have Yahweh or Elohim create using the "word" or speech but they don't deify the "word" like the Egyptians.
Also, the Egyptians had the goddess "Maat" who was always with the sun god from the beginning of time. I was just looking through "The Invention of God" by Thomas Romer after reading your post mentioning him and came across this:
In verse 14 in Psalm 85(Justice shall walk in front of Yhwh and mark out his steps on the path"), Sedeq(Justice) walks in front of Yhwh as the Egyptian goddess Ma'at walked in front of the Egyptian sun god.
I've also read that "Elohim" is both singular and plural depending on the context it's used in and is also both masculine and feminine. I wonder if this has any relation to the Egyptian(and ancient Greek) idea that god is "one and many" and also has masculine and feminine aspects. Maybe Elohim is always supposed to mean singular AND plural regardless of context.
Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt by Geraldine Pinch:
The creator was sometimes referred to as "the One Who Made Himself into Millions" or "He Who Made Himself into Millions of Gods." Creation could be seen as a process of differentiation, in which one original force was gradually divided (without necessarily diminishing itself) into the diverse elements that made up the universe...New Kingdom hymns, such as those preserved in Papyrus Leiden I 350, Explore the idea that all deities are aspects of the creator. They speculate on the miraculous process by which the one creator, usually named as Amun-Ra, was able to divide himself into many...Before creation begins there is no division into genders. The creator seems to include both the male and female principles. Creator deities were commonly called "the father and mother of all things."