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Cool! In that case, let me ask you: what books would you recommend on the topic?

agaj-nimm 2mo ago
Ancient history scholarship is very accessible, most of it is published on periodicals that offer free download of articles. I recommend searching books and articles about 'canaanite religion' - the cult of El, Baal and Yaveh have a lot in common. You need to understand the context of Israelite religion to realize that modern monotheism wasn't created in a vacuum, it matured out of a deep tradition of local cults. I'd also recommend looking into Mesopotamian religions. Egyptian religion is not as fundamental but it provides a lot of perspective. Once you see the influence, it sheds light on a lot of things. The relationship between the cults of Set and the conflicting beliefs of followers of El and Baal is a fascinating rabbit hole. Greek mythology also acquires a whole new depth to it when you realize that Baal (a canaanite deity), El (an israelite deity that eventually merges with some others into the monotheistic god) and Zeus: all were storm gods. There's a lot more to it all I'm saying, again, look into that. Fascinating stuff. There is an amazing channel on youtube I wholeheartedly recommend: Esoterica https://www.youtube.com/@TheEsotericaChannel https://www.youtube.com/@TheEsotericaChannel A couple of good books I still remember are Belief by Orsi and Ancient Israel by Lemche. Some journals off the top of my head: Religion Compass https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17498171/current https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17498171/current Journal of the American Society for Premodern Asia https://lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/jaos https://lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/jaos I'd say go on Semantic Scholar, Academia.edu, or some other academic search tool and start digging! Bible authorship is a minor branch of a deep well of scholarship that is the study of ancient history and ancient religion.
- PretzelPirate 2mo ago
  > El (an israelite deity that eventually merges with some others into the monotheistic god) It's my understanding that both Baal and El were Canaanite deities and that the Israelite cults brought their storm god Yahweh with them to Canaan and eventually he absorbed features of the Canaanite gods.
  - agaj-nimm 2mo ago
    El and Baal both mean something like 'lord'. We don't really know much about these entities. There are fragments of inscriptions that could be read as 'lord of the city' for example just as easily as naming some deity. Israel means roughly 'lords' struggle': Isra El. Like I mentioned elsewhere, we know very little and what evidence we have is fragmentary. Thinking about possible interpretations of and links among what evidence we have is fascinating and every so often we might see a constellation of data points shedding light on events of 2500 years ago or so, but it's important to realize that the gaps in our knowledge of what happened in the iron age are much, much bigger than what we actually know.

Ancient history scholarship is very accessible, most of it is published on periodicals that offer free download of articles. I recommend searching books and articles about 'canaanite religion' - the cult of El, Baal and Yaveh have a lot in common. You need to understand the context of Israelite religion to realize that modern monotheism wasn't created in a vacuum, it matured out of a deep tradition of local cults. I'd also recommend looking into Mesopotamian religions. Egyptian religion is not as fundamental but it provides a lot of perspective. Once you see the influence, it sheds light on a lot of things. The relationship between the cults of Set and the conflicting beliefs of followers of El and Baal is a fascinating rabbit hole. Greek mythology also acquires a whole new depth to it when you realize that Baal (a canaanite deity), El (an israelite deity that eventually merges with some others into the monotheistic god) and Zeus: all were storm gods. There's a lot more to it all I'm saying, again, look into that. Fascinating stuff. There is an amazing channel on youtube I wholeheartedly recommend: Esoterica https://www.youtube.com/@TheEsotericaChannel https://www.youtube.com/@TheEsotericaChannel A couple of good books I still remember are Belief by Orsi and Ancient Israel by Lemche. Some journals off the top of my head: Religion Compass https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17498171/current https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17498171/current Journal of the American Society for Premodern Asia https://lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/jaos https://lockwoodonlinejournals.com/index.php/jaos I'd say go on Semantic Scholar, Academia.edu, or some other academic search tool and start digging! Bible authorship is a minor branch of a deep well of scholarship that is the study of ancient history and ancient religion.

PretzelPirate 2mo ago
> El (an israelite deity that eventually merges with some others into the monotheistic god) It's my understanding that both Baal and El were Canaanite deities and that the Israelite cults brought their storm god Yahweh with them to Canaan and eventually he absorbed features of the Canaanite gods.
- agaj-nimm 2mo ago
  El and Baal both mean something like 'lord'. We don't really know much about these entities. There are fragments of inscriptions that could be read as 'lord of the city' for example just as easily as naming some deity. Israel means roughly 'lords' struggle': Isra El. Like I mentioned elsewhere, we know very little and what evidence we have is fragmentary. Thinking about possible interpretations of and links among what evidence we have is fascinating and every so often we might see a constellation of data points shedding light on events of 2500 years ago or so, but it's important to realize that the gaps in our knowledge of what happened in the iron age are much, much bigger than what we actually know.