Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

> El is one of G-d's names, Adonai is also one of G-d's names.
>
> To a totally monotheistic mind, the one and only G-d, has many
> aspects which He/It reveals to us, in history, in our lives, in the
> Torah, in the spiritual worlds, and the different names are used to
> refer to different aspects, (ie, when Lovingkindness is in play, when
> Stern Judgement is in play, etc.) and this does not at all fragment
> the unity of G-d.
>
> Shoshanna

Exactly what I meant. However in "academic" scholarship the assumtion has
often been that the authors of (some of) the Bible were less "totally
monotheistic" than traditional exegesis has assumed. Living in a
polytheistic world, they were at once able to claim that YHWH is the only
True God, and at the same time picture YHWH as competing with other gods,
thereby assuming their existance. Of course, a lot of this has been edited
out, but Ps. 82, without rabbinic exegesis, seems to be a good example
(assuming that at least the first "Elohim", of vs. 1, is to be identified
with YHWH).




But the basic assumption that academic scholarship starts out with in 
the first place - that there are multiple human authors -  is wrong.

shoshanna