After reading chapter 5:
*Eliphaz is still talking, blathering in my opinion. He goes on about how man is born to trouble, while subtlely implying that Job is resentful and foolish. He asks Job which one of the "holy ones" will he turn to? Who will answer if he calls. (We already know nobody will.)
*Eliphaz goes on to say if he were Job, he would appeal to God. This makes sense if we look at it as Eliphaz giving Job advice as to which "Holy one" he should call on. The literal translation of verse 8 is "For I would seek unto God (el) and unto God (elohim) would I commit my cause." Isn't this interesting? There are two words that are both translated God in this sentence, but they are not the same word! The first, el, is the name of the Canaanite high God. The second, elohim, could mean "the gods", it is a collective singular noun. We could read Eliphaz's statement as a suggestion that Job appeal to El and the council of all the gods. Job is not told to call on the lord (yahweh).
*Next, in the English NIV, from verses 9-15, we read about boundless number of wonderful things that "he" does. Who or what is he? El or the collective group of the gods? He makes things right by correcting injustices. He brings down the wicked and lifts up the poor and needy. Since when? Seems to me there has never been a time that supernatural justice could be counted upon.
*In verse 17 Eliphaz tells job, "blessed is the man that God (elowah ) corrects. So do not despise the discipline of the almighty." He seems to imply that Job probably deserves what he is getting in some way. Then Eliphaz says this almighty wounds and injures but also binds up and heals. (Sounds abusive)Then he goes on to talk about the wonderful ways this almighty saves people from calamities and protects them and their belongings. Eliphaz knows it is true because he has examined it. (Sigh) So, Job needs to hear these words and apply them to himself. Just how is he supposed to do that?
*I sighed because someone in my life right now sounds like this. That person just "knows" the truth because of their personal experience. Forget the outside evidence that it is not true. Forget the reality of life for the rest of the world.
Showing posts with label El. Show all posts
Showing posts with label El. Show all posts
Friday, July 29, 2016
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Exodus chapter 6 Part 1
After reading chapter 6:
*Yaweh says now Moses will see what he will do to Pharoah to make him let the Israelites go. Oh, and by the way, he is the same God that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob worshipped. They just called him something else, "God almighty," not Yahweh. He's the god that made the covenant to give them the land of Canaan. After hearing the trouble the Israelites were in, he remembered the covenant.
*The word God in God almighty is another form of El, the Canaanite high God. Of course the God of the land of Canaan could decide who he wanted to live in that land, right? What the bible does not tell you is that many gods in ancient times were generally fixtures of geography. Egyptian gods would be worshipped in Egypt, Canaanite gods would be worshipped in Canaan. There were also times when one people group would say to another, hey this particular God of yours looks just like that particular God of mine, they must be the same God! This happened to the Greeks and Romans, because the Romans happened to admire Greek culture. Yahweh says he's the same God as El. We will see later that Israelites definitely do not admire Canaanite culture, but they claim the land as their own, and generally speaking, the land comes with its own God. What we see from a purely historical point of view is that gods evolve along with culture.
*Continuing on with the story, Yahweh tells Moses to tell the Israelites that he is going to be their God and will take them out of Egypt to the land he promised their forefathers. Moses told them, but they did not listen to him. Can you blame them? Then Yahweh tells Moses to go talk to Pharoah again. Moses does not want to go. Can you blame him? Why doesn't God talk directly to the Israelites or Pharoah? Why go through all this nonsense? Why can't they worship him in Egypt? These questions are unanswerable, unless you make up your own answers. Faith supplies answers that don't exist.
*Yaweh says now Moses will see what he will do to Pharoah to make him let the Israelites go. Oh, and by the way, he is the same God that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob worshipped. They just called him something else, "God almighty," not Yahweh. He's the god that made the covenant to give them the land of Canaan. After hearing the trouble the Israelites were in, he remembered the covenant.
*The word God in God almighty is another form of El, the Canaanite high God. Of course the God of the land of Canaan could decide who he wanted to live in that land, right? What the bible does not tell you is that many gods in ancient times were generally fixtures of geography. Egyptian gods would be worshipped in Egypt, Canaanite gods would be worshipped in Canaan. There were also times when one people group would say to another, hey this particular God of yours looks just like that particular God of mine, they must be the same God! This happened to the Greeks and Romans, because the Romans happened to admire Greek culture. Yahweh says he's the same God as El. We will see later that Israelites definitely do not admire Canaanite culture, but they claim the land as their own, and generally speaking, the land comes with its own God. What we see from a purely historical point of view is that gods evolve along with culture.
*Continuing on with the story, Yahweh tells Moses to tell the Israelites that he is going to be their God and will take them out of Egypt to the land he promised their forefathers. Moses told them, but they did not listen to him. Can you blame them? Then Yahweh tells Moses to go talk to Pharoah again. Moses does not want to go. Can you blame him? Why doesn't God talk directly to the Israelites or Pharoah? Why go through all this nonsense? Why can't they worship him in Egypt? These questions are unanswerable, unless you make up your own answers. Faith supplies answers that don't exist.
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Exodus chapter 2
After reading chapter 2:
*At this time, a Levite man married a woman, also from the tribe of Levi. This will be important later. My question is, how did a bunch of illiterate shepherds keep track of who belonged to which of the original 12 tribes, especially over a span of 400 years? Think of the difficulty we have today tracing our ancestors back even 200 years. That is with physical records and technology.
*The Levite woman had a baby boy and hid him for three months. Then she put him in a waterproofed basket and set him in the river among the reeds. His sister stayed nearby to watch what happened. The Pharoah's daughter came to the river to bathe, and saw the baby. She felt sorry for him. The baby's sister volunteered to go get someone to nurse him, then ran off and got her mother. Clever! So the baby's mother was paid to nurse her own child. When he grew old enough, he was taken to the Pharoah's daughter and became her adopted son. She named him Moses.
*When Moses was grown, he apparently knew he was an Israelite. When he saw one of his own people being beaten, he secretly killed the offender, or so he thought. Later, when he tried to break up a fight between two Israelites, they asked why they should listen to him, a murderer. Pharoah heard of it and tried to kill Moses, but he ran away to Midian. There he met seven shepherd girls at a well and defended them from some rude shepherd men. (Wells were obviously a great place to meet women in ancient times.) When the girls got home, they told their father Reu-el a Midianite priest, about Moses. He was invited to eat with the family and ended up staying and marrying Ruel's daughter Zipporah. They had a son together.
*Meanwhile the Pharoah died and was replaced. The Israelites were still being oppressed and cried out to God, who remembered his promise to Abraham and became concerned. It was about time!
*The el at the end of Reuel's name tells which God he worshipped. Sticking the name of your God at the end of people and place names was common throughout that whole region. We see it in Egypt as well with names that end in ra, aten, and amun.
*At this time, a Levite man married a woman, also from the tribe of Levi. This will be important later. My question is, how did a bunch of illiterate shepherds keep track of who belonged to which of the original 12 tribes, especially over a span of 400 years? Think of the difficulty we have today tracing our ancestors back even 200 years. That is with physical records and technology.
*The Levite woman had a baby boy and hid him for three months. Then she put him in a waterproofed basket and set him in the river among the reeds. His sister stayed nearby to watch what happened. The Pharoah's daughter came to the river to bathe, and saw the baby. She felt sorry for him. The baby's sister volunteered to go get someone to nurse him, then ran off and got her mother. Clever! So the baby's mother was paid to nurse her own child. When he grew old enough, he was taken to the Pharoah's daughter and became her adopted son. She named him Moses.
*When Moses was grown, he apparently knew he was an Israelite. When he saw one of his own people being beaten, he secretly killed the offender, or so he thought. Later, when he tried to break up a fight between two Israelites, they asked why they should listen to him, a murderer. Pharoah heard of it and tried to kill Moses, but he ran away to Midian. There he met seven shepherd girls at a well and defended them from some rude shepherd men. (Wells were obviously a great place to meet women in ancient times.) When the girls got home, they told their father Reu-el a Midianite priest, about Moses. He was invited to eat with the family and ended up staying and marrying Ruel's daughter Zipporah. They had a son together.
*Meanwhile the Pharoah died and was replaced. The Israelites were still being oppressed and cried out to God, who remembered his promise to Abraham and became concerned. It was about time!
*The el at the end of Reuel's name tells which God he worshipped. Sticking the name of your God at the end of people and place names was common throughout that whole region. We see it in Egypt as well with names that end in ra, aten, and amun.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Genesis chapter 32
After reading chapter 32:
*As Jacob travels along, he meets angels. How he knows they are angels and what they do or say is not mentioned.
*Before Jacob gets home, he sends a messenger to his brother Esau telling him that he is coming with lots of livestock and slaves. In other words, he is rich now. The messenger comes back with news that Esau is coming, with four hundred men. Jacob is afraid and divides all the people and possessions into two groups, so one will be left alive if the other is attacked. Then Jacob prays to God for protection from Esau, reminding God of his promise to make Jacob's descendants like the sand of the sea. Gods need reminding now and then.
* Jacob then arranges to give Esau a generous gift of three herds of livestock. He sends each herd ahead separately in the care of a servant (slave). Each servant is instructed what to say when they meet Esau. Jacob's idea is to soften Esau up before they meet face to face, just in case God forgets to help.
* That night, Jacob moves the camp with his family. At one point he is left alone and an unknown man wrestles with Jacob til daybreak, trying to overpower him. The man is not able to get the better of Jacob, so he wrenches Jacob's hip and asks Jacob to let him go. Jacob demands a blessing first., because that's what you do when you have fought with an unknown assailant all night? The stranger asks Jacob's name, then changes it to Isra-el, because midnight attackers can change people's names?
*Jacob asks for the man's name but he refuses to reveal his identity. Then he blesses Jacob. Jacob named the place Peni-el, because he saw God face to face and did not die. Apparently the strange man was God!
*There are many extra biblical attempts to explain this story metaphorically, but we will take it as it appears to be, an actual event. What do we see? A god who is a man with a body. A god who cannot win a wrestling match with a glorified sheep herder. Jacob saw this God. Is it the same God that the New Testament tells us no one has ever seen?
*All the mentions of God in this chapter are versions of the name El, the Canaanite high God, not Yahweh. Remember, when we see the words "the lord" in the text, that is referring to Yahweh. The two God names are often mixed in passages, but not this time.
*Lastly, we are told that Israelites don't eat hip tendons because of this story. All righty then.
*As Jacob travels along, he meets angels. How he knows they are angels and what they do or say is not mentioned.
*Before Jacob gets home, he sends a messenger to his brother Esau telling him that he is coming with lots of livestock and slaves. In other words, he is rich now. The messenger comes back with news that Esau is coming, with four hundred men. Jacob is afraid and divides all the people and possessions into two groups, so one will be left alive if the other is attacked. Then Jacob prays to God for protection from Esau, reminding God of his promise to make Jacob's descendants like the sand of the sea. Gods need reminding now and then.
* Jacob then arranges to give Esau a generous gift of three herds of livestock. He sends each herd ahead separately in the care of a servant (slave). Each servant is instructed what to say when they meet Esau. Jacob's idea is to soften Esau up before they meet face to face, just in case God forgets to help.
* That night, Jacob moves the camp with his family. At one point he is left alone and an unknown man wrestles with Jacob til daybreak, trying to overpower him. The man is not able to get the better of Jacob, so he wrenches Jacob's hip and asks Jacob to let him go. Jacob demands a blessing first., because that's what you do when you have fought with an unknown assailant all night? The stranger asks Jacob's name, then changes it to Isra-el, because midnight attackers can change people's names?
*Jacob asks for the man's name but he refuses to reveal his identity. Then he blesses Jacob. Jacob named the place Peni-el, because he saw God face to face and did not die. Apparently the strange man was God!
*There are many extra biblical attempts to explain this story metaphorically, but we will take it as it appears to be, an actual event. What do we see? A god who is a man with a body. A god who cannot win a wrestling match with a glorified sheep herder. Jacob saw this God. Is it the same God that the New Testament tells us no one has ever seen?
*All the mentions of God in this chapter are versions of the name El, the Canaanite high God, not Yahweh. Remember, when we see the words "the lord" in the text, that is referring to Yahweh. The two God names are often mixed in passages, but not this time.
*Lastly, we are told that Israelites don't eat hip tendons because of this story. All righty then.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Genesis chapter 21
After reading chapter 21:
* Now, the promised child is born to Abraham and Sarah when they are about 100 and 91 years old. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles! He is named Isacc and circumcised at eight days.
*Isaac grew, and on the day of the celebration of Isaac's weaning, teenager Ishmael was being rude. Sarah told Abraham to get rid of Ishmael and his mother. There was no way her son would share an inheritance with him.
*Abraham actually showed some feeling for Ishmael. God, however, tells him to do what Sarah says. It's okay because both Isaac's and Ishmael's descendents will become great nations. So it doesn't matter how Ishmael and his mother feel about it. Off they were sent into the desert with only some water. Every thing worked out though, because an angel called out from heaven and told them God heard them crying.
*Abraham and Abimelech make a treaty of mutual cooperation and Abimelech acknowledges Abraham's ownership of the well at Beersheba, which will appear again later. Abraham plants a tree there and calls upon the name of the name of the lord (Yahweh) the eternal God (El). He stayed in that land of the Philistines a long time.
*This is the first mention of Philistines. There is no clear historical record of who the Philistines were, but there is lots of speculation.
* Now, the promised child is born to Abraham and Sarah when they are about 100 and 91 years old. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles! He is named Isacc and circumcised at eight days.
*Isaac grew, and on the day of the celebration of Isaac's weaning, teenager Ishmael was being rude. Sarah told Abraham to get rid of Ishmael and his mother. There was no way her son would share an inheritance with him.
*Abraham actually showed some feeling for Ishmael. God, however, tells him to do what Sarah says. It's okay because both Isaac's and Ishmael's descendents will become great nations. So it doesn't matter how Ishmael and his mother feel about it. Off they were sent into the desert with only some water. Every thing worked out though, because an angel called out from heaven and told them God heard them crying.
*Abraham and Abimelech make a treaty of mutual cooperation and Abimelech acknowledges Abraham's ownership of the well at Beersheba, which will appear again later. Abraham plants a tree there and calls upon the name of the name of the lord (Yahweh) the eternal God (El). He stayed in that land of the Philistines a long time.
*This is the first mention of Philistines. There is no clear historical record of who the Philistines were, but there is lots of speculation.
Friday, July 17, 2015
Genesis chapter 17
After reading chapter 17:
*This chapter takes place 13 years after chapter 16, when Abram is 99 and Sarai is 90, or approximately 1953 B.C.E.
*Abram has another personal revelation from the lord (Yaweh) who says he is the almighty God (El ). God renews his covenant with Abram. He changes Abram's name to Abraham and Sarai's name to Sarah.
* The terms of the covenant:
~Abraham will be given the whole land of Canaan
~He will be the father of many nations
~Every male in his entourage, slave and free, must be circumcised as an everlasting sign of the covenant, whether they wanted to be or not. That was at least a few hundreds of men( Gen. 14:14), not to mention the billions of descendants to follow. Any uncircumcised male will be cut off from the the rest of the family.
~Abraham and Sarah will have a son and will call him Isaac. He will be the heir of the covenant even though he is technically the Younger Brother.
~Ishmael will be blessed and will be the father of twelve rulers.
* What does Abraham have to do for all this? Just be God's man and blameless. One wonders what blameless means, since Abraham has lied, traded his wife for riches to save his own neck, treated a woman with contempt, and is the owner of many slaves.
*Abraham laughed at the thought if having a son at his age, but he went ahead and circumcised every male in his clan on that very day. Nobody would be doing any baby making quite yet.
*The earliest record of circumcision is from about 2,400 B.C.E. in Egypt. It had probably been practiced for hundreds of years before that. Ra the sun god was said to have circumcised himself. Check out he Wikipedia article on circumcision for more info.
*This chapter takes place 13 years after chapter 16, when Abram is 99 and Sarai is 90, or approximately 1953 B.C.E.
*Abram has another personal revelation from the lord (Yaweh) who says he is the almighty God (El ). God renews his covenant with Abram. He changes Abram's name to Abraham and Sarai's name to Sarah.
* The terms of the covenant:
~Abraham will be given the whole land of Canaan
~He will be the father of many nations
~Every male in his entourage, slave and free, must be circumcised as an everlasting sign of the covenant, whether they wanted to be or not. That was at least a few hundreds of men( Gen. 14:14), not to mention the billions of descendants to follow. Any uncircumcised male will be cut off from the the rest of the family.
~Abraham and Sarah will have a son and will call him Isaac. He will be the heir of the covenant even though he is technically the Younger Brother.
~Ishmael will be blessed and will be the father of twelve rulers.
* What does Abraham have to do for all this? Just be God's man and blameless. One wonders what blameless means, since Abraham has lied, traded his wife for riches to save his own neck, treated a woman with contempt, and is the owner of many slaves.
*Abraham laughed at the thought if having a son at his age, but he went ahead and circumcised every male in his clan on that very day. Nobody would be doing any baby making quite yet.
*The earliest record of circumcision is from about 2,400 B.C.E. in Egypt. It had probably been practiced for hundreds of years before that. Ra the sun god was said to have circumcised himself. Check out he Wikipedia article on circumcision for more info.
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Genesis chapter 16
After reading chapter 16:
*In spite of Abram's talk with God, Sarai believes God is keeping her from having children. So, she demands that Abram impregnate her Egyptian slave Hagar. Abram has no problem with this and does as he is told. Of course no one asks Hagar if it is ok.
*The slave becomes pregnant and despises Sarai. Who can blame her? Sarai turns the tables and gets mad at Abram for doing exactly what she told him to do. Abram tells Sarai to do whatever she wants to Hagar. So, Sarai mistreats Hagar badly enough for her to want to run away to the desert while pregnant, and Abram couldn't care less. Great guy.
*Here we have the first appearance of an angel of the lord. An angel is basically a messenger. Notice the lack of wings, halo, and white robe.
*The angel tells Hagar to go back and submit to Sarai, and promises to personally make her descendants numerous. Can angels do that? There appears to be some confusion about this angel, because he is also said to be the lord (Yahweh). Plus, Hagar claims to have seen God (El). How can that be when other verses in the bible say no one has seen God? John 1:18
*The angel says Hagar is to name her son Ishma-el. Verse 15 says Abram named the boy.
*Abram was 86, which would have made Sarai about 76. She still expected to have a child? The year was approximately 1970 B.C.E., if we follow Ussher's chronology.
*In spite of Abram's talk with God, Sarai believes God is keeping her from having children. So, she demands that Abram impregnate her Egyptian slave Hagar. Abram has no problem with this and does as he is told. Of course no one asks Hagar if it is ok.
*The slave becomes pregnant and despises Sarai. Who can blame her? Sarai turns the tables and gets mad at Abram for doing exactly what she told him to do. Abram tells Sarai to do whatever she wants to Hagar. So, Sarai mistreats Hagar badly enough for her to want to run away to the desert while pregnant, and Abram couldn't care less. Great guy.
*Here we have the first appearance of an angel of the lord. An angel is basically a messenger. Notice the lack of wings, halo, and white robe.
*The angel tells Hagar to go back and submit to Sarai, and promises to personally make her descendants numerous. Can angels do that? There appears to be some confusion about this angel, because he is also said to be the lord (Yahweh). Plus, Hagar claims to have seen God (El). How can that be when other verses in the bible say no one has seen God? John 1:18
*The angel says Hagar is to name her son Ishma-el. Verse 15 says Abram named the boy.
*Abram was 86, which would have made Sarai about 76. She still expected to have a child? The year was approximately 1970 B.C.E., if we follow Ussher's chronology.
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Genesis chapter 14
After reading chapter 14:
*It came to pass that there was a lot of fighting between a bunch of small kingdoms from the hill country to the desert to the Salt Sea (Dead Sea). There were so many kings that they must have been more like chieftains.
* With a few exceptions, evidence of most of the people and place names in this chapter has been found nowhere outside religious sources. This includes Sodom and Gomorrah.
*It is interesting to find Amalekites here because Amalek was a descendant of Esau, Abram's grandson who isn't born yet.
*Lot and his household were living in Sodom at this time, and were captured by Sodom's opposition. Abram was still living in Hebron and had some allies in the area. He got together his own army, chased down Lot's captors, and retrieved him and his possessions.
*Abram returns in glory and is met by a few kings, not the least of whom is Melchizedek, the special king of Salem, priest of El. Melchizedek brings out bread and wine and blesses Abram. Abram gives him a tenth of everything. Here we see the introduction of tithing.
*Abram apparently brought back spoils of war, but keeps nothing for himself because he does not want it to be said that he is a beneficiary of Sodom.
*It came to pass that there was a lot of fighting between a bunch of small kingdoms from the hill country to the desert to the Salt Sea (Dead Sea). There were so many kings that they must have been more like chieftains.
* With a few exceptions, evidence of most of the people and place names in this chapter has been found nowhere outside religious sources. This includes Sodom and Gomorrah.
*It is interesting to find Amalekites here because Amalek was a descendant of Esau, Abram's grandson who isn't born yet.
*Lot and his household were living in Sodom at this time, and were captured by Sodom's opposition. Abram was still living in Hebron and had some allies in the area. He got together his own army, chased down Lot's captors, and retrieved him and his possessions.
*Abram returns in glory and is met by a few kings, not the least of whom is Melchizedek, the special king of Salem, priest of El. Melchizedek brings out bread and wine and blesses Abram. Abram gives him a tenth of everything. Here we see the introduction of tithing.
*Abram apparently brought back spoils of war, but keeps nothing for himself because he does not want it to be said that he is a beneficiary of Sodom.
Genesis chapter 13
After reading chapter 13:
So, Abram, who is now very wealthy, leaves Egypt. He and his entourage go back to the Bethel that isn't named Bethel til chapter 28. There Abram and Lot divvy up the land, because there aren't enough resources for all of them to stay in one place. Lot chose to go east to the well watered plain of the Jordan and Abram stayed in Canaan's hill country.
Again, God talks only to Abram and tells him all the land he sees, north, south, east and west, will be given to his descendants. Later, we will see that Abram's descendants make sure God keeps his promise.
So,Abram travels again, scoping out the land God will give him and ends up traveling south through the hills to Hebron where he builds a barbecue pit, um, altar to the Lord.
So far Abram has built three altars, one in Shechem, one in Bethel, and one in Hebron. Two of those places are said to have sites with "great" trees. There are a few other great trees mentioned in other books of the bible. These trees had special cultic significance. My study bible tells me Canaanites sought advice from thier gods by these trees, maybe Abram followed that practice. The chief Canaanite God was El, whose name appears as part of many place and people names we will encounter in later passages. A couple of examples are Beth-el and Isra-el.
*In many English versions of the Old Testament, when we see the words "the lord," the Hebrew is Yahweh. When we see the word God, it is almost always a version of El. Later, we will come upon scriptures that will explain why there are two versions of the supreme being.
Edited.
So, Abram, who is now very wealthy, leaves Egypt. He and his entourage go back to the Bethel that isn't named Bethel til chapter 28. There Abram and Lot divvy up the land, because there aren't enough resources for all of them to stay in one place. Lot chose to go east to the well watered plain of the Jordan and Abram stayed in Canaan's hill country.
Again, God talks only to Abram and tells him all the land he sees, north, south, east and west, will be given to his descendants. Later, we will see that Abram's descendants make sure God keeps his promise.
So,Abram travels again, scoping out the land God will give him and ends up traveling south through the hills to Hebron where he builds a barbecue pit, um, altar to the Lord.
So far Abram has built three altars, one in Shechem, one in Bethel, and one in Hebron. Two of those places are said to have sites with "great" trees. There are a few other great trees mentioned in other books of the bible. These trees had special cultic significance. My study bible tells me Canaanites sought advice from thier gods by these trees, maybe Abram followed that practice. The chief Canaanite God was El, whose name appears as part of many place and people names we will encounter in later passages. A couple of examples are Beth-el and Isra-el.
*In many English versions of the Old Testament, when we see the words "the lord," the Hebrew is Yahweh. When we see the word God, it is almost always a version of El. Later, we will come upon scriptures that will explain why there are two versions of the supreme being.
Edited.
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