User:Ioe bidome/Documentary hypothesis

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Notable sections[edit]

Priestly[edit]

  • The first Genesis creation narrative.[1]:23
  • The genealogies[1]:23-4, 27-8
  • Parts of the Global flood narrative, specifically:[1]:25-27, 96
    • No distinction between clean and unclean animals is made
    • The flood lasts one year and 10 days
    • structured in periods of 150 days instead of 40
  • The covenant of Abraham in Genesis 17:1[1]:29-30
  • Twelve sons of Jacob[1]:33
  • Jacob fleeing to Egypt[1]:35
  • Parts of the plagues of Egypt [1]:38-39
  • Parts of the red sea crossing [1]:40-41
  • Instructions for various things told by God to Moses on mount Sinai[1]:43-60
  • Most of Leviticus[1]:61
  • A small section at the end of Deuteronomy where Moses dies[1]:90[2]:445-7
  • A small section of Joshua, specifically Joshua 21:43-45 [2]:455-7

Yahwist[edit]

  • The garden of Eden story and the fall of man. [1]:93-4
  • The story of Cain and Abel [1]:94-5
  • Sections of the flood narrative[1]:96
    • A distinction between clean and unclean animals is made
    • Structured in periods of 40 days instead of 150
  • The curse of ham [1]:97
  • Most of the "peopling" of the earth found in Genesis 10:10-30[1]:98
  • The Tower of Babel[1]:98

References[edit]

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 Campbell, Antony F. (1993). Sources of the Pentateuch : texts, introductions, annotations. Internet Archive. Minneapolis : Fortress Press. ISBN 978-0-8006-2701-0. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Gaines, Jason M. H. (2015). The Poetic Priestly Source. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. ISBN 978-1-4514-9436-5. 

Polytheism in the old testament[edit]

There relationship between polytheism and the Old Testament is complex. The Israelites originally worshipped the same Canaanite pantheon as their neighbors, but as Yahweh became prominent it became less and less acceptable to worship the other gods. The oldest sections of the Old Testament accepted polytheism, but later sections do not.

The Canaanite pantheon[edit]

The chief god of the Canaanite pantheon was El. He is present in many theophoric (literally, "god-carrying") names like Michael, Samuel, Elijah, Joel, Immanuel, Daniel, etc. and in the very name Israel itself.[note 1]

Traces in the Bible[edit]

Deuteronomy 32:8-9[edit]

In Deuteronomy 32:8-9 we get this bizarre statement:

(8)When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

(9)For the LORD's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

In the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint, the verse is slightly different, with "sons of Israel" replaced by "divine sons". The fact that Yahweh was given an inheritance implies he was not the top god. It also implies the existence of other gods.[1]:48-9

One more interesting detail: If you count the number of people given in the genealogy sections of Genesis 10:1-32, it adds up to seventy. According to Ugaritic texts, El had seventy sons.[1]:55 This number of sons matches the number of countries, which supports the interpretation that Yahweh was only one god among many.

Mentions of "we" in Genesis[edit]

In Genesis 1:26 says "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness", in Genesis 11:7 he says "Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech" and in Genesis 3:22 god says "Behold, the man is become as one of us." Who is the "us" or "we" in these passages? Some Christians will claim that it's the trinity, a royal we, or to angels. But the trinity was not a doctrine in ancient Israel, and the royal we did not exist in Hebrew either. These are also the only passages like this.

The consensus of scholars is that Genesis 11:1-9 and Genesis 3:22 were from the Yahwist source, which was henotheistic, while the first genesis creation myth is from the priestly source, which was monotheistic.[2]:260, 261

"Lord" and "god"[edit]

There is a weird trend where there is both "lord" and "god". The two are equated in Genesis 2[3] Genesis 3,[4] and elsewhere with "Lord god".

The phrase "god almighty", a translation of "El Shaddai", appears several times.[5]In Exodus 6:3, God says he used the name God Almighty in front of the Patriarchs.

Stages of acceptance[edit]

Acceptance[edit]

Tolerance[edit]

The first commandment does not technically ban the worship of other gods, but only their worship "above" Yahweh. In other words, Yahweh was the most important god, but you could still worship other gods.

Condemnation[edit]

Counter-arguments[edit]

All the instances of "we" refer to the holy trinity[edit]

They were tricked into worshipping demons[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. Fun fact: if Yahweh had always been the chief god of Israel, the name would be something like *Israiah[1]:142-3

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Smith, Mark S. (2001). The origins of biblical monotheism: Israel's polytheistic background and the Ugaritic texts. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-513480-3. 
  2. Campbell, Antony F. (1993). Sources of the Pentateuch : texts, introductions, annotations. Internet Archive. Minneapolis : Fortress Press. ISBN 978-0-8006-2701-0. 
  3. Genesis 2:4, Genesis 2:5, Genesis 2:7, Genesis 2:8, Genesis 2:9, Genesis 2:15, Genesis 2:16, Genesis 2:18, Genesis 2:19, Genesis 2:21, Genesis 2:22
  4. Genesis 3:1, Genesis 3:1, Genesis 3:8, Genesis 3:9, Genesis 3:13, Genesis 3:14, Genesis 3:21, Genesis 3:22, Genesis 3:23
  5. Genesis 17:1, Genesis 28:3, Genesis 35:11, Genesis 43:14, Genesis 48:3, Genesis 49:25,

Sources[edit]