yegads: Holy Moses, Thoth!
Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 11:58 am
Search of the Forums shows this hasn't been discussed, ever? That Moses=Thoth theory.
I have no knowledge of the state of Moses scholarship, but recent articles in the Israeli media suggest the myth of the my childhood has taken a beating. That dirty Egyptian, lol. I for one always loved the Moses stories, but like everything in the Bible, considered it simple myth (=silly stories).
I'm not so blithe in my disregard of outlier opinions on such myths these days, however, especially by any well-educated respectable 19th C. theologian who meticulously crafted his arguments with footnotes - only to be scorned by the outraged academy of his day, 'HOW VERY DARE YOU!'
Daniel Völter’s Jahwe und Mose im Licht aegyptischer Parallelen [1919] **HathitTrust Link** is one of those theological 'early' studies that offended all religious folks and so was binned outright. Hmmm... is it time for a re-appraisal?
Typical of the grossly oversimplified and unfair dismissal (Patrick Boylan, [1922], p.150f)
That pesky great mass of clever arguments, right?! THE IMPERTINENCE ... well, why not? If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck, swims like a duck...
* I have not confirmed Boylan's characterization of Völter's position is accurate. But scholarly consensus accepts that Har-Sopd = Hor-Sopdu (or Har-Septu) became 'Horus' (c.1300 BC?) in the Eastern Desert. There is currently no agreement what god(s) the Midianites worshipped. I'm also unsure what the status of the 'Kenite Hypothesis' is today. In short, Yahweh's origin from these small, obscure tribal gods is yet unproven (however probable).
Of Yahweh, wiki says:
fwiw, here is a 1973 Thesis, "Comparative Analyses of the Attributes of Yahweh and Ra."
I have no knowledge of the state of Moses scholarship, but recent articles in the Israeli media suggest the myth of the my childhood has taken a beating. That dirty Egyptian, lol. I for one always loved the Moses stories, but like everything in the Bible, considered it simple myth (=silly stories).
I'm not so blithe in my disregard of outlier opinions on such myths these days, however, especially by any well-educated respectable 19th C. theologian who meticulously crafted his arguments with footnotes - only to be scorned by the outraged academy of his day, 'HOW VERY DARE YOU!'
Daniel Völter’s Jahwe und Mose im Licht aegyptischer Parallelen [1919] **HathitTrust Link** is one of those theological 'early' studies that offended all religious folks and so was binned outright. Hmmm... is it time for a re-appraisal?
Typical of the grossly oversimplified and unfair dismissal (Patrick Boylan, [1922], p.150f)
Students of the history of religions will probably be familiar with Daniel Völter’s attempt to argue from the presence of Thoth-worship in Sinai to a connection between the Hebrew leader Moses and Thoth. In his book on the Hebrew Patriarchs (Die Patriarchen Israels und die ägyptische Mythologie[1912]), and in his recent pamphlets, Wer War Mose? [1913] GoogleBooks Link, and Jahwe und Mose im Licht aegyptischer Parallelen [1919] (both published by Brill, Leyden) Völter has brought together a great mass of arguments to show that the Hebrew God Yahweh is really a form of the Egyptian god Har-Sopd*, and that Moses is a form of Thoth. The presence of Hathor in Sinai Völter associates with the legends of the Eye of the sun-god (Horus) which was brought back to Egypt by Thoth. The story of Moses and Zippora is but an attempt, according to Völter, to give a historical form to the legend of Thoth and Hathor. The speculations of Völter are often highly ingenious, but they are, for the most part, quite out of all relation with facts, and do not deserve to be seriously discussed.
That pesky great mass of clever arguments, right?! THE IMPERTINENCE ... well, why not? If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck, swims like a duck...
* I have not confirmed Boylan's characterization of Völter's position is accurate. But scholarly consensus accepts that Har-Sopd = Hor-Sopdu (or Har-Septu) became 'Horus' (c.1300 BC?) in the Eastern Desert. There is currently no agreement what god(s) the Midianites worshipped. I'm also unsure what the status of the 'Kenite Hypothesis' is today. In short, Yahweh's origin from these small, obscure tribal gods is yet unproven (however probable).
Sopdu (Soped, Sopedu) was a god of war associated with the eastern borders and the eastern Desert, known as the “lord of the east”. He was sometimes associated with the planet Venus, but was generally a solar god, closely associated with the sun, which rises in the east, and represented the scorching heat of the sun.
Of Yahweh, wiki says:
It is unclear how, where, or why Yahweh appeared in the Levant; even his name is a point of confusion. The exact date of this occurrence is also ambiguous: the term Israel first enters historical records in the 13th century BCE with the Merneptah Stele, and while the worship of Yahweh is circumstantially attested to as early as the 12th century BCE, there is no attestation or record of even Yahweh's name, let alone his origin or character, until more than five-hundred years later, with the Mesha Stele (9th century BCE).
fwiw, here is a 1973 Thesis, "Comparative Analyses of the Attributes of Yahweh and Ra."