Biblical Hebrew Forum

[ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk (Ben Crick)]

On 10 Feb 99 (11:15:48), barre AT c-zone.net wrote:
> Dear Fellow List Members:
> [snippage] ....  I am calling for an assessment of my proposition
> that El and Yahweh are historically the two gods of two distinct
> peoples.
 [snip] 
> Thus, the adoption of my proposition has some far-reaching
> ramifications which I have here tried to illustrate.  It is these
> considerations that would have me challenge the academic community to
> consider the basic proposition that El is not Yahweh.  

 Hmmm. The OT shows that the Patriarchs worshipped 'eL the God of the
 nomad; the Canaanites worshipped Ba`aL the God of the agriculturalist.
 'eL has his sanctuary where he may be consulted; Ba`aL is a /numen loci/,
 a god of a place. The function of 'eL is personal: to meet with
 individuals and answer questions related to their personal life; whereas
 Ba`aL is a personification of the forces of nature (e.g. fertility).
 Elijah made it clear that Ba`aL is not YHWH!  (1 Kings 18:39).

 Patriarchs worshipped 'eL under 6 designations:
 1.  'eL `eLYoWN QoNeH ShaMaYiYM Wa'aReTs, Genesis 14:19.
 2.  'eL ShaDDaY "who is sufficient"; LXX PANTOKRATWR. Genesis 17:1, when
 Abraham and Sarah are in a hopeless situation. Genesis 43:14, where Jacob/
 Israel commends his sons to 'eL ShaDDaY when sending them back to Egypt.
 Gensis 48:3, where Jacob identifies 'eL ShaDDaY with 'eL BeTheL...
 3.  'eL `oWLaM the God of Eternity. Abraham and Abimelech propose a
 covenant in perpetuity, Genesis 21:23 LiY uWL:NiYNiY uWL:NeK:DiY. To mark
 it, Abraham plants a tamarisk tree and calls upon YHWH 'eL `oWLaM,
 Genesis 21:33.
 4.  'eL BeYTheL, Genesis 31:13. Not a place-name; the place was called Luz
 before. 'Bethel' was Jacob's summary word for a profound religious
 experience. The reappearance of 'eL-BeTheL in Padanaram shows 'eL is no
 territorial deity.
 5.  'eL Ro'iY, Hagar's description of God after an angel met her. The
 God who sees me; or, the God who lets me see him. 'aTTaH 'eL Ro'iY.
 Compare Be'eR LaCaY Ro'iY, Genesis 16:13-14.
 6.  'eL 'eLoHeY-YiS:Ra'eL, Genesis 33:20. The God of personal encounter,
 'the God who is my God'. Jacob/Israel had wrestled at Peniel. He had
 received a new name, and had returned to Canaan where he bought a piece
 of land (the earnest of the promised possession?). YHWH now is the God
 of Abraham and Isaac; he is the God of the Ladder vision. The Land *whereon
 thou liest* will be the inheritance, Genesis 28:13. Jacob got his household
 to put away all their foreign gods, and go with him back to Bethel
 (Genesis 25:1ff).

 Yes, 'eL is the God of Israel. But this 'eL *reveals Himself* as YHWH,
 Genesis 21:33. From Genesis 12 onwards the name YHWH occurs 116 times.
 45 of these indicate Patriarchal knowledge of the Name. YHWH 'eL `eLYoWN,
 Genesis 14:22. YHWH was the name *by which they called God*; not the name
 by which they knew him (Exodus 6:3). YHWH was to them a word of denotation,
 not a word of connotation.
 Genesis 17:1, YHWH appears and says "I am 'eL ShaDDaY".
 Genesis 21:33, Abraham called upon YHWH 'eL `oWLaM.
 Genesis 14:18, Melchisedek attributes Abraham's victories to 'eL `oWLaM,
 but Abraham interprets this in terms of YHWH, Genesis 14:22.

 *The name YHWH was not in itself a vehicle of revelation; the nature of
 YHWH is given only in 'eL categories.*  The exception to this is
 Genesis 22:14, YHWH-YiReH, who provided substitutionary sacrifice *not
 in 'eL terms*. Also YHWH brought Abram out of Ur (Genesis 15:7). So
 when YHWH tells Moses "I am YHWH" in connection with a deliverance from
 Egypt, Moses can make the deduction that YHWH is the God who made the
 covanant with Abraham (Exodus 6:2-8). So, Genesis knows the Name but not
 the Nature of YHWH; Exodus knows the Name AND the Nature of YHWH.

 In Exodus 6:3 YHWH becomes in its own right a meaningful name and not a
 title. YHWH was known "in the character of" (Beth essentia) 'eL ShaDDaY,
 "but [by] my name YHWH I was not known to them". [By] is omitted in the
 Hebrew; but in the second leg of the parallelism it is required to be
 inserted: another /Beth Essentia/.

 Do we have as many gods as titles?  NO!  They are calling on the same
 God throughout.
 1.  There is no suggestion in Genesis of a multiplicity of 'eLiYM.
 2.  There are statements of Monotheism in Genesis: e.g. 14:19, where
 'eL `eLYoWN is Possessor QoNeH of heaven and earth on a cosmic scale;
 Genesis 18:25 "Judge of all the earth" is a monotheistic statement.
 Compare Joel ("YHWH is 'eL") who has YHWH as Judge of all nations
 (Joel 4:2, 12).
 3.  The titles all interlock to some extent. The God appearing in
 Jacob's dream is both YHWH and 'eL BeTheL (chapter 28); and in Gen 48:3
 YHWH is identified with 'eL ShaDDaY and with 'eL BeTheL.
 4. The use of the phrase "the God of the Fathers" throughout the
 Patriarchal stories (Genesis 26:24, 28:13, 31:29, 32:9, etc).

 That's enough for now

 Ben
-- 
 Revd Ben Crick, BA CF
 <ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk>
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