My Musical Sunday School Sessions - Why Are There So Many Gods In The Bible

2 months ago (Edited)

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In the past few weeks, I established that Elohim the most common word for God in Hebrew is Plural.

My Musical Sunday School Sessions - What Kinda Gods Fall From The Sky?

I also established that the ancient Summerian stories on which Genesis was largely based refer to powerful ones and not God. Their deities were the Anunnaki. It is generally translated as "Those of royal blood" or "Offspring of Anu."

The Summerian texts were there before the Hebrew scrolls but the most well-known Old Testament stories appeared first in Summerian and involved Anunnaki, before ending up in Part I of the Good Book..

Copy Paste & Minor Changes

Can this be a coincidence or were these powerful royal Anunnaki translated into Elohim, a plural word for God which can also be translated as Powerful Ones?

Fanatics love to argue, but facts speak louder than words.
Elohim is plural, and in the Bible, the word is used to indicate multiple powerful ones.

The Old Testament can be seen a documentation of ancient history. The great thing about history is that it's so easy to alter. You just rewrite the pieces you don´t like, destroy some evidence, and change the narrative...a little or a lot.

Then you stuff that narrative down everyone's throat and those that do not swallow get killed or banned if you are having a good day.

The Truth Is Out There

Looking back on the possibility of rewriting history we need to pick up crumbs that guide us to see what possibly was altered or erased.

The Elohim is such a crumb, the word is used for the one and only true God Yahweh.

In the old Bibles Yahweh was referred to as Elohim. But he was not the only one that got that title.

Yahweh (יהוה, YHWH): This is the specific name for the God of Israel, often translated as "the LORD" in many English Bibles. It is considered God's personal, covenantal name, and is closely associated with God's relationship with the Israelites.

Elohim (אֱלֹהִים): This term is often translated as "God" and is a more general term used for divinity in the Hebrew Bible. It can refer to the God of Israel, but it can also be used to refer to other gods or divine beings in a more generic sense.

Now what worries me is those so-called other Gods. There was only one right?

And why Israel, why does that keep coming up when spoken about the one true God?

The God of Isreal Yahweh gave Moses 10 Golden Rules set in stone. But there is something weird about those rules if you ask me.

Are These The Rules Of The One True God?

Hebrew (Exodus 20:3): לֹא־יִהְיֶ֥ה לְךָ֖ אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֲחֵרִ֑ים עַל־פָּנָֽיַ׃
Transliteration: "Lo yiheye lekha elohim acherim al panai."
Translation: "You shall have no other gods before Me."

If there is only one God, why is this the first rule?

Why would an omnipotent God request this of his people?

If he/she/them Yahweh is the only true God, why worry?
Unless you are just the God of Israel, maybe not even God because you refer to all as Elohim. Which means powerful ones.

Of course, over time and through translations a lot can be scripted but just look at those crumbs and tell me they make sense especially if you then look at the second Golden Rule:

"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments."

A jealous God?

Why would we have one God as he is all why would he be jealous?
Really, that would only make sense if there were others to be jealous of right?

And the fun fact is this is the original text:

ki anokhi Yahweh Eloheikha el kanna poked

In which Yahweh calls himself an "Eloheikha el kanna poked" jealous god. But the word Eloheikha" (אֱלֹהֶיךָ) is a possessive form of "Elohim", meaning "your God." The suffix "-ekha" (ךָ) is the masculine singular second-person possessive pronoun.

Now why would you share a name like Elohim with others if you are truly unique?
Why use the masculine version, that implies there were feminine Elohim as well?
Why be so angry, dominant, and jealous if you´re supposed to be the light and the love of the world?

All these crumbs are bugging me a lot tbh.

What if this God of Israel ended up being the wealthiest or having the strongest army, and therefore able to erase all other Gods, all other Elohim, all other powerful ones from history?

If there was truly one God, why call yourself the God of Israel?

It explains why his people think they were the chosen ones, it´s always nice to feel special. But it doesn´t look like he was alone. It looks like Yahweh only got Israel and later tried to conquer the world.

What if there were more, but they got assimilated?

If I were THE God, the one and only, I would want the people of the world to worship me, why would I start with Israel?

That only makes sense if the world was already divided over many Elohim.

And what do Elohim do?
They do what kings do, what powerful ones do. They wage war to increase their influence, to become the most powerful one.

Multiple Gods Is The Norm

That logic of multiple powerful ones ruling over humanity would be in line with most religions, such as the Egyptian, Mayan, Vikings, Hinduism, Native Americans, and Greek religions which all mention multiple gods.

Even the Bible mentions multiple Gods, but someone started calling them false Gods, still, they were referred to as Elohim in the Bible.

Summary of False Gods Referred to as Elohim:
(Exodus 12:12) - Egyptian gods (e.g., Ra, Isis, Osiris).
(Judges 2:11) - Baal (Canaanite god of fertility and storms).
(Judges 2:13) - Ashtoreth (goddess of fertility and war worshipped by the Canaanites and other ancient Near Eastern peoples).
(1 Samuel 5:7) - Dagon (Philistine god of grain and agriculture).
(1 Kings 11:33) - Chemosh (Moabite god).
(1 Kings 11:5-7) - Milcom/Molech (Ammonite god associated with child sacrifice).

What if Yahweh, the one true jealous God of Israel, had such a big Ego that he wanted the world to forget about all other Gods, all other powerful ones?

If that was his goal he almost succeeded. He almost succeeded in making humanity believe he was not one of many Elohim.

He was not just another powerful one, he was the almighty...

Too bad that too many crumbs point in a different direction as I already pointed out.

Just Thinking Out Loud

His Bible speaks of other Gods, other Elohim, and we call Yahwehan Elohim.

What if Yahweh was also part of a group of powerful ones that divided the earth and argued (a lot) about how to rule humanity?

That would be so much more in line with almost all known religions where you would have a council of Gods.

Those councils were everywhere not just in the West where we see it among Germanic, Viking, Roman, Greek, and Gaelic Gods.

In Mesoamerican cultures, such as the Aztecs and Maya, councils included gods like Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc, and Tezcatlipoca. The gods were believed to interact and govern various aspects of life and nature.

Shinto (Japanese) religion features a council of kami, including major deities such as Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, and Susanoo. Various assemblies and gatherings of these deities are integral to Shinto mythology.

In Mesopotamian mythology, particularly Sumerian and Babylonian, there were councils of gods such as the Anunnaki and the Igigi. Major gods included Anu, Enlil, Enki, and Inanna.

And without postal service or the internet, how is it that we have Councils of Powerful Ones all over the Earth?

Bikini Bottom Line

Elohim is plural.
Humans say God if they meet beings that can do things they do not understand.
Those abilities were god-like and therefore they called them the Powerful ones.

These Elohim ruled planet Earth, they had a council, and they probably all had their own region and their own agenda.

They decided to make humans in their image. If they are anything like us we can assume they did very little out of the kindness of their own hearts, if they had any heart at all.

We find proof of these Divine Councils of gods all over the globe. And everywhere these councils played a crucial role in mythology, governance of the world, and human affairs.

Everywhere powerful ones wanted more power, some were jealous of something humans had and they did not, and some wanted to procreate with humans. It was one big godly soap opera. The names might be different, but the story remains the same globally.....except Yahweh as he was the One & Only.

One Step Closer To The Edge

I am gonna go out on a Limb here, and say that this Yahweh character just got lucky that history's dice rolled his way and his following...the Israelites were able to rewrite history in such a way that they came out on top.

Maybe because he was a very jealous and demanding powerful one. His drilling of his people and his way of governance caused his rule to spread as his humans feared the wrath of not doing his bidding.

His Ten Commandments were clear and easy to follow and swallow. Humans like simple rules no matter how crazy they are), so that was a smart move.

And so over time, when the Elohim moved on, his following was drilled in such a way that they altered history making Yahweh the One & Only true God and by doing so creating the base of a religion that temporarily ruled humanity.

Next week Part II as there is one more very big crumb I need to share with you Dear reader!

Stay Tuned

Thank godness you made it till the end Pees, Love and I am out of here!

Previous Sunday School Sessions

[Source Pic](All by MyI & AI)

Disclaimer One: The texts I use for these sessions are real, although like many scholars my ignorance and arrogance might cause me to misinterpret things, or explain things from my limited perspective. I therefore appreciate all critical feedback.

Disclaimer Two: I think everyone has a right to believe, and a right to disagree. I try to take a light philosophical approach and add some humor. If you're offended please check yourself, because being offended by something written by a simpleton as WhyWhy is a signal that you might have bigger issues.

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