Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Lloyd Barre <barre AT c-zone.net>]

Dear List,

Those who have followed my discussions will perceive that OT research is now 
faced with three competing paradigms through which to interpreted Israelite 
history, literature, and religion.  The traditional paradigm regards Israel 
as culturally monolithic and under the influence of Yahwism that can be 
traced to its origins.  The second paradigm regards the first as sterile and 
interpetively non-productive as the of result of a disoriented and misplaced 
perspective.  This rival paradigm interprets the Old Testament as a product 
of the Persian-Hellenistic era, and is properly illuminated from this 
cultural milieu.  I have offered a third paradigm, according to which ancient 
Palestinian religion is a mixture of various types of Elism, Yahwism and a 
Levitical ontological religion that is directly traceable through Mose to the 
teachings of Ptah and is essentially characterized by ontological speculation 
finding its focal point in the verb "to become."  Both the Elohist and the 
Priest!
ly writer reflect this theology through which they were able to syncretize 
and subsume El and Yahweh into Elohim.  Both gods were seen as emanations and 
manifestations of Being Becoming, a notion given classical expression in P, 
especially in Ex 6:3, who learned this teaching from the Elohist in Ex 
3:13-15.  Here the war god Yahweh Sabaoth, under the influence of ontological 
thought, is transformed into Yihwah, an emanation of Divine Becoming as 
taught by Mose, who learned it from Ptah.  According to this paradigm, the 
primary historical trajectories are Elism in the north, Yahwism in the south, 
and Levitical ontology amidst both culture and which synthesized the two and 
which became influential with first the publication of P and then its 
inclusion into the Book of the Law produced probably by Ezra.  This 
trajectory surfaced again in the Johannine Community with its theological 
fascination with the verb "to become."  The Egyptian ontology which regarded 
Becoming as a dynamic !
of thought (Father)-word (Son)-execution (Spirit) in Johannine ontology was 
crystallized in the doctrine of the Trinity but lost for the most part its 
original, ontological perspective.  Accordingly, this paradigm differs from 
regarding the religions of ancient Palestine and their traditions as neither 
monolithic Yahwism or the product of Hellenistic thought.  The writings of 
the Old Testament are the product of two Semitic religions synthesized by one 
that was Hamitic, ontological, and existentially monotheistic.

The paradigm offered is actually contiguous with the first mentioned marks a 
refinement of the findings of 20th century scholarship.  On the other hand, 
it incompatible with the second.  The dominant and enduring theological 
influence upon the Old Testament was not a product of Hellenism, but of a 
form of Egyptian Ontology that was extant in the 28th century in Memphis.  In 
this sense, the OT is not fundamentally young and Hellenistic but old and 
Egyptian.

For your consideration,

Lloyd M. Barre, Ph.D.
The Ptah Institute
barre AT c-zone.net
www.angelfire.com/ca2/AncientIsrael