God as Chronos in Philo, Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis 30ff

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God as Chronos in Philo, Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis 30ff

Post by billd89 »

Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis
(30) ...ὁ δὲ θεὸς πατὴρ καὶ τεχνίτης καὶ ἐπίτροπος τῶν ἐν οὐρανῷ τε καὶ κόσμῳ πρὸς ἀλήθειάν ἐστι. ...(31) δημιουργὸς δὲ καὶ χρόνου θεός· καὶ γὰρ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ πατὴρ – πατὴρ δὲ χρόνου κόσμος – τὴν κίνησιν αὐτοῦ γένεσιν ἀποφήνας ἐκείνου· ὥστε υἱωνοῦ τάξιν ἔχειν πρὸς θεὸν τὸν χρόνον. ὁ μὲν γὰρ κόσμος οὗτος νεώτερος υἱὸς θεοῦ, ἅτε αἰσθητὸς ὤν· τὸν γὰρ πρεσβύτερον [οὐδένα εἶπε]– νοητὸς δ’ἐκεῖνος – πρεσβείων ἀξιώσας παρ’ ἑαυτῷ καταμένειν διενοήθη. (32) οὗτος οὖν ὁ νεώτερος υἱὸς ὁ αἰσθητὸς κινηθεὶς τὴν χρόνου φύσιν ἀναλάμψαι καὶ ἀνασχεῖν ἐποίησεν· ὥστε οὐδὲν παρὰ θεῷ μέλλον τῷ καὶ τὰ τῶν χρόνων ὑπηγμένῳ πέρατα. καὶ γὰρ οὐ χρόνος, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἀρχέτυπον τοῦ χρόνου καὶ παράδειγμα αἰὼν ὁ βίος ἐστὶν αὐτοῦ· ἐν αἰῶνι δὲ οὔτε παρελήλυθεν οὐδὲν οὔτε μέλλει, ἀλλὰ μόνον ὑφέστηκεν.

Colson's trans., 1934
(30) ...God is in very truth the Father and Craftsman and Steward of the Heaven and the Cosmos and all that is therein. ... But God is the maker of (31) time also, for He is the Father of Time’s father, that is of the Cosmos, and has caused the movements of the one to be the source of the generation of the other. Thus Time stands to God in the relation of a grandson. For this Cosmos, since we perceive it by our senses,is the younger Son of God. To the elder Son, I mean the Intelligible Universe, He assigned the place of Firstborn, and purposed that it should remain in His own keeping. So this younger son, the Cosmos of our (32) senses, when set in motion, brought that entity we call Time to the brightness of its rising.

Colson has no Mother, although I can imagine the Cosmic Soul was considered feminine.

Yonge's mid-19th C. trans., at EJW site:
(30) ... He is in truth the Father, and Creator, and Governor of all things in Heaven and in the whole Cosmos; ...(31) But God is the Creator of Time also; for he is the Father of its father, and the father of Time is the Cosmos, which made its own Mother the Creation of Time, so that Time stands towards God in the relation of a grandson; for this Cosmos is a younger Son of God, inasmuch as it is perceptible by the outward sense; for the only Son he speaks of as older than the world, is Idea, and this is not perceptible by the intellect; but having thought the other worthy of the rights of primogeniture, He has decided that it shall remain with him; (32) therefore, this younger Son, perceptible by the external senses being set in motion, has caused the nature of time to shine forth, and to become conspicuous...

Yonge has a Mother!

DeepL offers this (I've modified a few words, lightly):
And God is the Father and Artificer and Overseer of those in Heaven and in the True Cosmos. ...(31) And the Creator and God of Time; and the Father of his father, and the Father of the Cosmos of Time, the motion of his birth, thus the order of sonship is to God of Time. For the Cosmos is this younger Son of God, though he is not aware of Him: for he said nothing of the elder. But he that is intelligible, and who is understood by himself, having claimed the presbyteries. (32) This is he that is the younger son, the sensible one, that moveth the Nature of Time, and maketh the Nature of Time to shake and breathe; so that nothing but the future, and the ends of the times. For He {i.e. First Power} is not Time, but the Archetype of Time, and His life is an example of Eternity: and in Eternity He is neither past nor future, but only made into Life.

My working trans.:
(30): “But God is the Father, and Craftsman, and Guardian {ἐπίτροπος} of all in Heaven and the True Cosmos. […] (31) God is the Demiurge {δημιουργὸς} and God of Time also, for He is the Father of ‘Time’s father’ — that is, the Cosmos’ Chronos {χρόνου κόσμος} — who made the movements of one the origin of the other. Thus Time has this order unto God: for this Cosmos, as perceptible by the outward sense, is the younger Son of God. He {Demiurge-God} assigned the senior rank {i.e. over the congregations} of the intelligible Cosmos and purposed that it should remain in his own {i.e. Chronos’} keeping. (32) So this younger son, the sensible Cosmos set in motion, brought that entity we call Time to the brightness of it’s rising.

First Power: Father/Craftsman/Demiurge, Guardian of the All-Cosmos.
Second Power (First Son): First Chronos, Administrator of Intelligible Cosmos.
Third Power (Second Son): Second Chronos, Master of Perceptible Cosmos.
Fourth Power: Manifest/Material Reality/Actual Time, Sunrise/Sunset, etc.
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Re: God as Chronos in Philo, Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis 30ff

Post by Secret Alias »

Ignore Young's translation. Please find the Greek text. We are supposed to have standards at this forum.
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Re: ??

Post by billd89 »

Huh?

1) "Yonge."
2) See above.
3) That's Peter's site. (I am grateful - thanks Peter!)
4) I find Yonge's translations dubious also - and I am a total noob.
5) I presented my own effort, fwiw.
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Re: God as Chronos in Philo, Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis 30ff

Post by Secret Alias »

What's the matter with you? Yonge's translation is shit. In my youth I was reminded of this fact by a noted authority on Philo. Get the Greek. Going with something just because it suits your purposes sucks. It's not worthy of true scholarship.
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Re: Civility

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Is it the heat? Stay cool, man 8-)
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Re: God as Chronos in Philo, Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis 30ff

Post by Peter Kirby »

I'm not seeing the word for "mother" here.

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/tex ... try=mh/thr

It does seem like Yonge took liberties with his translation.
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Re: God as Chronos in Philo, Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis 30ff

Post by yakovzutolmai »

What about the Pheonecian Ieoud?

He is set up and sacrificed as substitute for Cronus, to the point of being dressed like him. The name means "only begotten", and is strikingly similar to the Ieuo which becomes Iaow, which has been used for Yahweh.

The story parallels Ba'al Hadad building a golden calf as a substitute for himself being presented to Mot, destined for the underworld. The craftsman Kothar-wa-Khasis (said to be from Egypt) builds the calf. This same legend has parallels in the Apis bull and Menvis bull associated with Lower Egyptian religion, which associates them with Ptah (whom the Phoenicians almost recognize as identical to Kothar). Daedalus builds a mechanical bull so Minos's wife can become inseminated from a sacred bull, which almost certainly derives from the same legend.

We also have Abraham attempting a sacrifice of Isaac.

Although there is a temptation to associate Ieuo with Yaw, and therefore Yamm, making him an equivalent to Poseidon, this may not be exactly right. On the other hand, Yam's servant Lotan reminds of Ladon the dragon of Atlas guarding his sacred tree. Atlas and Poseidon are equated by Plato with Atlantis, and share some sort of connection (although it may simply be a reference to Punic civilization, the seafarers living in Mauritania).

With the Atlas connection, the story reminds of Yggdrasil, the world tree as Axis Mundi protected by the serpent. We also have Coeus associated with Polus, associating Logos with the Axis Mundi.

Finally, the sacrifice of the being who upholds the world upon the world tree reminds of the crucifixion of a cosmic Christ. And this parallels the Jewish mysticism (Adam Kadmon, Zaddik the pillar) which precedes the Christian era.

So, perhaps Hadad is our original king who overthrew Ouranos, in the place of Cronus, and perhaps Yahweh is the golden calf, Ieoud, the only begotten. The world-bearer, Logos the Son of God.

This at least contextualizes the Syrian divine triad of Hadad and Atargatis, leaving their son as Yahweh. Which also harmonizes a bit with Isis, Osiris and Horus.

The ancients were careless with their gods. The popularity of a cult was all it took for someone to try and harmonize it with existing systems. It was a popularity contest, so new myths were invented to accommodate and correspond to shifts in popularity. So, Hadad can be reintegrated into the Pantheon in a lower position as the Hadad cult reasserts Hadad against the cult of Hadad's son. We see Zeus and Typhon, Apollo and Python, Hercules and Hydra as an example of this reintegration.

If we can permit Cronus to have been Hadad, then we can allow Yam (as Yahweh) to repeat the struggle with Hadad, even though Yam's father fought a perfectly parallel war against Ouranos.

By this methodology, we can identify Ouranos and Hadad as having had a war of order against chaos. The war is won as Hadad's son Logos is made to uphold the world as its governing principle.

This corresponds quite nicely with Philo's arguments.
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Re: Ieoud/ledud

Post by billd89 »

billd89 wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 7:58 amMy working trans.:
(30): “But God is the Father, and Craftsman, and Guardian {ἐπίτροπος} of all in Heaven and the True Cosmos. […] (31) God is the Demiurge {δημιουργὸς} and God of Time also, for He is the Father of ‘Time’s father’ — that is, the Cosmos’ Chronos {χρόνου κόσμος} — who made the movements of one the origin of the other. Thus Time has this order unto God: for this Cosmos, as perceptible by the outward sense, is the younger Son of God. He {Demiurge-God} assigned the senior rank {i.e. over the congregations} of the intelligible Cosmos and purposed that it should remain in his own {i.e. Chronos’} keeping. (32) So this younger son, the sensible Cosmos set in motion, brought that entity we call Time to the brightness of it’s rising.

First Power: Father/Craftsman/Demiurge, Guardian of the All-Cosmos.
Second Power (First Son): First Chronos, Administrator of Intelligible Cosmos.
Third Power (Second Son): Second Chronos, Master of Perceptible Cosmos.
Fourth Power: Manifest/Material Reality/Actual Time, Sunrise/Sunset, etc.
a) Caveat lector! Philo Judaeus is inconsistent. This may well be his very own rationalization, NOT a pre-existent cult schema. Is Philo trying to organize the Sanchuniathon? I'm uncertain. But as one example of Philo's hypostases, there may be a mature intellectual older son and one immature sensual younger; see Ed. Felix Albrecht, Reinhard Feldmeier, The Divine Father: Religious and Philosophical Concepts of Divine Parenthood in Antiquity [2014], p.7:
Philo relates this designation {i.e. theos vs. kurios} to varied themes, such as cosmology, anthropology, and psychology. The allegorical exposition of the father-child relationship displays a great variety: the 'son of God' can be the soul that learns by itself and the character that is integrated into the order established by God, but also the Logos and the Cosmos; the intellectually perceptible Cosmos can be called the elder son, and the sensuously perceptible Cosmos the younger son.

b) Proclus has a mother of sorts, but much later. See ed. Lucas Siorvanes, Proclus: Neo-Platonic Philosophy and Science (link) for the later development, though perhaps NOT unrelated to some re-interpretation of the Philonic system?

c) However, if Philo is working from Sanchuniathon in the schema above, preserving some ethnographic/anthropological data, then Ieoud/ledud does look like an obvious precursor to the Christos (Sacrificial Son) myth.

Hastings' Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics: Vol.11 'Sacrifice-Sudra' [1921]:
The children of Ouranos were (5) Elos = El, ‘god’; Philo B. translates Kronos (i.e. Saturn), in imitation of Hesiod, makes the Titan Kronos the son of Ouranos; he was the builder of the temple and of the city of Byblos ; (6) Baitulos = Beth-ěl, 'abode of deity,' i.e. a xxxx, or standing-stone inhabited by a god; in Praep. Evang. 37d Sanchuniathon expresses the same idea when he says that Ouranos devised the baitulia, having contrived to put life into stones; … {lists all the children of Ouranos} … In company with his brothers and sisters, El {Kronos} waged war on his father, the Sky, and eventually succeeded in emasculating him with a sickle, so that his blood stains the waters of the rivers of Phoenicia to this day. This is the counterpart of the war of the gods of light and order against the forces of chaos in the Babylonian creation epic and in the OT, and of Zeus's victory over the older gods in Hesiod, where also the sickle and the emasculation appear, only in Hesiod it is the children of Kronos who overthrow him, while here Kronos and his brethren overthrow their father Ouranos. Sanchuniathon adds that the allies of Ēl were called Eloim, i.e. Elohim, ‘gods.’
The children of El (Kronos) were as follows: …(19) Sadidos= Shaddai (Phoen. xx in XXX = XXXX), 'client of Shaddai'), whom El slew with the sword; … (26) Kronos (or El) of the same name as his father; … (31) by the nymph Anobret = ‘En-’obereth, ‘overflowing spring’ or or 'En-hobereth, ‘uniting spring,’ he had an only begotten son called ledud (Heb. yedid, ‘beloved’); in a time of great danger El arrayed this son in royal apparel, prepared an altar, and sacrificed him. It has often been claimed that this story is based upon the Biblical narrative of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, especially because it was found in Sanchuniathon's History of the Jews, but there is no evidence of any direct connexion. More probably both stories go back to some common early Canaanite original.

So, where Hellenistic names are maintained:
First God = Ouranos
Second God = Kronos #1 = El (Kronos, Sr.)
Third God = Kronos #2 (Kronos, Jr.) --- OR ---

(Phoenician names and variant myths may substitute)
Third God = Shaddai (older myth: Amorite deity, c.900-600 BC?), THEN 'Yahweh' (700-400 BC?) --- OR ---
Third God = Ieoud/ledud (younger myth: 50 BC??) or Iedoud

I can't find much on this last and late 'Lebanese' god who seems more like Adam Kadmon to me. If older, I could imagine these two gods as the 'brothers' in the conflated Judeo-Hermetic mythos of Poemandres: Logos/(Yahweh) and Anthropos (Ieoud). But I see Ieoud as a too-late arrival to make that connection, and I am very doubtful 'Phoenician' (Philistine) gods were entering Egypt in any influential way c.150 BC or thereafter.

We are told Ieoud is descended from a spring goddess Anobret and Kronos. Strong clues, here! The Abraham/Adonis River matches the Ouranos/Kronos myth above, and it would be a 14mi. pilgrimmage from Byblos to the source. From wikipedia: "The ancient city of Byblos stood near its outlet and was a site for the veneration of Adonis, the god of love, rebirth ... According to the myth, Adonis's blood flowed in the river, making the water reddish for centuries ... Indeed, the river flows red each February due to the volume of soil washed off the mountains by heavy winter rains, making it appear that the water is filled with blood." If I had to guess, Anobret sounds like a goddess associated with the Afqa caverns, source of the Adonis River. Aphaca. So the study (link) indicates: "the child Adonis {i.e. Ieoud} emerged. He was reared by Aphrodite Aphakitis {i.e. Astarte/Anobret}". Fertility gods of the Lebanese mountains - has no one identified that Adonis = Ieoud previously?

If I understand the Moses Myth correctly, Shaddai gets replaced by 'Yahweh' in the Sinai by Midianites, probably c.600-400 BC. Y. is from Iahu, Iao; analogous to the much later Phoenician Ieoud/ledud, maybe. Is this analogue Ieoud/Iedud also a solar deity? The 'coming son' 'something to come' etc. evokes the ever-coming (and ever-dying) day, and this explanation (Gerald Massey's Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World (Vol.1) [1907/2008]) makes sense to me. As Massey [1907], p.499 says: "Iah {viz., Yahweh?} is portrayed as the god who is operative, audible, and visible in material phenomena. His are the mighty deeds. He is the manifestor for the Father {viz., El Elyon?}, the opener of Amenta in the solar mythos." I'm still processing this, all the above, subject to change. But I not seeing a clear demonstration that Philo is arranging and clarifying the 'geneaology' of three or four Byblos gods in an (his own?) ethnographic schematization as indicated below.

d) Doubtful about the implied dating in Eusebius (c.315 AD): he claims the Phœnicians still worshiped Ieoud? Not plausible, but this recalls Moses at the circumcision point re-entering Egypt: Eusebius of Caesarea, Praeparatio Evangelica, Book 1 c.10.— Book 4.
[PORPHYRY] “Kronos offers his only begotten son as a whole burnt-offering to his father Ouranus, and circumcises himself, compelling his allies also to do the same.”

[PORPHYRY] 'Of the affairs of the Jews the truest history, because the most in accordance with their places and names, is that of Sanchuniathon of Berytus, who received the records from Hierombalus {Jerubbaal?} the priest of the god Ieuo; he dedicated his history to Abibalus {Abibaal? 900 BC} king of Berytus, and was approved by him and by the investigators of truth in his time.

I'm not buying this imagined continuity of +1200 years.
For Kronos, whom the Phœnicians call El, and who after his death was deified and instated in the planet which bears his name, when king, had by a nymph of the country called Anobret an only son, who on that account is styled Ieoud, for so the Phœnicians still call an only son: and when great dangers from war beset the land he adorned the altar, and invested this son with the emblems of royalty, and sacrificed him.

Of dubious value, but more context? George Rawlinson, History of Phoenicia [1889]
Adonis was probably, like Hadad, originally a sun-god; but the myths connected with him gave him, at any rate in the late Phoenician times, a very distinct and definite personality. He was made the son of Cinryas, a mythic king of Byblus, and the husband of Astarte or Ashtoreth. ... Henceforth he was mourned annually. At the turn of the summer solstice, the anniversary of his death, all the women of Byblus went in a wild procession to Aphaca, in the Lebanon, where his temple stood, and wept and wailed on account of his death. The river, which his blood had once actually stained, turned red to show its sympathy with the mourners, and was thought to flow with his blood afresh. After the "weeping for Tammuz" had continued for a definite time, the mourning terminated with the burial of an image of the god in the sacred precinct. Next day Adonis was supposed to return to life; his image was disinterred and carried back to the temple with music and dances, and every circumstance of rejoicing. Wild orgies followed, and Aphaca became notorious for scenes to which it will be necessary to recur hereafter. The Adonis myth is generally explained as representing either the perpetually recurrent decay and recovery of nature, or the declension of the Sun as he moves from the summer to the winter constellations, and his subsequent return and reappearance in all his strength. But myths obtained a powerful hold on ancient imaginations, and the worshippers of Adonis probably in most cases forgot the symbolical character of his cult, and looked on him as a divine or heroic personage, who had actually gone through all the adventures ascribed to him in the legend. Hence the peculiarly local character of his worship, of which we find traces only at Byblus and at Jerusalem.

Cinyras goes back to c.800-600 BC as a possibly real king (I suppose); he is not deified, but he 'adopts' the Greek deity Adonis. In this area of Lebanon, it would descend approximately:

Byblos:________________________________ Tyre _______________________________________ Hellenized ___________
Tammuz: c.2600 - 1100 BC ............ 'Ouranos': .................................................. Epigeius/Autochthon/Ouranos;
.............................................. Baal-Hadad: c.1300- c.900 BC ......................... Ouranos #2
Adon: c.1200 BC - ....................... Baal-Shamin-Zeus Demarous/El: c.1000-500 BC ..... Kronos/El
Adonis c.400 BC - c.225 AD ............ Baal-Melqart: c.600 BC - ................................ Kronos #2
Ieoud? c.50 BC - c.300 AD .............. Melqart-Hercules: c.400 BC - .......................... Ieoud? c.50 BC - c.300 AD

Anobret's source? The Afqa Grotto/Waterfall in the Byblos District of Lebanon.
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Re: God as Chronos in Philo, Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis 30ff

Post by yakovzutolmai »

Adonis is equated with Hadad consciously, isn't he? At least, via Tammuz?

Also, one can't help but note the parallels of Osiris with Adonis considering their relationship with the underworld. In Egypt, Osiris is a grain god and Set would be the outsider and perhaps the shepherd. Set kills Osiris. Yet, Cain is the grain grower, Abel the shepherd. We do read of the Hyksos venerating Set/Seth over Osiris, so we can explain the inversion that way. There's also the link of Kothar-wa-Khasis, said to live in Egypt, with Ptah. In this way we should draw parallels between the Memphis and Byblos cults.

I wanted to reemphasize this because I think there's more than a genealogical relationship here. I wouldn't imagine that Phoenician folk traditions or Sanchuthion are sources for the Ieoud myth. Rather, they are recipients of a larger mythos. It does appear to be astro-theology, explaining patterns in the stars. Philo is applying a philosophical veneer to it.

We have to imagine that Philo would have had access to texts and understandings of these myths which we do not.

In the myths we have, Hadad is both the sacrificed son, and later sets up his own son as sacrifice. Either this is an idiosyncrasy of the popularity of Hadad in Canaan, or there is a conscious sense of Hadad's cyclical existence, where he is his own son and sacrifices himself. This kind of thinking is also applies to the esoteric moon goddess, who as an old crone (whore) reverts to a young virgin.

Byblos is almost certainly an original cult center for some of these ideas, and the legends of Ba'al Hadad's palace - which so closely parallel the story of Solomon's temple - assert the possibility that this is actually a memory of whatever megalithic structure had been built at Baalbek. The impressive size of the foundation stones there lead me to think that the description of the temple may be literally accurate - with its cedars and gold at scale.

There's also the priesthood of Ieuo in Phoenicia, mentioned a few times. I lost the context, but I had the impression that this was mentioned unabashedly in connection with Yahweh. That Phoenicia had its own Yahweh priests?? I suppose something that monumental would be more easily remembered, then again, apologists quickly discount what they don't like.

Either way, we can probably see Hadad as Adonis. This makes him a candidate for both the god of Israel (golden calf) and Yahweh (Ieoud). We can explain the connection to Shaddai/Dagon/Koze rather easily. The Israelites priests ran around asserting these were all Yahweh. Perhaps if we understood their conception of Yahweh better, we would know what their argument was. The Elohist texts appear to have originally been obviously polytheistic, so I don't think these early Israelites were monotheists. They likely had a theology which spoke of Yahweh having many faces or moods.

A final line of historical thinking will complicate this thought process, but I also see Daedalus as a parallel to Ptah/Kothar-wa-Khasis. The Minotaur is a bizarre interpretation of the Apis Bull or the golden calf of Hadad. The Daedalus myths do have him ending his life in Egypt on an island with suspicious similarity to Memphis. Nevertheless, after his flight with Icarus (another beloved son, done in, with a solar connection - and a winged solar disc typography invoked), Daedalus is said to have spent time in Sicily.

The Shekelesh, one of the Sea Peoples, are speculated to have come from Sicily. So my hypothesis is that Minos myths derive from a branch of the Byblos priesthood - a proto-Phoenician cousin aristocracy - who were associated with the court of Knossos. These fled the Mycenaeans to Sicily, and later migrated to Canaan during the Sea Peoples' invasion. They formed the core of the Levite priesthood, treating our "Ieoud" as more of an ocean deity than a solar one. The Menorah itself reminds of a seven headed serpent.

There is some genetic evidence for this. There are three clusters of Jewish genetic groups - Yemeni/African, Iraqi/Armenian, and Ashkenazi. The Iraqi group is clustered with Levantine peoples. The Ashkenazi group is clustered with Sicily/S.Italy/Malta. Which isn't to suggest that Southern Italians are descended from proto-Phoenicians, but perhaps a group of aristocrats from Crete were leading Sicilians in an invasion of Canaan. This group became the core which was devoted to the Levitical priesthood. This may also explain the later Jewish/Samaritan divide, among other things.

So, you have Hadad-as-Cronus, calling every tribal group's local mountain god "Yahweh", and a foreign group devoted to a sea god. The three in composite are the Jewish Yahweh.

Philo is looking at Egyptian, Phoenician and Babylonian myths. Maybe he has been educated in ancient Jewish esoterica. Then, he's building a Greek-style philosophical system around it.

Even so, as you have attempted, we might be able to link elements of his philosophy to known Phoenician or Canaanite mythotypes. I'm curious about the generations of the gods and why they stop at a certain point. You've alluded to Philo's treatment of this. I know in Japanese religion, there's an explicit philosophical interpretation (which seems to be the case with most pantheistic religions, which the proto-semitic religion seems to have been; Anobret, Pan and Baneas, and the stars as parallels to the animistic order of the Earth).
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Re: Ieoud/ledud

Post by yakovzutolmai »

Adonis comes from Adon (Adonai). Interesting.

Also: Atum/Adam/Adon. I'm certain there is a common origin, or at least at some point ancient peoples would have thought these were certainly referring to the same deity, or if not, only because the locals meant to refer to the same deity and became confused.

It appears as if there is certainly Adam Kadmon as Cronus, the fulfillment of creation and son of Ouranos. Who is Atum-Ra and Abraham. Then there is the second Adam, Hadad, who is our Abel/Seth or in Egypt, Osiris. Both father and son usurp their elder after first being a sacrifice towards his victory.

There's also the implication that Atum-Ra is our second generation Adonis, and Osiris is the third generation who has yet to usurp the father. Cronus being the planet Saturn, its distant station and diminished light next to the Sun being evidence of the past usurpation.

This sets up a nice triad.

God-Who-Was - God-Who-Is - God-To-Come

Cronus - Atum-Ra - Christ

Cronus being a good candidate for the Poseidon of the Atlantis myth (and thus, the God of Leviathan), making Atlas the "pillar" of the present, and Hercules as our "god among us".

The Apis Bull and later Serapis as the son of Ra highlights the link between Serapis and the Son of God type.
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