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Chapter One: Defining God

Section 4: El, Yahweh et al

In the Jewish-Christian Bible there are several gods - and Yahweh is not the most powerful.

“In the beginning, God created heaven and earth.”

Most of us read the Bible in our native language. Very few of us are fluent in Ancient Hebrew (the Old Testament) or Classical Greek (the New Testament). We make do with translations. Most of these are accurate, but there are some exceptions and we are going to look at the most important mistranslation here.

בְּ רֵאשִׁית , בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים , אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם , וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ
Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim
ve'et ha'arets

Hebrew, like Arabic, was originally written without vowels. That allows some words to be interpreted differently depending on which vowels are inserted. However, there is no dispute over this opening verse.

These words are the original text of Genesis 1.1. Look at the third word, "Elohim". The ending means that it is plural, like cherubim and seraphim. That means we have to revise the English version; it should read:

“In the beginning, the gods created heaven and earth.”

Gods? Judaism is a monotheistic religion. Is this a clerical error? What does the rest of the Bible say? Verse two: “Elohim” again. Rewrite as “The spirit of the gods moved upon the waters.” Verse three: “The gods said ‘Let there be light’.” Verse four: "The gods saw the light". Verse five: "The gods named the light". And so on and so on.

How often does the word “Elohim”, in the plural, appear in the Old Testament? About 2,500 times. What's going on here? Was there more than one god at the Creation?

Let's start with the official explanation. Jews and Christians who are aware of the original text claim that there has only ever been one God and the plural is used as a mark of respect.

That's not unreasonable. Although it is less common today, many languages use the plural as a mark of respect, particularly for kings and lords who represent not only


Chapter One: Defining God

Does God exist? Before we try to answer that question we need to have a clear idea of who or what God is. How do we describe God? What versions of God are on offer?

1.1: God, faith and religion
Do they need each other?

1.2: What is God?
God comes in several styles and models

1.3: The evolving God
From prehistory to today

1.4: El, Yahweh et al
The Old Testament family of gods

1.5: Three's company
The Christian Trinity

1.6: Allah
Over to Islam

1.7: Majors and minors
Polytheism

1.8: The unknowable God
Is he there?

1.9: Your god or mine?
Made in our image

1.10: Summary



Finished this chapter? Move on to

Chapter Two
Problems with God


The real God – if such a thing exists – may be very different from the god portrayed by Jewish, Christian or Muslim scripture.

But whichever picture of God we look at - from the Bible and Koran to the images presented by other faiths and believers - we are confronted by problems. When examined closely, God's nature is so contradictory that it is unlikely, if not impossible, for him to exist.



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themselves but the people they govern. English had "you" ("thou" was used for friends and family), French had "vous" and Russians "vi". And the idea that "Elohim" referred to only one being is reinforced by the Hebrew verb "bara" (created), which has a singular, not plural ("baru") ending.

But that interpretation - there was only one God and the plural noun was used as a mark of respect - breaks down as the Bible progresses. By the middle of the Old Testament "Elohim" has almost disappeared, to be replaced by "Yahweh" (Jehovah), which appears almost 7,000 times. Other names - El ("God") and Adonai ("Lords") - are also used occasionally. Why this shift in vocabulary?

We have started reading the Bible with the assumption that there is only one God, but this approach contradicts one of the basic rules of reasoning - start with the question, not the answer. That means starting with the question "How many gods are there?", not with the answer "There is only one god".

If we start with that question, we could just stick to the Bible but, as rational people who want to gather all the evidence and not just some of it, we should look at the historical evidence. Canaanite beliefs, which either predate the Bible or are contemporary with it, give us insights into key characters in the Old Testament, in particular the gods - yes, gods. The Canaanites, whose primary city appears to have been Ugarit, now Ras Sharma in modern Syria, had many deities, including El, the Most High, the father of the gods, Asherah (Athirat), one of his wives, Queen of Heaven and fertility goddess, Baal, one of his sons, and up to seventy other children.

The Canaanites, whose primary city appears to have been Ugarit, now Ras Sharma in modern Syria, had many deities, including El, the Most High, the father of the gods, Asherah (Athirat), one of his wives, Queen of Heaven and fertility goddess, Baal (Ba'al), one of his sons, and up to seventy other children. These names are of course familiar to readers of the Old Testament and a careful reading of the text - from the perspective of a historian - gives the early chapters of the Bible a depth which many people are unaware of.

There were rivalries between El's children. As gods, each sought worshippers and each imposed their own methods of worship. 		pic of Asherah from Ugarit, now in Louvre 13th century BC relief of Asherah from Ugarit
Asherah was represented by large phallic symbols (mistranslated as "trees" or "groves" in some early versions of the Bible); Asherah "poles" crop up several times in the Bible, usually when Yahweh is ordering their destruction. Baal demanded a sacrifice of a calf from his followers, as described in several Old Testament passages .

To prevent them squabbling, El divides the tribes among his children. One of these, Yahweh, is awarded the Israelites. In Deuteronomy 32.8 - 32.9. Yahweh confirms that he himself is a junior god, telling the Israelites: "When the Most High [El] gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. For the LORD's [Yahweh's] portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance." (New International Version)

The Israelites soon learn that Yahweh is a demanding deity who insists that his people repudiate all other gods. Again and again he commands destruction of Asherah poles and his anger explodes when his orders are ignored - as when the Jews worship a golden calf, while Moses is away receiving the Ten Commandments (Exodus 32). As time passes, the Jews abandon the idea of Elohim - many gods - and refer only to Yahweh who, in their eyes and perhaps in reality, has become all-powerful as his parents and siblings disappear from history.

The key point here is that the Bible itself tells us that there were several gods at the creation and that these gods persisted through many human generations. As Yahweh became pre-eminent, the idea of "God" passed from referring to the Elohim - the whole group - to mean only Yahweh. Polytheism was replaced by monotheism

This reading of the Bible explains several discrepancies and passes the Occam's Razor test. It also leads to several possible conclusions, which we should keep in mind as we continue our research. These are:

a. If the Bible is true and has no errors, there were originally many gods. One of these, Yahweh, has defeated his siblings and parents in an supernatural conflict that has not been described.

b. If the truth is that there has only been one God throughout eternity, then passages in the Bible which point to several gods are false.

c. The Bible tells a story which may or may not contain truth. In itself, it neither proves nor disproves the existence of one or more gods.

These points have yet to be resolved, but we have come to one definite conclusion: in the Jewish-Christian Bible there are several gods - and Yahweh is not the most powerful.

Later in this website we will look at other passages in the Bible which may undermine popular belief. The rest of this section, however, continues to look at God.


Next: Chapter One: Section 5
Three's Company


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If God existed, he would...

admire the beauty of a universe that he did not create

recognize that eternity is meaningless

deny both heaven and hell

disown all men and women who speak in his name

denounce the harm caused by religious "morality"

help the human race to thrive without him

If God existed, he would be an atheist.




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