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Israel's religion began its transition to monotheism a very long time after the period when this script was in use. Anyway, I think your approach sounds better
by xhevahir 4y ago
Israel's religion began its transition to monotheism a very long time after the period when this script was in use. Anyway, I think your approach sounds better suited to languages than to religions.
- edgyquant 4y agoThat’s true but try also 1) Nothing says they can’t have had a similar religion (at least the early YHWH cultists) where there’s many gods but one overarching force. But also 2. YHWH is not a member of that pantheistic hierarchy. He is a foreign god theorized to have been imported by a merchant class. It is YHWH worship I find connections with not (necessarily) the ancient Levantine religion. Anyway it’s not my approach, just a playful intuition.
- ncmncm 4y agoThe early Canaanite Yahweh had a wife and equal, Asherah, goddess of cakes, etc. The misogynist Hebrews demoted her to a stick, which they could not eliminate because she was still essential to important rituals, for centuries after. (Evidently a stick sufficed.) They finally managed, but there are still traces in the Torah, hard to scrub out. After the Temple was razed c.70 CE, none of the rituals could be worked anymore, anyhow.