Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

Sorry, but YOU are the one who is wrong.  The Torah was not written 
by ancient Hebrews or Canaanites walking around the land.

And the Torah definitely knew that there is ONLY one G-d!

And it is terribly misleading of you to deny this fact.

And you should learn more Torah, including ORAL Torah.

Shoshanna



> Not so- the "names of God" found in the Hebrew Bible are not, 
> originally, aspects of the one god.  They are individual, local 
> deities whose names were absorbed (baptised, if you will) by Jewish 
> and Christian tradition into the One God's many names.
>
> Of course Yahweh and Elohim were not interchangeable- nor were El 
> Elyon and El Shaddai and El and all the other local deity names 
> taken over by the Israelite tradition.  They were discrete, 
> separate, not to be confused local overlords.  That's why there was 
> an El and a Baal for each little town and village.  And they were 
> named accordingly.
>
> I think it terribly misleading to suggest that ancient Hebrews or 
> Canaanites walking around the land would have thought they were 
> talking about the same gods when they called them by their different 
> names.  In fact, it is eisegesis at its worst.
>
> Jim
>
>
> Shoshanna Walker wrote:
>
> > They are 2 of the many names of G-d, each one referring to a 
> > different aspect of G-d.  Interchangeable is not a valid context 
> > here, the names are used in different places according to which 
> > different aspects of G-d are in play.
> >
> > Shoshanna
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > BTW, another interesting data point is that SHEM ADONAI [lit., name
> > of Adonai] is very frequent, while SHEM ELOHIM is not.  Clearly, YHWH
> > and Elohim were not interchangeable.
> >
> > -Joel
> --
> D. Jim West
>
> Biblical Studies Resources -  http://web.infoave.net/~jwest
> Biblical Theology Weblog -  http://biblical-studies.blogspot.com