The Birth of God: Yahweh

Copyright 2021, InterAmerica, Inc.

The inspiration to present a thesis that the Israelite God, Yahweh, was human or something akin to human stems from readings, initially, of  André Lemaire’s The Birth of Monotheism: The Rise and Disappearance of Yahwism [Biblical Archaeology Society, Washington D.C., 2007]:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Lemaire

And Reza Aslan’s God: A Human History [Random House, NY, 2017]:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reza_Aslan

Both scholars accept or promote the idea that the Israelite God was a physical being, one that existed along side of and in proximity to the Canaanite God EL (EL a sobriquet for God or gods in the Middle East circa 2000 B.C.

Pushing through the archaeological record and mythological lore into the extant records for the period and whatever historical references one can rely upon, the matter of Yahweh’s or El’s actual existence becomes more than complicated.

It forces inserts that are not only esoteric, but bizarre and pungent within the religious arena:

Yahweh’s phallus will be discussed, as well as his alleged wives (or consorts).

His physiognomy and appearance generally.

And other human-like attributes.

Then there is the so-called greater God EL, about whom the existence is foggy and diverse to the point of almost total obscurity.

While all this has to be presented and taken into account, I find myself lured to the idea of God’s [Yahweh’s] birth, his appearance on Earth, in the Middle East, from whom or what.

That this physical being was real is beyond question. That he proclaimed to be God is also without question.

But what human being would determine they were God and from whence did the idea of God derive?

The matter has been avoided by scholars, as they skirt the inquiry, taking the view, I think, that God was (and is, maybe) – God as a given, existent ex nihilo, apparently.

That’s what I’m disputing: God came upon humanity, from a being who thought or pretended to be God.

But from where did that being get the idea of God? That’s where we have to go to find out how the idea, the concept arose.

RR