The Enigmatic Mystery Of YHWH !!!

                                                                       

                                        
                                                The Enigmatic Mystery  Of YHWH

Quite often we hear about the concept called MONOTHEISM i.e  There is only one G-D. Among the worlds various religion it is assumed that ISLAM &  CHRISTIANITY  derive its concept of  One G-d from JUDAISM.

Often it is assumed that Judaism is a Monotheistical religious concept  given to Moses on mount Sinai. That it was the same a G-d of Abhram , Issac and Jacob responsible for the propagating this ancient concept of  Belief in One G-d.

It is time now that the mystery which  shrouds this highly mysterious and puzzling figure of  so-called One G-d of Monotheism be fully uncovered once and for all (Read: YHWH)

Who is YHWH ? 

What is the Mystery behind his origin & clues that ancient civilization left behind after their direct first hand encounter to war n the future generations of impending troubles with this chronic Obsesssive compulsive Fiend  ?  Lets embark on the ancient route less travelled and unravel this Single Piece of Most speculated figure of at least 5000 years, Are you ready?

                                                         

1.        Is YHWH really one G-d or Multiple Gods?

In order to systematically unravel things about him we must ascertain the truth about his being. So, is he really one as so-called monotheists  proclaim? Well unfortunately our very Hebrew Bible has a very diametrically opposite view about him. It gives a very  shocking but very interesting details about this term called YHWH.

 It must be noted that to conform with the main stream doctrine of One G-d, English translation of Original Hebrew text  have played a big time  Fraud to fool the world, let find out:

a)

Exodus 33:11 & 33:20	“And the LORD spoke unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he would return into the camp; but his minister Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the Tent.”    & “And He said: 'Thou canst not see My face, for man shall not see Me and live. ”	YHWH-1  spoke with Moses face to face. YHWH-2 tells Moses that he would die if he sees him.
Gen 19:24	“Then the LORD caused to rain upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven”	YHWH-1 standing before Sodom and Gomorah brings down fire & brimstone from YHWH-2 who is in Heaven
Exodus 12:23	“For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side-posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.”	YHWH-1 is the destroyer going through Egypt killing the first born . YHWH-2 protects the houses with the blood sign from destruction by YHWH-1
Exodus 23:1	“And YHWH said to Moses , go upto YHWH”	YHWH-1 is at the bottom of Mountain with Moses and tells him to go up to meet YHWH-2 .
Exodus 33:3 & Deut 23:14	“For I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people; lest I consume thee in the way.” & “For YHWH your Elohim walks among your camp.”	YHWH-1 will not go among the camps of Israel on the Road. YHWH-2 is among the camps of Israel
Exodus 34:5-6	“5 And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.” & “6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed: 'The LORD, the LORD, God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth”	YHWH-1 proclaims  the name of YHWH-2. & YHWH -1 calls out and praises YHWH-2
Exodus 33:19	“And He said: 'I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee”	YHWH-1 calls out the name of YHWH-2.
Exodus 6:3	וָאֵרָא, אֶל-אַבְרָהָם אֶל-יִצְחָק וְאֶל-יַעֲקֹב- -בְּאֵל שַׁדָּי; וּשְׁמִי יְהוָה, לֹא נוֹדַעְתִּי לָהֶם. { And I appeared to Abhram, Issac , to Jacob , with the God  Of Shaddai , but by my Title YHWH ,I was not know to  them.}	All translations delibrately ignore Hebrew "B'el-Shaddai" because they know that it accurately translates as "With The G-d Of Shaddai".
Psalm  29:1	“O ye sons of Elim( אֵלִים Dieties), ascribe unto the LORD glory and strength. ”	Elim is Plural of El more specifically means deities. English translation wrongly translate it as “Mighty”.

Besides all of these , we have Various G-ds  depicted as Patron Gods  Of Their Chosen Cities , typical example of ancient Greco-Roman religious believes . Example:

El Ro’i	God Of Ro’i	Gen 16:13
El Olam	God Of Olam	Gen 21:33
El Rucham	God Of Rucham	Deut 4:31
El Emunah	God Of Emunah	Deut 32:4
El Chai	God Of Chai	Joshua 3:10
El De’ut	God Of De’ut	1 Samuel 2:3

2. The surprising and Stunning Revelation:


                                                                                         

Lets check the Deut 32
8 –“ When the Most High assigned the nations their heritage, when he parceled out the descendants of Adam, He set up the boundaries of the peoples after the number of the sons of  G-d”
9 – “While the LORD'S own portion was Jacob, His hereditary share was Israel.”

Lets check various versions:

Dead Sea Scrolls 4Q	Greek Septuagint {LXX}	Masoratic Text
"When Elyon gave the nations as an inheritance, when he separated the sons of man, he set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the  sons of God .  For Yahweh's portion was his people; Jacob was the lot of his inheritance".	“When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the  angels of God .  And his people Jacob became the portion of the Lord, Israel was the line of his inheritance”	“When Elyon gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all the sons of man, he set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the   sons of Israel .  For Yahweh's portion was his people, Jacob was the lot of his inheritance”

ü  The oldest form of the text in the Dead Sea Scrolls refers  Yahweh as one of the "sons of God" who received Israel from Elyon.

ü  Its  polythesitic overtones were an embarresment, so they were carefully removed from later renderings. Funny Lol !!!

ü  The Hebrew word ‘Elyon’ is an adjective meaning “higher”.The very fact that the true and eternal God – the God who was before all and anything – is called God Most High – proves that there were and must be other gods who are subordinate to Him. If there were no gods at all then El would simply be called God and not the Most High God. 

ü  Yahweh was not and could not have been the Most High God and the creator of the universe because Israel was his INHERITANCE from the Most High God. El Elyon appointed Yahweh to rule over Israel and the sons of Jacob became Yahweh’s lot. 

It is not the first time that to hide polytheistic origins Hebrew scribers had resorted to altering the original text, lets check another example in verse 43:

Dead Sea Scroll	Masoretic Text
"Rejoice, O heavens, together with him, and bow down to him all you Gods , for he will avenge the blood of his sons, and will render vengeance to his enemies, and will recompense those who hate him, and will atone for the land of his people".	“ "Rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his enemies, and will atone for the land of his people"

It does not take rocket science to find out that the MT has been tampered with deliberately.

The MT text is poetically defective in terms of parallelism, with a complete bicolon in the second and third clauses (avenge / render vengeance), without an accompanying clause in the first and fourth clauses to complete the two other bicolons (rejoice / ???, ??? / atone).  Unfortunately Hebrew Scribers can’t hide their fraud from me and fool me.

Goddess Ashera

  3. YHWH & Ancient Canaanite Connection :

So Yahweh is one of the "sons of EL" who received Israel from Elyon as his own "inheritance".  This strange revelation is mind bowling and a mirror image of  astonishing  Canaanite belief in Ugaritic texts that El fathered 70 Sons  through Goddess Asherah , and the number of the nations in Genesis 10 also mysteriously add up to exact 70.Coincidence?

Phoenican kings appear to have names which suggest they may  have worshipped some form of Hebrew God Yahweh. Professor Pritchard on Phoenician kings of Byblos  :

"This inscription records the dedication of a new building, possibly a temple, and is now quite generally dated in the 10th century BC. "

"Building Inscriptions, YEHIMILK OF BYBLOS :

“A house built by Yehimilk, king of Byblos, who also has restored all the ruins of the houses here. May Baalshamem and the Lord of Byblos and the Assembly of the Holy Gods of Byblos prolong the days and years of Yehimilk in Byblos, for (he is) a righteous king and an upright king before the Holy Gods of Byblos !"  ( The Ancient Near East, An Anthology of Texts and Pictures. 1958. Princeton University Press)

Yehimilk

                                                                     

"I am Yehawmilk, king of Byblos, the son of Yehar-ba'l, the grandson of Urimilk, king of Byblos, whom the Mistress, the Lady of Byblos, made king over Byblos...May the Lady of Byblos bless and preserve Yehawmilk, king of Byblos, and prolong his days and years in Byblos, for he is a righteous king...." (pp. 220-221. Pritchard. 1958)

The name Yehaw-milk (alternately rendered Yehi, and perhaps even Yehar ?) may mean "Yehaw is king," perhaps _Yehaw/Yehi_  is but the Phoenician form of Hebrew Yah/Yahweh/Yahu ?

ü  The Phoenicians were famed as builders of the Temple of Solomon, and perhaps they too worshipped Yahweh, but under the name of Yehi-milk (10th century BCE) or Yehaw-milk (5th/4th century BCE) ?

ü  Not only do the Phoenicians have kings bearing Yahweh form names, the Phoenicians also showed  their male and female gods seated on winged sphinx thrones, which have been identified by some scholars as prototypes behind Yahweh's Cherubim throne in the Jerusalem Temple. It should come as no surprise then that if the kings of Byblos bore Yahweh names, and showed their gods seated on Cherubim thrones, that perhaps Phoenicia is one the sources for the Yahweh imagery appearing in the Bible.

In Canaanite myths preserved at Ugarit (13th century BCE) Baal-Hadad fights his brother Yam/Nahar (Sea/River) for dominion of the earth, and Yam is called dotingly, by his father, El, my son YAW! For me,  Yahweh of the Bible and his struggle against Baal (Baal Hadad) is nothing more than the continuation of Late Bronze Age (ca. 1560-1200 BCE) myths of Yaw (Yahweh ?) vs. Baal for supremacy of the earth in Iron Age times (ca. 1200-587 BCE).

Note:- Most of the scholars have been misled by the Bible's false clues that YHWH is "originally" a god of the Sinai, he's really a Canaanite-Phoenician-North Syrian God of Ugarit and Byblos. One sometimes forgets that Yahweh's FIRST APPEARANCE  to Abraham is NOT at Sinai, its at Ur of the Chaldees, where a temple existed, according to Leick, to the Mesopotamian god, Enki/Ea/Ayya, and later at Haran in Northern Syria as well as Damascus.

In Ugaritic myths Bull-El or El dwells in the depths of a mountain, at the source of the double deep (tehom), that is the source of the fresh and salt water oceans.  The Hebrews have drawn from the Ugaritic imagery in associating Yahweh in the opening lines of Genesis with tehom (English: "the deep").

God Baal

                                                                                 
{The Epic of Gilgamesh notes that Baal Hadad (alternately, Adad) is portrayed as a god who dwells with the darkness of a thundercloud, whose thunder is his voice, and whose rains, initiate the Flood which destroys all mankind.  The Bible's portrayal of Yahweh as a god who dwells within the darkness of the thundercloud (Deut 4:11; 5:22, 23) is borrowing imagery from Baal Hadad, who also dwells in a dark thundercloud and whose voice is the thunder. The Bible also relates that Yahweh was called Baal by some Israelites-

Hosea 2:16- "And in that day, says the Lord, you will call me, 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call me, 'My Ba'al.' For I will remove the names of the Ba'als from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more."

4. YHWH and Genesis Connection :

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."(Gen 1:1)

The Hebrew word here translated  is "Elohim”. You can not deny this linguistic fact that  it means plural, and, therefore, means "G-ds." A lot of Jews   claim  “pluralism majestatis” & try to sweep this highly embarrassing question under the carpet. Lets focus on the Hebrew paraphrasing :   “Bere'shit bara Elohim 'et has shamayim ”

God Enki

Some would translate it as: "In the beginning the gods created the heavens and the earth", but this does not fit, since the word “bara” ( Create) is singular. Moreover, the word “Shamay”(heaven) , is also in  plural  “Shamayim”.
                                                                                                   
But the problem has a solution . According to kabbalistic sources, the palabral bere'shit means not only "principle" but also "first", the "original", the first entity that was, the supreme God.  

The little word 'et can also be translated as "with". Now the translation makes much more sense:  "The first created the gods [with] the heavens and the Earth."
Now that perfectly  makes sense if we read it in conjunction with Gen 1:26 :“Let Us Make Man In Our Own Image” . Jews and various other Rabbis have always tried to bruch this huge embarrassment of Gen1:26 by claiming “pluralism majestatis”, when in reality it is not.

Not only that but in Gen 6:2 (Deluge Story)it clearly says “B’nai Elohim” i.e Sons of G-ds saw daughters of Humans. Further confirming that this is not a concept of Monotheistical Diety or lets say One G-d concept . It quite clearly goes on to show that Judaism  itself has Pagan Origins.                     

Important:- Another interesting corollary that follows is that in Gen 1:26-27 it says “ Let us make man in our image, after our likeness ”. Since Jewish G-d is neither male and nor female and is beyond these masculine and feminine principles so essentially he can’t be the creator of Adam and Eve as Jewish G-d is not like Adam and Eve and if so then the G-d who is not like Adam and Eve can’t make this Bogus claim that “let us make Humans after our likeness”. Presence of at least  one female consort or Goddess is quite obvious in this “Let US Create”.

·         "Behold the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil."(Gen 3:22)

         The Enigma of even this mystery gets solved automatically.

Goddess Ashera

                                                         

5. YHWH and His Ashera  :

Prof. Ze’ev Herzog of Tel Aviv University announced  that:

ü  The kingdom of David and Solomon was at best a small tribal monarchy, at worst total myth.

ü  All evidence demonstrates that the Jews did not adopt monotheism until the 7^th Century BCE.

ü  In addition, Herzog’s colleague, Israel Finkelstein, claims the Jews were nothing more than nomadic Canaanites who bartered with the city dwellers. 

ü  The team’s studies concluded that Jerusalem did not have any central status until 722 BCE with the destruction of its northern rival Samaria. 

ü  Yahweh had a consort in the form of  Goddess Asherah.

                                                                                                 
Inscriptions, written in Hebrew by official Jewish scribes in the 8^th century BCE, were found in numerous sites all over the land.

Asherah ( Means :"she who walks in the sea") supposedly consort of the supreme god El, was also referred to as Elath (the goddess). According to the Ugarit tradition, whose clay tablets contain the earliest known alphabet, she was consort of El, and mother of 70 gods. She is also associated with Baal and is supposed to have interceded to her husband, the supreme god, on Baal’s behalf, for the building of a palace - in order to grant him equal status with other gods.
And we all know that how miraculously  number of nations also in Gen:10 turned out to be 70 . Well its less of miraculous more plagiaristic in nature as the Hebrew scribers copied the ancient Ugartic – Sumerian &  ancient Mesopotamian myths and amalgamated various G-ds under one heading i.e Elohim . Thereby transferring  all the folk tales and powers and epithets of various Dieties under single Heading ELOHIM(Literally : Plural dieties).

Cause if YHWH’s inheritance is Israel as a Portion ,that means portion of other Gods also will be various other nations !!  That means this ancient myth of El- and his consort is also a fact.

In Israel itself, 7^th Century BCE is the period in which the archaeological evidence presented by Herzog suggests the emergence of Jerusalem as a cultural centre occurs. 

By all accounts, it is a cultural centre struggling to find an identity and nationality for itself and, given the discovery of the Jewish texts displaying Yahweh having a consort in the form of Asherah, it is not difficult to piece this jigsaw together. 

In 639BCE, Josiah, king of Judah, is known to have introduced wide-ranging religious reforms and brought additional areas of "Israel" under his control.

It is during this period  of brutal reform by this king Josiah, a wide variety of religious and cultural sources are brought together to form a religious and political unity. 

ü  El's many forms include El-shaddai - Almighty, the Lord of the Mountains; Bethel ‘the house of god’ is mentioned in Jeremiah 48:13 .

ü  El meaning simply ‘god’ is also identifiable with the kind old grandfather god of Canaan, who is horned like the Moon God Sin but expresses also the primal male fertility characteristics of ithyphallic gods Nabu andHermes. As heavenly scribe, these are both also bearers of the covenant.

ü  He had two wives whom he met over the sea, Athirat(Asherah) and Anath. 

ü  The Elohim included two forms of the Goddess as shown in the blessing of Jacob of the twelve tribes in Gen 49, is as follows:

“Even by the god of thy father who shall help thee, and by the Almighty (El -shaddai),who shall bless thee with the blessings of heaven above (Sin: The astral deity),blessings of the deep that lies under (primal chaos Tiamat Leviathan),blessings of the breast and womb (Asherah - the creatrix of living things)prevailing from the everlasting mountains to the eternal hills.”

                                                     

Khirbet El Qom inscription: In the 1960's a series of drawings and inscriptions were found in the tomb located between Hebron and Lachish. Paleography (an art of dating of writings) pointed to the late 8th century.   One inscription was accompanied with a blessing (magical) hand of protection. The blessing was made in the name of YHWH and (his) Asherah.

Kuntillet Ajrud discovery: In 1970's another intriguing discovery was made in east Sinai in a place called Kuntillet Ajrud. Several drawings and inscriptions were found in the ruins of what is often described as an ancient caravanserai (a rest house for caravans), dating around late 9th early 8th century BCE. The writings again mentioned YHWH and (his) Asherah.

One matter is certain: People (associated with royalty) bearing Israelite “YHWH” names are blessing and are being blessed by YHWH and Asherah. In addition, and also interestingly, YHWH is being portrayed not as a universal deity but as localized deity, associated with geographic places and sanctuaries (YHWH of Timna and YHWH of Samaria) .As I also stated in my table above.

ü  The Bible's  own admission that the goddess Asherah was worshiped in Yahweh's Temple in Jerusalem. In the Book of Kings, we're told that a statue of Asherah was housed in the temple and that female temple personnel wove ritual textiles for her."

ü  It was only bloody reform in King Josiah’s era that Asherah as a tree symbol was even said to have been "chopped down”  and burned outside the Temple in acts of certain rulers who were trying to 'purify' the cult, and focus on the worship of a single male god, Yahweh"

ü  In the Book of Kings, we're told that a statue of Asherah was housed in the temple and that female temple personnel wove ritual textiles for her."

Note:-  Interestingly , during the reign of Josiah, Hilkiah the high priest discovered a "book of the law" in the temple (2 Kings 22:8), lying around, presumably unnoticed until then. Honesty compel us to admit that  he wrote it. Exactly as he wanted Strictly Monotheistic and Male G-d oriented.

ü  There can’t be a lie deception & shameless treachery greater than the above quoted fake admission by our biblical High Priest (Hil-kiah). No Book had ever been placed inside the Ark.

ü  At the dedication of Solomon's temple the ark was opened, but it contained no book. "There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb." (1 Kings 8:5-9).

Conclusion :- El and Asherah were the original ruling divine couple of the West Semites. After the god YHWH was assimilated  with El, he also “inherited” Asherah as a divine consort and, for period of time.In the process of monotheization of religion different techniques were used thereby various semetic gods and goddess and their epithets got transferred to one god , namely YHWH in his historical evolution . 

6. Yahweh's Image on a 4th Century BC Persian Coin 

"A coin from Gaza in Southern Philista, fourth century BC, the period of the Jewish subjection to the last of the Persian kings, has the only known representation of this Hebrew deity. The letters YHW are incised just above the hawk(?) which the god holds in his outstretched left hand . He wears a himation, leaving the upper part of the body bare, and sits upon a winged wheel. The right arm is wrapped in his garment." 

                                               -Stephen Herbert Langdon, Mythology of All Races- Semitic

Of interest is that Ezekiel also suggests that Yahweh's throne possessed some form of locomotion as it flies about in the heavens on four wheels accompanying Cherubim ( Ez 1:16-21; 10:2-19 and Dan 7:9).
In fact the Persian God Ahura Mazda also flies on the Winged Chariot just like YHWH as depicted by Prophet Ezekiel. 

Persian God Ahura Mazda

Note:- Have you ever wondered  why is that YHWH of Moses and David era is so Ruthless , Warmongering , Genocidal and Mysogenist? And YHWH from the time of Prophet Jeremiah onwards is so loving and compassionate and also caring?

I means Virtues that are  totally alien to his nature he suddenly possess? The reason for this historical evolution is that in Moses and David era he has the traits of  El- Shaddai (Lit Meaning: God Of Mountains). Now which Sumerian/Mesopotamian G-d is he? He is Sumerian G-d  “ISH-KUR”  who also coincidently also mean G-d of Mountain. He also has same Anti Babylon and Anti-Egypt attitude and is associated with with Thunder and firestorm just like Biblical YHWH .
                                                                                  

And in the latter period this fictitious G-d has managed to copy the Persian winged Chariot G-d Ahura Mazda’s features and attributes, even as the winged caricature found in Coin is but a foolish copy of Persian Diety, found in 4BCE . Probably when Isrealities were in Persian captivity they liked this diety’s virtues very much and added that. Is it any surprise that the latter YHWH’s tone is some  what sympathetic and loving?

In The Name Humanity !!!

Robert Mascharan